What is the best home set up for a family to share/use apple products

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Level 1

8 points

What is the best home set up for a family to share/use apple products

Hi, I am relatively new to apple (have an iPad) and having been a PC user for years I was pleasantly surprised with the apple experience and am now trying to work out the best set up for me, my husband and young son as I am buying them both of them apple products this Christmas. New Mac laptop/ ipad for hubby and then an ipod touch for my son oh and a new mac laptop for me. We are also thinking of moving from Blackberries to iPhones. Yes we seem to be hooked! but i am unsure about the home family set up and how to replace my PC network that I run off an 8TB server.

In reading the forums I keep seeing people talk about problems they have with two apple IDs and trying to merge them. I have also heard about a family ID allowing us to share apps legally. I am really nervous of setting us up wrong and then having problems later and hence i am now looking for some advice on how to share as much as we can legally but also make usage practical and not invading each others privacy. thoughts so far:

Music - I think we are happy to share the same music and access using one ID (we currently don't buy much music from apple but have lots of CDs we share).

Photos - It would be nice to share photos - as long as my son or husband cannot accidentally delete photos of mine (which is my biggest concern). I currently load all camera photos onto my 8TB storage box as the network owner and my husband has full access to copy any photo to his laptop but can never delete the original copies by accident.

Apps - If possible i would like us to share these but they are cheap enough these days to separate if really needed. Would be good to share licence for pages etc though

cloud, contacts, facetime, email - this is what is making me consider separate IDs or learning how to have multiple users in one apple ID - I do not want to have to share synced contacts with my husband. I have near 300 contacts now through work etc and he will not want them plus i will not want his or him being able to delete mine by mistake. and then for email and facetime, well I want to give him his privacy so I do not receive his messages etc. especially now that we are considering switching to iPhones

Then last but not least, i don't know the best solution for my son. he is only 7 years old so even though I don't want to pay for things again I don't want him being able to download "just any" app from the purchased icon in Appstore. Also, is there a child friendly setting to prevent him from viewing inappropriate content on the internet?

Appreciate I have asked a lot of questions here but I am looking for any genuine advice out there. Thank you in advance to any potential advisers.

Posted on Dec 22, 2012 4:50 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 22, 2012 6:39 AM in response to bazmanp

Welcome to the Apple Community.

You don't need to use the same ID on a device for iCloud and iTunes.

iCloud covers mail, contacts, calendars, reminders, notes, bookmarks, photostream, document syncing etc and for these I recommend you each have your own ID's, this will stop others from having access to and likely more importantly being able to edit or even delete your personal information.

Someone of Age needs to be responsible for an account, so for younger children you will need to create and be responsible for an account yourself but let the child use it.

For iTunes you could use a single account so everyone can share music and apps or you could use separate accounts (there are ways to share content between users, Apple provides homesharing to do this).

When choosing how to proceed with iTunes, it might be worth remembering that someday your children will reach 21 (or whatever age they feel they have become independent) and will likely want their own account, changing accounts later may make it difficult to access previous content.

Photostream now has shared albums, so you can share just what you want with others. Shared photos using shared albums cannot be deleted by others with different accounts, but if you all shared the same account they could be.

Facetime and messages can also use an ID independently of each other, iCloud and iTunes. Separate ID's are recommended for these, joint accounts can be problematic.

iTunes has parental controls for youngsters, however at 7, I suggest you don't reveal the password to him and enter it yourself when he needs to purchase something, otherwise you may receive unexpected bills.

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Answer 2

bazmanp Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 22, 2012 2:25 PM in response to Winston Churchill

Thank you ever so much for both the speedy response and helpful answer. I will try what you have suggested.

Thank you again and have a lovely Christmas.

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Answer 3

zcargnop

Level 1

11 points

Dec 24, 2012 3:04 PM in response to Winston Churchill

Just to be clear...

I would create individual apple id's for each family member which would be associated with each person's iCloud account.

Then I would create a single apple id for the whole family which would be associated with iTunes used by all family members.

This seems to solve the immediate problem of sharing apps/music but not contacts and private data however, you noted that changing from a shared iTunes account to individual iTunes accounts later on could be problematic. How does Home Sharing fit in? Can this be set up to share apps/music while still keeping contacts and other private data separate and allow everybody to have their own iTunes accounts?

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Answer 4

Dec 23, 2013 9:57 PM in response to bazmanp

Hi! I have an iPhone 5 and this Christmas I got my daughter who is 10 an ipad mini and got my other 2 children ipod touches. Can they each have their own Apple ID accts or do they need to be all under mine? Would it mess up their FaceTime or messages if they were under mine? Please help!

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