Sharing only music/select apps across multiple Apple devices
December 3, 2015 2:36 PM
Our kids are getting their own mini iPads for Xmas and I need help managing the Apple ID / Cloud syncing across our now numerous devices. Please walk me through it like I'm a 5- year old...
My wife and I each have an iPhone and an iPad. We are getting iPad Minis for our 3 kids this Xmas, so we'll have a total of 7 Apple devices (plus a couple of old iPods). I would like for all the devices to share music downloads so we don't have to pay for each kid's copy of their favorite Taylor Swift songs, and I'd also like to share app downloads - as long as the kids can play the same game on different devices and the device will keep their gameplay discrete / remember where each kid is in the game?
I do not want the devices to sync anything else, including email, calendars or photos. I also do not want content automatically downloaded onto each device, but be accessible/free if we've already paid for it.
What is the best way to do this?? I think this can be done with separate iCloud accounts, but I don't know how... I've looked at some older questions but haven't found what I've needed. Please help! TIA...
My wife and I each have an iPhone and an iPad. We are getting iPad Minis for our 3 kids this Xmas, so we'll have a total of 7 Apple devices (plus a couple of old iPods). I would like for all the devices to share music downloads so we don't have to pay for each kid's copy of their favorite Taylor Swift songs, and I'd also like to share app downloads - as long as the kids can play the same game on different devices and the device will keep their gameplay discrete / remember where each kid is in the game?
I do not want the devices to sync anything else, including email, calendars or photos. I also do not want content automatically downloaded onto each device, but be accessible/free if we've already paid for it.
What is the best way to do this?? I think this can be done with separate iCloud accounts, but I don't know how... I've looked at some older questions but haven't found what I've needed. Please help! TIA...
That... looks like exactly what I'm looking for. Thank you!! How come none of my parent friends knew about this? Corollary question: can I set it up so photos are NOT automatically synced? My kids (and wife) take tons of pictures and don't bother weeding out dupes/bad shots, and I don't want to wade through hundreds of their shots. I save my pictures to a pro Flickr account.
posted by widdershins at 2:55 PM on December 3, 2015
posted by widdershins at 2:55 PM on December 3, 2015
Yes, in the iPad's iCloud settings you can turn off syncing of whatever.
posted by kindall at 3:02 PM on December 3, 2015
posted by kindall at 3:02 PM on December 3, 2015
Another benefit of Family Sharing is that you can attach your credit card and give you kids an "allowance" for apps. You can also require your permission for app purchases.
posted by sideshow at 4:43 PM on December 3, 2015
posted by sideshow at 4:43 PM on December 3, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Hermione Granger at 2:39 PM on December 3, 2015