Multiple iPhones - how many Apple IDs?

[Pheran]

I seem to be falling down the slippery slope that Pliablemoose is complaining about in his Damned Apple thread. It started with a lowly iPod Nano for my wife last year. Now, I'm getting 2 iPhone 4s's tomorrow, one for me and one for the wife. So far I've only been using my Apple ID to get iTunes songs for her iPod. Now that we will have 3 devices split across 2 people, does she need her own Apple ID? If so, can we still share songs and apps? I certainly don't want to rebuy a bunch of songs under a different ID.

Thanks for any tips.

 

[Ns1]

yes, we have 2 apple ID's for the following

1 iMac
1 iPad
2 iPhones

I would suggest using 1 Apple ID if at all possible, because now we have apps split between 2 accounts.

 

[Aikouka]

You can use the same Apple ID, but have separate Mobile Me accounts.

EDIT:

To clarify, you would use the Mobile Me account with iCloud and the Apple ID with the App Store and iTunes. This way, you share your music, videos and apps, but not your calendars, contacts, etc.

 

[Ka0t1x]

You can use the same Apple ID, but have separate Mobile Me accounts.

EDIT:

To clarify, you would use the Mobile Me account with iCloud and the Apple ID with the App Store and iTunes. This way, you share your music, videos and apps, but not your calendars, contacts, etc.

+1. Two iPhones, done exactly this way.

You can setup your phone with the new Apple ID.

Then go to (Settings->Store) and change it to your old one with your iTunes store stuff.

There is also a separate account setting for iCloud (Settings>iCloud).

 

[Pheran]

Thanks for the info. I also just found this thread which seems pretty informative. The issue with syncing photos sounds kind of annoying though.

 

[MotionMan]

We have the following:

My iPhone
Wife's iPhone
Daughter's Touch
Son's iPhouch (iPhone 3G used as Touch)
Family Shuffle

They are all on the same Apple ID. We share music, apps, etc. I have a master contact list, but the kids' iDevices only have a subset of the contacts list (basically family and their friends' parents). I do all the maintenance/syncing on my desktop. This has worked out pretty well so far.

Now, with iCloud, I will have to see if there is any way I can improve the experience.

MotionMan

 

[Pheran]

For the record, I did get this set up, and it works fine to have 1 Apple ID for your "store" account and other Apple IDs for your iCloud accounts. I use my Apple ID for our family purchases and for iCloud on my phone. On my wife's phone, I set its store account to my Apple ID but its iCloud account to her Apple ID. You can find these under Settings/iCloud and Settings/Store.

You definitely want to set up iCloud because "Find My iPhone" could be a lifesaver.

 

[MotionMan]

It appears that each iDevice has to be logged into a different AppleID for iMessage to work properly.

Still tinkering.

MotionMan