Since we have bought our iMac a few months ago, iTunes mixes up our individual accounts (3 family members), although we register with our own ID and username. Whenever we synchronize our equipment, we find music/apps,etc of other family members. How can that happen?
iMac, iOS 5
Make sure each person has their own computer login account and each will have their own iTunes library.
This is what we do - individual computer log in, individuell apple id - nevertheless...
if each person has their own login for the computer, as in they have their own profile, then the only way iTunes is copying everyone's music etc is that you have shared the music folder, it would not be possible for iTunes to gather the other profiles music, without being told to.
If you on the other hand, have 1 login, but different iTunes accounts, then all Music, Applications etc are available for all iPods, iPhones and iPads as you can share even purchased files among your families iOS devices.
For music it is reasonably easy to set so each of you only have your own music.
Make smart playlists with contain the artists you each like, name each Smart Playlist with the name of each person.
Then when you connect your iPod, iPhone, iPad you can go into the Music tab for that device and tell it to only sync the Smart Playlist for the person who the iOS device belongs to.
For Applications it is a little more work, as there are not Playlists, you will have to go into the Applications tab for each device and pick your Apps, but again, you will see all download Applications, as you can share them across your families devices.
We do not have 1 login but every family member logs in with a different name, different id and different account. Strange, that the trouble is more or less only with the account of my son and not with my husband. I would find it very hard, to separately pick the apps, films, books, podcasts in order to synchronize them. This would mean a whole lot of work and time and would apply to 5 different devices..... I cannot remember having allowed to share my library with other family members - and nobody would appreciate that, as our tastes are quite different (latest funny incident was, that I ended up having iKamasutra lite on my iPad from my 14 year old son's iPod)
It is possible that at some time someone has logged in or authorised one of the iTunes with their own iTunes store ID and thus it is pulling down music etc.
It may be worth checking that, I do this at home as I share some of my Apps with other family members (you can authorise up to 5 iTunes/computers with your iTunes account and let them use your Music/Applications.
The only way your sons application could have got onto your iPad would be that it was downloaded/imported into your iTunes.
If you right click 'iKamasutra lite' in your iTunes/Applications check the username, if it is your son's then he has logged into the iTunes store (in your iTunes) with his account to download it or at least imported it into your library at some point.
Regarding picking Applications, unless you sync every Apps with your iOS device you have to do this even when you only have 1 persons account in iTunes, same for Music/Films etc. You are given the option to sync everything or selected.
Also another thought, check your Son's iPod Store settings, (Settings...Store) and check if your account is being used here.
The latest updates to iTunes/iOS have allowed new Apps/Music/Books purchased to be pushed to all devices/computers using that account, save having to manually download/sync them across multiple devices.
It might be your son purchased this application using your account, rather then his, on his iPod and then it automatically downloaded to your computer.
You can also check this via your Purchases in the iTunes store, via the link on the right hand side of the Store. Select Apps from the options and it will show everything your account has been used to purchase.
and of course, you can go through your Applications (in iTunes) and Delete those you know are not yours (or do not want) and they will no longer sync to your iPad
I already checked my purchases and those "nice apps" did not appear there. You will be right that due to the latest update purchases from my son were automatically pushed to other family accounts. I will follow your advice and check/delete everything I do not want in my account. Nevertheless, I believe that iTunes should be further developed to stop causing such a confusion, as many families are surely facing the same problems. Thank you for your help!
I will be honest, it is only user input that can cause sharing of Applications/Music as you describe, so I am not sure how iTunes could be changed to stop it happening.
The operating system (whether Mac or Windows) comes with a Username and Password for each person and knows who do not want to share, simple do not give out their login password.
If you do share or leave your account logged in for others to use, then if someone logs into their iTunes store account whilst using someone elses iTunes or if someone uses anothers account to download content, iTunes would not really be capable of stopping it, and even if it prompt someone everytime they purchased to make sure they were using the right account, it would not stop people do so.
One area they have already acted to stop people switching iTunes Store accounts is that if you purchase from your iPad or iPod using one iTunes account, you can not switch to another on that device for 90 days. So maybe that will help in reducing people using family members accounts so much.
But to be honest, not really come across where this has happened 'by accident', as it takes several steps to carry out, not least people sharing their Account details.
You could also maybe change your password for your iTunes account, so your son is not able to use it (if that was what he had done).
It would also be interesting to know whether your account or your sons had download the App you refered to (right click and select Info will show the owner account) as this would allow you to determine at what point your son had added it to your iTunes, either downloading it via your account (changing your password would stop that) or he had imported it from his iTunes into yours (afraid the only way to stop that is to change your iMac login password and not tell him)
The OS update (a couple ago) which pushes new purchases to devices using that account, would not have down to your family devices or iTunes unless you shared the account (or had authorised his account in your iTunes) and also has to be turned ON, it is off be default. So again, it all comes down to the user and how they chose to use their computer/iOS device especially how they share log in details.
Why does iTunes mix up different accounts in our family, even though everybody Registers with his own id?
