iCloud with families - how does it work?
October 19, 2011 1:34 PM   Subscribe

iCloud with families - how does it work?

In our household, we have 4 iPhones and an iPad. I have not upgraded any of them to iOS5 yet.

Currently, all the devices use the same Apple ID, so content and apps move easily between them.

How do you best set up iCloud to ensure that everyone in the family has access to the media and apps, but retain their unique email/calendar/preferences, etc?

How does iCloud get loaded with all the media and apps? Is it uploaded from my home computer?

Thanks for your insight!
posted by Argyle to Computers & Internet (5 answers total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: We have the same setup. Every machine can share the same ID for purchases and have a different one for personal iClouds.

When you set up your iOS device for the first time, it'll prompt you to set up iCloud. Each user should enter his/her own ID here (probably that person's email address unless you want to get a new .me one). This will make sure each person has individual email, calendars, contacts, iMessage texts, documents, photos, etc.

Then, go into Settings → Store and enter the AppleID you all use for purchases. Now purchases will be available to all but iCloud info will be individual.

The one issue is that everyone will have a separate photostream. My wife and I prefer to have our own iPhoto libraries, but if you've been sharing one, I'm not sure how that works.
posted by davextreme at 1:39 PM on October 19, 2011 [2 favorites]


Best answer: You can set iCloud to sync any combination of the following:
  • mail
  • contacts
  • calendars
  • reminders
  • bookmarks
  • notes
  • photo stream
  • documents & data
I haven't tried multiple iDevices myself, but I imaging everybody can use the same AppleID but nobody syncs their mail, contacts, calendars, etc to iCloud.

Of course, this means anybody in the family with multiple iDevices will not be able to use iCloud to sync their mail, contacts, calendars, etc between devices.
posted by thisisnotbruce at 2:47 PM on October 19, 2011


Best answer: Here's a good overview.
posted by justgary at 2:55 PM on October 19, 2011


You'll need everyone on their own iCloud address if they want to sync contacts/calendars/mail and retain their own separate data. Certainly if you want to use Find My Friends

Fortunately, you can all have your own iCloud addresses but use one Apple Store ID. That way, your data is synced and backed up to its own separate place, but you don't need to buy four copies of every app, song and movie. I was a little panicked until I figured that out. Set each phone up with a unique iCloud name. Then just go into Settings->Store and set the Apple ID there to whatever your iTunes account is. Apple has instructions somewhere on their website if you google a bit

Consumable media will need to be sync'd through iTunes rather than the cloud, maybe. And the photo stream won't be shared among all phones and computers, which is kinda a drag IMO.
posted by pjaust at 7:22 AM on October 20, 2011


brain not working. did not read posts before mine properly.
posted by pjaust at 7:23 AM on October 20, 2011


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