Sharing contacts

Question

Level 2

163 points

Sharing contacts

I was talking to an Apple Store Genius today, and he said I can share my contacts using family sharing. But checking on this, I'm confused, and would like some guidance.

Right now, all iTunes purchases are using my e-mail address. It used to use an ID of HowardBrazee, but I needed to change it when some featured needed the e-mail format. I don't use it for anything except the Apple store. I don't know how to associate it with an iCloud account - so I haven't gotten my own iCloud account.

My wife has an iCloud account based upon her .mac e-mail address she got years ago. We share our contacts, our calendar, notes, keychain, & safari settings (I use a different browser when I log in as myself) - using her e-mail/iCloud account. She has me editing contacts, calendar, & notes, telling me whenever she wants a change. iPhoto is on my computer, and I periodically copy it over to hers. Neither of us use mail on our phones - except I enable it when I want to accept a "Find My Friends" request because apparently that is now necessary. We're retired and typing on phones is much more difficult than typing on real keyboards. One trouble with this setup is "Find My Friends" sees us both as the same person.

From what the Apple Store Genius said, we should be able to have a family shared contacts (essential), shared Apple Store purchases, but not get my phone mixed up with hers in "Find My Friends" - I wouldn't need to log onto her iCloud account, but we still share our data. If he is correct, what steps should I be looking at?

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Jan 18, 2015 5:25 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

judysings

Community Specialist

Jan 20, 2015 7:52 AM in response to Howard Brazee

Hi Howard,

Welcome to the Support Communities! From what I understand of your situation - Family Sharing is not the answer for you. You cannot share contacts with Family Sharing. It is mainly for sharing iTunes purchases, a shared calendar and a shared photo album.

It sounds like the best scenario is what you are already doing ... both of you use your Apple ID for iTunes Store purchases, and both of you use your wife's Apple iD for iCloud (contacts, calendar, notes, etc.). The only caveat is the Find My Friends issue because you are using one iCloud account for both people.

There's no right or wrong way to do this ... everybody's situation is different ... but this is my suggestion based on the information you provided.

The article below explains the options for using Apple IDs.

Set up your Apple ID for iCloud and iTunes - Apple Support
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204053

I'll also include some information on Family Sharing just so that you understand it a little better.

Family Sharing - Apple Support
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201060

Cheers,

- Judy

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Answer 2

Howard Brazee Author

Level 2

163 points

Jan 20, 2015 8:14 AM in response to judysings

That's too bad. If contacts were like the calendar app, we could share them nicely.

But that's what it looked like to me, despite what the Apple Store Genius said.

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Answer 3

Howard Brazee Author

Level 2

163 points

Feb 1, 2015 11:21 AM in response to Howard Brazee

I just tried something. I asked my phone's Siri whose phone this was. Siri thought it was Pat's. Pat is my wife. Apparently Siri doesn't look in my Contacts to match the phone, but looks at the owner of the iCloud account.

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Answer 4

judysings

Community Specialist

Feb 1, 2015 1:35 PM in response to Howard Brazee

Hi Howard,

That is correct. You have to make sure your iTunes Settings and your iCloud settings have the correct Apple ID on your iPhone.

iCloud: Set up iCloud
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2609

iCloud: Set up iCloud

You set up iCloud on your devices by signing in and turning on the features you want to use on each device. Before you can sign in on your Windows computer, you must first install iCloud for Windows.

If you haven’t yet set up iCloud on your iOS device or Mac, you can set up iCloud without a device and access web-only features on iCloud.com.

Note: Some iCloud features have minimum system requirements. iCloud may not be available in all areas, and iCloud features may vary by area. For more information, visit the iCloud website.

Set up iCloud on a device:

Follow the instructions on the Set up iCloud website.

Important: Be sure to use the same Apple ID when you set up iCloud on each device.

When setting up iCloud, you sign in using your Apple ID. If you don’t have one, you can create one while signing in on an iOS device or Mac.
After using your Apple ID to set up iCloud on any iOS device or Mac, you can use all the iCloud.com features on your other devices by signing in with the same Apple ID.

Set up iCloud without a device:

Go to iCloud.com, click Sign up for iCloud, then follow the onscreen instructions to create an Apple ID you can use to sign in to iCloud.com and access web-only features.

Change iCloud feature settings

If you have trouble signing in to iCloud.com

Use iCloud.com apps

Last Modified: Jan 8, 2015

Have a good day!

- Judy

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Answer 5

Howard Brazee Author

Level 2

163 points

Feb 1, 2015 2:05 PM in response to judysings

I experimented. On my phone, I logged off of my wife's iCloud account, and logged on with the account we use to buy apps. After I did this, Find My Friends saw me separately, although I need to invite everybody again (which is a pain as I don't normally get e-mail on my phone).

After a while, Siri recognized that the phone belonged to me.

When I logged in the first time, I was given the option to merge my contacts to this new account. I did - but changing one or the other contacts won't change them both. So I need a way to manually merge contacts in the future. That is our #1 need.

And something odd. When I tried turning on iCloud mail with my own setting, it asked if I want to create a free @icloud.com e-mail address. I tried entering HowardBrazee@icloud.com, but that was already taken. It must have been taken by me. So how do I turn it on in the iCloud settings?

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Answer 6

judysings

Community Specialist

Feb 3, 2015 2:45 PM in response to Howard Brazee

Thank you for using the Apple Support Community. Due to the nature of your issue or question you may find more information by using another one of Apple's support resources - https://getsupport.apple.com/GetproductgroupList.action

- Judy

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