Splitting my Apple ID/iCloud into two

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Level 1

4 points

Splitting my Apple ID/iCloud into two

For years, I've had just one Apple ID (and it's a defunct @mac.com address). It's worked fine, but now I want to split my identity... I want to have one Apple ID for iTunes and the App Store, and another one for everything else: contacts, calendar, notes, reminders, iCloud, etc. I'm sharing the iTunes Store one with my daughters, so we can share purchases, but I don't want to share everything else with them.

Seems like I have two options, both requiring a second Apple ID (which I've already created against a different email address).

1) Move everything to the new account, except iTunes.

2) Move iTunes to the new account, leave everything else and change the password.

I'm not sure if option 2 is possible.

Is there an easy way to port all my info from one Apple ID (iCloud stuff) to another? Most of what I've seen involves exporting and importing, one thing at a time.

Any other thoughts on how I might accomplish this? Maybe there's a third option I haven't considered.

Thanks!

OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Mar 9, 2014 12:42 PM

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Answer 1

randers4

Level 9

63,567 points

Mar 9, 2014 1:34 PM in response to Zoomster

Option one is your best option. You can't move iTunes purchases to a new account as they are permanently tied to the account used to purchase them. If you created a new iTunes account you would end up having to manage two IDs, one for past purchases and one for future purchases.

The only downside to the first option is that if you use iCloud email you cannot move your existing iCloud email account to a new iCloud account. You would either have to set it up as a secondary account on your devices or change to a new iCloud email account associated with your new iCloud account. If you set it up as a secondary account, your email will only be fetched periodically rather than be pushed to your devices, as push email is not supported for secondary accounts.

As for migrating your iCloud data to the new account, do you have an iOS device?

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Answer 2

Zoomster Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 9, 2014 1:57 PM in response to randers4

Yes, I have two iOS devices (iPad, iPhone). Is there any easier way to transfer?

I don't use my iCloud email account.

Do I have to export/import everything?

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Answer 3

randers4

Level 9

63,567 points

Mar 9, 2014 2:09 PM in response to Zoomster

Everything can be migrated from your iOS device except Notes and any synced documents, such as iWork documents. Your notes can be emailed to yourself, then recreated in the new account by copying/pasting the text into new notes. iWork documents can be saved to your iOS device by going (for example) to Settings>Pages, turning off Use iCloud, then opening the Pages app and choosing to keep the documents on your device. Once signed into your new account, go back and turn Use iCloud back on and the documents will be added to your new account when you reopen the app(s).

To migrate to a new account, start by saving any photo stream photos on your iOS that you want to keep to your camera roll (unless already there) by opening your my photo stream album, tapping Select, tapping the photos, tap the share icon (box with upward facing arrow), then tapping Save to Camera Roll. If you are syncing notes with iCloud, open each of them and email them to yourself so you can later copy and paste the text into new notes created in your new account. If you are syncing iWork documents, save these to your device as mentioned above. Then go to Settings>iCloud, tap Delete Account, provide the password (if using iOS 7) and choose Keep on My iDevice when prompted. Then sign back in with a different Apple ID to create your new account and choose Merge to upload your data.

You will only have to do this on the first iOS device. On your other iOS devices, just save any photo stream photos that you want to keep on the device, delete the account, and provide your password and choose Delete from My iDevice (since the data is already in your new account) when prompted. Then sign back in with your new ID.

On your Mac, go to System Preferences>iCloud, click Sign Out, and choose Delete at all of the prompts. Then sign back in with your new ID and the iCloud data will download from the new account.

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Answer 4

Zoomster Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 9, 2014 2:37 PM in response to randers4

That's great info for others. :-) But in my case, I have no photo streams or iWork docs. I do have some notes, but not a lot. I may just move them to Evernote or DropBox.

My concerns are : calendar, mail, contacts, reminders, Find My iPhone. Let me discuss each briefly...

I use Google Calendar for everything. I have iCal set to sync with Google. I don't have anything explicitly in iCal (or Calendar, I guess they call it now). My main concern would be that switching accounts would somehow mess things up in GCal.

Same for mail... I have two accounts that I use, Googe and Yahoo. I just don't want to screw things up with these accounts.

Contacts is messed up. I tried to stick to Google, but iCloud duplicated everything. I've migrated to using iCloud just because it's simpler and syncs immediately with my iDevices. I haven't figured out how to try to merge with Google Contacts yet... it's a mess. But right now, iCloud is what counts.

Reminders and Notes... I don't have many. I could lose all the reminders and be fine. Notes, as I said, I can handle manually somehow.

Find My iPhone. I'm assuming this is no big deal. But I've been burned before by stuff like this that SHOULD be simple, and isn't.

Can you have any overlapping email addresses between apple accounts? Or is it just the primary email?

I would like a failsafe, too... can I do a complete backup of my phone and just restore it if things get too hairy?

Also... can I do this in two steps... copy everything to the new account, and if all goes well, then delete from the old account?

Thanks for all the advice so far!

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Answer 5

randers4

Level 9

63,567 points

Mar 9, 2014 3:06 PM in response to Zoomster

Data synced from external accounts (mail, calendars, contacts, etc.) such as Google and Yahoo is entirely separate from your iCloud account. iCloud neither stores nor syncs this data. It is synced from the Google and Yahoo servers. As such, changing iCloud accounts will not effect this at all. Just leave the accounts set up on your devices/Mac as they are now and the data you access/sycn with them will remain unchanged.

When you delete the existing account, you will be prompted to provide your password to turn off Find My iPhone. Just turn it back on once you are sign into your new account.

You can't have overlapping email address on your Apple IDs. You will need a new email account to create the new ID you use to creat your new iCloud account. You don't need to use it for email, but it must be verified in order to set up the ID and account.

You can always back up your phone ahead of time, but you don't really need to do this to change accounts. When you delete an account from your device, and choose to delete the iCloud data, it is only deleted from your device, not from iCloud. The data will still be in the original account and can be accessed again by signing back into it, either on your device or on icloud.com, should you ever need to.

I'm sure I can also help you with your contacts issue of you want once this is done. Let me know if I've missed any of your questions or if you have other concerns.

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