multiple devices on iCloud using one account

Thank you for this post..very helpful. Is there a way to restore these devices after the contacts get synced to both accounts and you want them separate. I uploaded the new 6.0 version on my daughters ipod and, not realizing this issue of having the same icloud, consequently synced both her ipod and my iphone. Now the contacts are all messed up due to my duaghter manually deleted the contacts on her ipod..thus deleting the iphone contacts at the same time. I tried restoring the iphone in hopes of recovering the previous day's backup onto the icloud but to no avail.

thanks for any insight on this issue!!

You will need to either use a different iCloud account on each device, or you can go into Settings > iCloud and turn the data off that you do not want to sync.

If you want to use the same AppleID for iTunes purchases, you can do so while having a different account for iCloud syncing.

From Settings > Store, this is where you can see the ID you are using for iTunes purchases

Settings > iCloud is your iCloud account. They can be the same but they don't have to be.

Apple has an article about this here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4895

Pollunga, Can you help - i have a mac, as does my wife. My 2 boy's both have airbooks. All of us have iphones. All devices have my icloud account running on them, so i can feed them diary entries and i can use find my iphone to find them all. However, they do not want my contact updates affecting them. Also, last night, someone called me on facetime, and it also rang on my wife's phone - can this be shut off?

Should we all have individual icloud accounts, and a central secondary account for updating photstream, diary etc?

Hi Hammers1.

From what I understand you want to all use the same iCloud Apple ID for:

- Find my iPhone

- Calendars (diary)

- Photo Stream

You want to be able to have separate:

- Contacts

- FaceTime accounts

If that is correct you can do the following:

1. On each device under Settings > iCloud use the same Apple ID.

- Enable Calendars, Find my iPhone, and Photo Stream (and any other data you want to share)

- Do not enable Contacts. If it is already enabled and you choose to turn it off you will get an alert to keep or delete contacts. Removing them inthis method will only remove them from THAT device, not the account itself.

2. Each member can setup their own iCloud account under Settings > Mail Contacts Calendars > iCloud and enable Contacts (and other data types depending) if they want. Or, they can just keep their contacts local on their device, sync through another service, etc.

An article that may be of use is http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4020 which talks about using multiple iCloud accounts on one device, and what features can be used on two accounts at the same time. For example, a device can only use Photo Stream with one iCloud account, but can have two iCloud accounts syncing different calendar data at the same time.

3. For Face Time, you can disable this or setup any other Apple ID on each device by going to Settings > FaceTime > tap the Apple ID and Sign Out.

One thing to note also if someone decides to say, use the shared calendar and then their own calendar by setting up two iCloud accounts, they can set up the default calendar under Settings > Mail Contacts Calendar. This can help if they want to make sure events they enter on their iPhone only go to their calendar, and not she shared calendar. You can also edit this when creating each event indivudually as well but setting a default can save time.

Your Apple ID can be used for several services onyour device. While it is nice to have the same Apple ID for everything, sometimes having more than one for different things is the way to go. Here is another article that may help:

Apple IDs and iCloud

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4895

iCloud is the only place your backup with contacts,calendars,etc might be.A backup can also stored locally on your computer.Check to see with your last manual backup was, from a pc open itunes>edit>preferences>Devices then check here for a device backup.If so, backup the iphone again,transfer your purchases,photos etc then restore from the backup. Hope this helps

I've got 3 devices & want all info to go on all of them...how o I do this?

Sign into the three devices using the same Apple ID in Settings/iCloud. Then turn on syncing for items you want synced.