I have one apple ID for multiple devices in my family. I'd like to keep it that way for itunes/app purchases. I would like a simple step 1, step 2, step 3 response on what I need to do to separate all other features like imessage, contacts, emails, etc.

use their hotmail email address as their icloud id.sign them all out of the shared one they are currently using and is causing problems, sign in with the email address of their choice.

You must create a new Apple ID for each person for what you want.

setting> message> send and recieve at> apple id

We do this in my family now. We have one account for purchases, so it is used to share music and apps (I think that is in Settings/iTunes & App Stores). Each iDevice has this configured.

Then, each of us has our own iCloud account that is configured under Settings/iCloud. That then allows us to have our own Mail/Contacts/Calendars/Reminders/Safari Bookmarks/Notes/Passbook/Photo Stream/Documents & Data/Find My iPhone/and Backup. That Backup piece is pretty sweet and comes in handly if you replace your iDevice. You can just restore from it.

So we all share the Apple Store account but we all have our own iCloud accounts to keep the rest seperate or things like you mentioned are a nightmare.

In answer to what iCloud does for you: http://www.apple.com/icloud/features/

Think of it as an internet based ("cloud") area for all of those items listed in my response. What you need to remember is photo stream only maintans the last 1000 pictures so don't count it as a complete backup solution for your pictures. Even though I rarely sync with a computer these days, I do still try to sync my phone with iPhoto (I have an iMac) so that I have copies of all of my pictures. 1000 may not stretch as far as it sounds.

Message was edited by: Michael Pardee

It would be whatever you use to create the iCloud account. What may make this confusing is that a hotmail.com address can be their iCloud account. It's not actually using the hotmail.com account but it's using the whoever@hotmail.com text as the iCloud account. I'm not at home to check my kid's devices but I am pretty sure I made their iCloud addresses their @gmail.com addresses so I think I'm correct. If not, this is the internet and I'm sure many others will be along shortly to correct me! 😁

Moral of the story - if the address at the top of the iCloud setup screen is the same on any devices, they are sharing and not unique. You want iCloud to be each person's iCloud.

everything you're saying is correct, we share an apple id in my house, but wife uses her gmail for icloud, i use my hotmail, and my daughter uses her gmail. only glitch i have found is that when we try to turn on 'notes' in icloud settings it says we have to have a free @icloud.com address in order to save notes...weird.

The only thing I am not sure of is what happens to your kids data once you change to their iCloud accounts. Their own local pictures and things should be fine but things that were synced with your former shared account might be removed. I'm not sure about that one.

This is a realy great discussion and I think I would apply the same on my devices.

I have just one question. Today, all the family devices have my icloud account which make it easy to trace all devices using "find my iphone". Will I be able to trace the other devices if I change the icloud accounts to seperate account for each device ?

Thank you,

Gilad

Yes. You just have to know the iCloud username and password for the device you want to find. I still use the find my phone app to do that. A little less convenient but it still works.

So just to see that I understand the procedure.

You use one Apple ID account for all devices for App store and iTunes store and you generated few more Apple IDs, one for each device for using for iCloud ?

I'm asking since in Settings / iCloud it requires an Apple ID and I'm not sure if I can use one Apple ID for the stores and another Apple ID for iCloud.

Thanks,

Gilad

iCloud account unique for each person. iTunes and App Store is the shared one that can make purchases. That's how I am setup.