How to add a second iPad to a one computer house?
April 19, 2013 7:07 AM   Subscribe

My elderly, non-techy parents need to add another iPad to the mix because my father is hogging the iPad they have now, but I'm not sure how to setup the icloud accounts, itunes syncing, etc. Details within.

My parents want to get another iPad, but I'm not sure how to arrange the icloud accounts, itunes syncing, etc. I don't have any iOS devices, so I'll have to learn this before I can give them directions.

They have one iPad 2, one Macbook Air with one user account. They're adding an iPad Mini because my father is hogging the iPad 2.

Should they share one iCloud account and sync it all to the same itunes account on the Air, or should I make separate iCloud accounts? Would that mean separate user account logins for the Air so the itunes syncs are different? I have no iOS devices, so the whole iCloud/itunes sync thing confounds me.

How can I make this easy for them to set up but help my mother feel like the Mini is hers and not shared?
posted by bluecore to Computers & Internet (3 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'd suggest setting them up with the same account to start, because it's a lot simpler and it makes it easier to manage - and then if she finds herself feeling like his stuff is "intruding" you can always pull it off onto its own account later.
posted by Tomorrowful at 7:14 AM on April 19, 2013


I asked this question a couple of years ago, that might help:

Multiple IOS devices, two users, one computer
posted by backwards guitar at 7:17 AM on April 19, 2013 [2 favorites]


How I would do it: one iTunes account and two iCloud accounts.

- Having one iTunes account means both parents can share the same bought content, which is especially great for apps.

- Having a separate iCloud account means personal details like calendars, mail, etc, are kept apart.

Both iPads can happily sync with iTunes on the MacBook Air.

This is not the easiest thing to set up but the way I did it was to use different email accounts to create three different AppleIDs: one for the iTunes account (I made a special email address on my domain but of course you could use a provider like gmail) and one for each person (their personal email addresses). Each iOS device uses the iTunes AppleID in the App Store, but their personal AppleID in the iCloud settings.

Happy to provide more info.
posted by Georgina at 7:28 AM on April 19, 2013 [2 favorites]


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