Multiple iPhone/iPod Households and Itunes

[Michael]

After Christmas, our family will have multiple iPhones (4+) and an iPod Touch, and I'm not sure the best way to handle music and contacts through iTunes. I'd like to be able to share music between all devices, but don't necessarily want all the kid's songs on my device, and definitely don't want my contacts shared between all the accounts.

How do you other multi-iDevice families handle such situations?

Michael

[Hunterdan]

Same problem at our house so I will be following along on this one.

[Todd-ty729]

Following along as well!

smell my finger

[elkbowhunter]

haha....this is good. Not many people read the updates that you load every other month. Apple is smart. There are finding ways to get more money out of people. I have found since the new downloads my wife and I cant share everything like we did before. Its pretty much a lesson at the Apple store to figure out the cloud and the process of how it all works. The new data limit kinda concerns me. It used to be so simple. Oh well....ya gotta love Macs.

[KRS]

I think it is best if everyone uses the same iTunes/app store account. This makes sharing apps and music between devices easier (i.e. purchased once). In iTunes you can sync each device differently. You don't have to have the same music and apps on all devices. I am not sure about contact info, because my son does not have any.

[Casey]

To control what our kids hear, since my wife likes all that raunchy stuff (I kid ), they each have playlists and that's all that we sync to their Ipods. You can control all that.

We only have a single Iphone currently, being synced on Barb's (and the kids) computer. So, the contacts thing isn't an issue. I bet when you set up the sync for each phone/ipod, you can specify what to sync for each. Where do the contacts reside? Can you tag contacts and sort that way?

[tazhunter0]

2 different computers and 2 different accounts right now. I will be watching to get some better ideas. (2 ipod touch and a iphone)

[Michael]

top

[Larry]

Is this on a Mac? Why not set up multiple user accounts on the computer? You'd share applications that are on the computer (like iTunes). Each user accesses their iTunes when they are logged in to the Mac. If you log in under your user account, your phone is synced to your iTunes. If Michaela logs in to the computer under her user account, her phone is synced to her iTunes. The admin account could set some music to be shared between accounts.

[TexMax]

You can manage everything individually off a single account. Your phones will all stay backed up separately and you can pick playlists to put on phones and iPods. It even easier on multiple computers.

[2050z]

We have two separate computers to handled our IPhone's and IPOD stuff. It just got to be very difficult keeping up with the different apps and music.

[Nova]

It will combine contacts. Happened to me and my wife. Not good

[Larry]

I'm not an expert, just a Mac user since 1995. Separate Mac user accounts and separate iTunes accounts is the way to go to eliminate the chances of confusion, combining contacts and iTunes music, etc sync issues.

[TexMax]

Whatever you do don't setup iCloud on the same account. Can you say awkward picture moment

[dcnitro]

Problem with separate accounts means you pay more. All you need is one account and you can customize each phone differently. That's how I have it in my casa.