Q: Removing son's iPad from my account

do these steps

What to do before selling or giving away your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

his ipad will be setup as a fully new device clean as a whistle, though if he did not use the appleID for gamecenter you can still use his gamecenter login for the new ipad

To verify that Backups exist, You can look in your iPad under Settings->General->Storage & iCloud Usage->iCloud->Manage Storage->Backups. Which devices have been backed up to it.

An Apple ID on a iOS device such as an iPad is used for 4 different services.

iTunes & App Stores

iCloud

Messages

Facetime

You can remove the Apple ID from any one of these without affecting the others.

If you remove the iPad from the account under Devices on your own iPad it will disappear from there, but may return once the device gets connected to the internet again.

Check your Apple ID device list to see where you're signed in - Apple Support

Removal from this screen, does not really do anything.

Can a person back up two separate devices to one computer?

Yes, backups are independent, and will not affect backups of other devices on the same computer in any way.

Also of note, is that any Apps purchased with your account will forever be tied to it, and will always require it and its password to update.

So the next step is to identify exactly what you want to happen once it is removed from your Account, because actually removing it from your account will in fact alter many things.

What exactly is the outcome you expect by doing this?

It is possible to back up Multiple devices to the same computer. Removing your sons iPad from your iTunes/iCloud account will not result in any loss of Apple purchases. Everything you purchase or download from Apple is not only added to your device, it is stored in your account records under Purchased. All other media(non-Apple) would need to be backed up through iTunes.

Jen Niles wrote:

 

The outcome I would like is for him to be able to exist on his own iPad with his own new Apple ID, so he can then set up his own email account on his own iPad

For him to add his own e-mail, you do not need to change your Apple ID everywhere or at all. .

all you need to do is set up his email account under Settings->Mail, Contacts, Calendars->Accounts->Add Account.

You can remove any accounts there belonging to you if you wish. This will not affect your own iPad in any way.

Jen Niles wrote:

 

The outcome I would like is for him to be able to exist on his own iPad with his own new Apple ID, so he can then set up his own email account on his own iPad (etc) -- but without losing any of his photos, drawings that he did [on a free app that cannot be exported because it was free], videos, games [which I don't worry about too much because they keep cropping up on my iPad and in my iTunes].

Removing your Apple ID from the iCloud settings, or even from iTunes & App Stores will not remove any data stored on the device.

As I said, any Apps purchased with your Apple ID will forever require it and its password to update, you cannot change this. But the Data will not disappear simply because the Apple ID signed in is now a different one.

You can sign out of  your Apple ID  in Settings->iTunes & App Stores->Apple ID and sign in with his own account and any new Apps and Games he buys will be tied to his account.

All his data will remain in the Apps.  And any backups made to either iCloud or iTunes on a computer will contain this data, and will not conflict in any way with your own backups.