Sharing iTunes library and having different iCloud ID ?

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Level 3

558 points

Sharing iTunes library and having different iCloud ID ?

My wife and I use the same iTunes account and share libraries (music, apps and others).

Now, on her iPad and iPhone, almost daily she is prompted for entering an iCloud password in order to backup. I guess this makes sense in this situation to have separate backups in iCloud, but share the iTunes and App store ID and password.

Now I'm starting to wonder which is best : either backup on a Mac then no longer have to bother with this ? Or keep using iCloud (then how could we know if she ever had an iCloud account - and can this be different than iTunes and App Store) ? - If so how to recover ?

Or is there another way to go ?

Last thing we want is to either end up with a merged and confused iCloud backups, or that she loose all access to iTunes purchases by logging her iPad to a different ID and password for iCloud...

Thanks,

Rob

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)

Posted on Sep 3, 2014 8:52 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 3, 2014 9:02 PM in response to lanstrad1

Hi lanstrad,

If your wife's iPad and iPhone are asking for a sign on to iCloud repeatedly, have her Delete the iCloud account on the device and sign back in again to see if that resolves that problem: Settings>iCloud, scroll to the bottom of the screen, tap on Delete account, enter iCloud password, follow the remaining prompts to delete the account (this will not affect the iCloud content - it will come back when iCloud is signed back on). Then sign back into the account.

You can use separate IDs for iCloud and for iTunes. This allows you to do exactly what you are doing - keeping your purchases shared between the two of you while keeping your Contacts, Messages, Notes, etc. separate. Here is a support article on using two IDs:

Using your Apple ID for Apple services

Post back if you have any further questions.

Cheers,

GB

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Answer 2

lanstrad1 Author

Level 3

558 points

Sep 8, 2014 10:54 PM in response to gail from maine

Gail,

Thanks very much - I will try this (although not before a month as I am away until mid-October. I have noted your reply and will have a recall on this when come back.

Will post for conclusion.

Many thanks !

Rob

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Answer 3

Sep 9, 2014 7:46 PM in response to lanstrad1

Most welcome, Rob!

Post back if you have any questions or issues when you are able to do this! 🙂

Cheers,

GB

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