iMessage between iPhone, iPod, iPad under same Apple ID

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Level 1

5 points

iMessage between iPhone, iPod, iPad under same Apple ID

In our iOS devices, my family all use my husband's Apple ID for the Settings -> Store, so that we may buy apps once and have them on all our devices (daughter's iPod, etc.)

We have all set our devices up with our own Settings -> iCloud ID. I read in another discussion that this would allow us to iMessage between each other.

It's not really working. I sat down with my husband's iPhone, my iPhone, and my daughter's iPod Touch last night. I'd try to send a message from my daughter's touch to my phone number; and I would get it, and my husband would get it too. There's some wonky stuff going on here.

Unless someone has some kind of magic sauce to suddenly make iMessage work BETWEEN our family's devices...? Bueller...?

Thanks in advance 🙂

Susan

iPhone 4, iOS 5, Also using latest gen iPod Touch.

Posted on Oct 14, 2011 6:05 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

SusanPitman Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 14, 2011 4:44 PM in response to SusanPitman

MY HUSBAND FIGURED OUT THE ANSWER TO THIS PROBLEM.

He found it, as an afterthought, mentioned at the bottom of this article:

http://www.macworld.com/article/163006/2011/10/how_to_configure_icloud_if_you_sh are_an_apple_id.html

Here are the steps:

- Click Settings.

- Click Messages.

- Click Receive At.

- Click the Apple ID at the top.

- Click Sign Out. (This is the key--this ONLY signs you out of the Apple ID for iMessage!)

- Click Use your Apple ID for iMessage.

- Sign in with your own personal Apple ID (what, in my house, I call my iCloud ID).

- Click Next.

Verifying... TAA DAA!

A side note--did you know with the new iOS5 you can now set not only any tone you want for a txt, but you can assign a person a txt sound? Rawk!

😀

Susan

PS - Don't forget to thank my husband! 😉

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Answer 2

bbfc

Level 3

854 points

Oct 14, 2011 6:09 AM in response to SusanPitman

If iMessage is set-up with the same Apple ID across ALL your devices then this is how it will work unfortunately. There are some drawbacks to sharing an Apple ID, and this is one of them.

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Answer 3

Kwopau

Level 4

1,742 points

Oct 14, 2011 6:27 AM in response to SusanPitman

As was mentioned, all your device are connected to the same Apple ID of your husbands and thus if you send a text message from your iphone, then your daughters and your husband will receive it. Also if your friend has iOS 5 and sends a text message to you, it's likely that your husband and your daughter will get it as well. I suggest getting a separate Apple ID, if you don't have one, you can simply make one.

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Answer 4

SusanPitman Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 14, 2011 8:34 AM in response to SusanPitman

Sorry, I don't buy it.

There's lots of threads about this already:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3375644

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3106958?answerId=15402746022#15402746022

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3376346?answerId=16352632022#16352632022

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3378070?answerId=16348335022#16348335022

Several of them mention using a separate ID for iCloud. Also mentioned is checking the "Caller ID" set up under settings -> messages. I'm just trying to figure out what the "correct" answer is. I'm also seeing weird things in other threads... like people's iphones don't have the phone number in their caller ID? Mine does. How the heck would that happen? Anyways, I digress...

There is someone else out there who has made this work on their family's devices. It's just a matter of figuring out exactly how. And if not, no one can tell me Apple isn't going to address this... or hasn't thought about it... because there are millions of families out there doing the same thing I am.

Thanks--

Susan

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Answer 5

shelleek

Level 1

9 points

Oct 14, 2011 8:42 AM in response to SusanPitman

Hmmm...I don't have an answer for this but I'm going to be having the same problem when I sync my husbands, daughters and other devices. I'll let you know if I figure it out....there has to be a way...

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Answer 6

Freechip

Level 1

13 points

Oct 14, 2011 8:56 AM in response to SusanPitman

Having a family with 2 iPhones and 1 iPod what I did was set them up with different Apple ID and when I want something one person got from APP store I simply log on with there account on my device and re-donwload the app..

Seems to be working so far..

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Answer 7

jsherm42

Level 1

0 points

Oct 14, 2011 8:57 AM in response to SusanPitman

It would not be as simple as just creating a new Apple ID for family members.

My wife uses my Apple ID for her iPhone. If I create a new account for her, I assume all of the apps she has installed on her phone (purchased under my Apple ID) would be unusable becuase they are tied to my iTunes account. Wouldn't she have to rebuy all of the paid apps I have already bought under my ID?

Looks to me like iMessage is a useless feature.

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Answer 8

iinami

Level 4

1,855 points

Oct 14, 2011 5:19 PM in response to SusanPitman

susan, i'm not following you, but i'm in the same boat you were. you said in your original post you all use the same apple id, then in your solution you say to sign out of the apple id for imessage and sign in with your personal apple id. which is it, do you all share an apple id or do you each have a personal apple id. if you don't mind clarifying this may help a ton of people out. thanks.

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Answer 9

SusanPitman Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 15, 2011 5:19 AM in response to SusanPitman

We all share an Apple ID for apps; we all have a personal Apple ID for iMessage, iCloud, etc. So in our family of five, we have six Apple IDs.

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Answer 10

cjshultz

Level 1

0 points

Oct 15, 2011 7:28 AM in response to SusanPitman

Wish I'd seen this sooner, I just posted about this and about the use of Face Time for an iPod Touch (for my daughter).

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Answer 11

Mayemac

Level 1

23 points

Oct 15, 2011 7:53 AM in response to SusanPitman

Worked like a charm. I was able to sync all of our devices by doing the instructions above. Also be sure to do all the steps explained above in all the devices (iPad's,iPhone's,Ipod's) that you want to sync or separate from the cloud. Thanks

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Answer 12

oscarRo

Level 1

9 points

Oct 16, 2011 12:25 PM in response to SusanPitman

I have a similar problem. I just upgraded my iPad and iPod touch to iOS 5. Now, those devises are synced in the iCloud with my MacBook Pro. The idea is that when my wife travels, she can take the iPad or iPod touch and we can communicate via faceTime and/or iMessage. But if all the devises are registered with my user name and password, how can we use them at the same time and communicate?

Thanks,

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Answer 13

Oct 17, 2011 9:54 AM in response to SusanPitman

hey my imessage is not working after i install ios 5..please help me😕

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Answer 14

Bloksel

Level 1

0 points

Oct 21, 2011 5:23 AM in response to Abhijeetgujrathi

Contacts

Choose Contact

Send Message

Choose An Email Address

A little blue balloon will tell you it's an iMessage!

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Answer 15

Oct 21, 2011 7:11 AM in response to SusanPitman

hi can anyone here can help me ??

it seems that i already updated my iPhone4 to IOS 5 but the problem is when i turn on the imessage it say that waiting for activation i already verify the email address but the phone number is in gray color and still verrifying what should i do... and when it takes a day it say that it is error and the imessage say that the imessage is unsuccessfully activate..

please can anyone help me on this problem.. thanks 🙂

im located at the philippines. this is my major issue it also happen to Facetime.....

THANKS

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