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Switching to a Shared Apple ID for Purchases

J

jakegr

macrumors newbie
Original poster
My wife and I have kept separate Apple IDs for everything, but recently we've decided it would make more sense to share an Apple ID for purchases, and having our own IDs for iCloud. Before doing so, I have two question I hope someone can answer.

1. Are there any problems using this method. I've read a ton on the topic (including here), and I know a lot of people go this route, but as someone that until this point has used one Apple ID for everything, I'm curious if changing that will come with any problems that I'm not aware of.

2. We're going to use the Apple ID I was using for purchases as the ID we share for purchases.

On her mac in iTunes she has music she's ripped, and music she's bought. When she switches to my Apple ID (the shared ID) what happens to her bought and ripped music? Will she still have it? Also, I have iTunes match. If she does get to keep her music, when she switches to my ID in iTunes, will her music also be matched?

Thanks for any help, and if I'm confusing anyone please let me know and I'll try to explain it better.
 
I wouldn't recommend doing this. One issue off the top of my head is that you wouldn't be able to use iTunes in the Cloud to automatically download purchases to all of your devices because if your wife downloaded an app or something it would end up on your devices automatically and vice versa. Also iBooks uses the iTunes Apple ID to keep track of bookmarks and things like what page you were last on. iTunes Match may present some problems when sharing your iTunes Apple ID (no individuality for playlists, folders, etc.) and who knows what might be coming in the future.

There is already a solution for this called Home Sharing. And yes a little known fact is that you can share iOS apps using Home Sharing. The only downside I believe is you need to enter the Home Sharing Apple ID's password when updating apps in addition to your own Apple ID's password.

However, iOS6 no longer requires entering passwords for updating so I don't think there are any downsides any more. Someone else might be able to think of something.
 
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