Multiple Devices, One Apple ID, iMessage Chaos

Greetings!

Your Question was:

Sep 28, 2012 3:30 PM

Hi all,

Wanted to bring up a new "feature" of iOS 6 - probably already has been discussed here a few times, but this is a real pain and something that I think Apple has backwards.

My wife, daughter and I each have an iPhone 4, and son has an iPod Touch. All of us have upgraded to iOS 6, and we all share one Apple ID.

Everyone is able to turn iMessage on without any issue, but - every OTHER device is given the option of accepting messages sent to the newly activated device. They can either accept or deny the ability to do so, but then going into the iMessage settings they can reactivate this "feature."

Shouldn't the setup be that when activating iMessage from a device, it gives THAT device and only that device the option of whether the other devices have the ability to send / receive messages?

We were all wondering why on earth we were all receiving iMessages from friends of my wife, friends of my daughter, people I work with, etc. It's a huge hassle - so much so that we have all turned iMessage off.

Big disappointment in this implementation - the option to share should be owned by the device that is turned on, not the other devices that are already on the account.

Thanks,

Scott

My suggestion based on your inquiry is based on the following critical terms:

Mom: iPhone

Dad: iPhone

Daughter: iPhone

Son: iPod touch

Everybody with an iPhone should have their own Apple ID for for mail, messages, etc.

You may want to share music and apps, so you will need to have multiple Apple IDs.

In iOS7 you can pair one Apple ID PER Service. Ex: you can have a different FaceTime Apple ID than iMessage Apple ID.

So, summed up,

You will have separate apple ids on each device and the Same store account.

Go under store, WHOLE family have Adams@mac.com, and

Dad: iPhone number and dad@mac.com

Mom: iPhone number and mom@mac.com

Girl: iPhone number and girl@mac.com

Boy: JUST boy@mac.com

Please note iOS 7 is required for this to work.

Thank-you!!

Matt Baird

<Edited by Host>

Trams just another option if you're not looking to set up different apple IDs. If you go to settings-messages-send and receive option is where you can choose what numbers get what text on what device. You would have to do this on all devices To get it straightened out.

Or you can do what people have been saying by setting up different apple IDs for the whole family and put that if specifically in to the iCloud, FaceTime, and messages tab in your setting.

The good news is you can use that one Apple ID that the whole family is using to share music and apps ok the setting-iTunes and AppStore tab. If you keep that email the same across all devices you won't share messages or anything just purchases made in the App Store.

Hope this helps

TechMattBaird51 wrote:

PS: Sorry if your question (s) are/we're not responded to quickly. Community members usually reply to these questions.

Why are you sorry?

It was responded to numerous times 16 months ago by "community members".

I had the same problem but have almost fixed everything. I have one Apple ID account with multiple aliases working to multiple devices. My kids have their own alias email account and her receiving their own iMessages. But my daughter with the iPod fourth-generation does not have email set up. My sons iPod fifth-generation email alias is working. It seems that the fifth-generation iPod has a few extra settings. Under the email settings the fifth-generation iPod has advance settings where the iPod 4 does not. Therefore I can't set up the iPod for to receive email using her email alias.

Ok have successfully set up multiple devices previously or the family using my 1 apple ID but individual email addresses for each device.

Daughter has now recently received a 5th generation Ipod Touch running IOS 7.1.1.

Signed the IPOD in to my Icloud account as before to access features like Imessage (selecting her individual email) and share purchased content. Then go to icloud settings and turn off syncing to everything such as contacts, email etc. This should leave me with a stand alone Ipod but still accessing the previous features. By then setting a restrictions code and stopping account changes means daughter cannot change these settings and the Ipod will store her own contacts, email, imessages etc etc. I have done this before with Daughter No 2's Ipod and all is good. Complete Separation....or so I thought.

Problem occurs when in imessage and in the "To:" bar imessage seems to access the icloud account with suggested contacts.

For example the daughters Ipod has 2 contacts only yet in Imessage is able to type "s" and all my contacts appear.

I have racked my brain and don't see a setting to turn this syncing off. May try the multiple Apple ID account Suggestion as above

iTunes is the culprit. An entity that has outgrown it's original purpose.

Started with managing your music.

Then, since music became portable (iPod), iTunes managed that too.

Then iPhone came out, and since it contained music, it because the iPhone device manager too

But there are photos on iPhones and iPads. OK, let's make iTunes handle that too.

And then there are contacts and calendar events. Better let iTunes handle that too.

AppleID allows you the right to listen to your music on multiple devices, as long as you use the same AppleID on each device.

iMessages is added to iPhone, iPad, iPod. How do you identity who this is.... AppleID.

Any useful guidance From Apple on using a single vs multiple AppleID to separate iMessages for Family members? (not that I can find)

Why should an AppleID for purchasing Music, be the same AppleID for communicating with friends?

Answer: It shouldn't be. Use different AppleID's for Purchases vs Communication.

What happens when my "Communication AppleID" on iPad happens to be the email address I use for my Android phone?

• Anybody iPhone user addressing a TXT message to me could use my email instead of my phone number.
• Apple will hijack incoming SMS...
• Your boss send's you a TXT from his iPhone, but since you recently bought an iPad, Apple attempts to send it via iMessage first. Only if that fails, and only if your boss set his defaults a certain way, will you ever see that important TXT message on your cell phone.
• Same problem if I formerly had an iPhone, but now have a non-apple iPhone.

HI chris, do you know somehow on how can I check or manage the devices using my appleid? I mean how can I view what devices are using my appleid? Can you provide me the easy steps. Because I cant find any relative articles on how can i see or view or edit or manage the devices using my appleid. Please help me. Godbless 🙂

horse5971 wrote:

Keep one Apple ID for the iTunes Store. But have separate for iMessage, FaceTime, Game Center, and maybe iCloud but iCloud depend on if you want to share photostream, contacts, or use the find my iPhone app for one Apple ID and find all the devices. There are sign ins for each of those apps under settings and the appropriate app. Hope that helps

It doesn't help and it's confusing and having multiple AppleIDs will simply cause a LOT of frustration later on.

Thank you!! Finally advice that worked. 🙂