2 iPhones - 1 Mac - 2 iTunes accounts: Help!

[eoren1]

The setup:
Wife and I each have an iPhone 4. We use a single user account on a Macbook to sync. We share the address book/contacts; have separate mail accounts. Each has a separate iTunes account to sync to.

This setup was working well for a while. I got the iPhone 4 first and had been syncing with all tabs set to sync automatically. Later got her iPhone 4 and could sync as well.

At some point in the past few weeks, my 'sync Apps' got unchecked. When I checked it off again, it deleted some (4-5) apps on my phone but left the rest in place. Now it has remained checked.

However, all of my other tabs - music, podcasts, etc - are now unchecked. Checking any prompts a message that the files on my phone will be deleted/overwritten and made me concerned only about having app data lost again. I tried to click 'manually manage music' but that prompted me that the iphone was in sync with another computer (it never was) and that it would be completely overwritten.

My wife's account still has music set to autosync.

Went to an Apple store last night and talked to a 'genius' who told me that my current setup should not work. That the only way around it was to setup a second user account on the Mac and sync my wife's there or have both iPhones sync to a single iTunes account.

Hoping someone here can shed more light on this. Currently, I cannot add/remove anything but apps on my iphone

Thanks,
E

 

[ideal.dreams]

Do what the Genius said. iTunes is meant for one iPhone or iPod owned by 1 person. Make her her own user account and set up iTunes on it. It will fix all of your problems.

 

[eoren1]

Do what the Genius said. iTunes is meant for one iPhone or iPod owned by 1 person. Make her her own user account and set up iTunes on it. It will fix all of your problems.

Am in the midst of doing what you suggested but have run into more problems

Created a new user account for my wife. When getting ready to sync her iPhone, am told this will erase all content on the iPhone. Not too big of a deal as she has very little data on apps that would need to be recreated. I also think I can get around this by copying my entire iTunes library and her backup folder to her user account; then transferring her purchases and then syncing. Is that correct?

Went into my user account (currently shared by us) and connected my iPhone. Again, the setup is that we always sync both phones to this account and, it turns out, under my iTunes user account (never bothered to change it/sign in-out). Anyway, I realized I mostly just want podcasts and audiobooks to be in sync. Podcasts is already checked so I checked Audiobooks. Was told this would erase audiobooks on my phone and said okay. However, I then get the message that the phone is connected to another computer and would have to be erased. Again, this iPhone has never been connected elsewhere. The problem is that I have a LOT of app data on my iPhone and am not willing to essentially set it up as new.

Any suggestions?
Thanks
E

 

[ideal.dreams]

I also think I can get around this by copying my entire iTunes library and her backup folder to her user account; then transferring her purchases and then syncing. Is that correct?

Before you do that, go into iTunes, highlight all of your music, right click, and click on "Consolidate Files". This will copy all of your files to one location to make the transfer easier. The reason I am suggesting this is because of my next point; go into your music folder. Scroll down, there should be a folder called iTunes. You'll want to copy this entire folder and transfer it to your wife's new user account. If you choose not to consolidate files, the iTunes library backup in that folder will list all of the songs in her library, but their locations will be pointing to the path on YOUR user account, not hers, and it will make a huge mess.

As for your iPhone, I'm not sure why it would be asking you to erase yours. Did you plug it into your wife's account or have it plugged in when you made it? iTunes is very picky, and only lets you sync with one computer. I don't know why Apple designed it to be so difficult, but I guess we have to live with it.

 

[Small White Car]

Do what the Genius said. iTunes is meant for one iPhone or iPod owned by 1 person. Make her her own user account and set up iTunes on it. It will fix all of your problems.

That's funny because I use iTunes with 3 iOS devices for 2 people and I have zero problems.

What, exactly, is supposed to be happening to me that's bad?


OP - You should pick 1 iTunes account for you to both share from now on. Other than that, just keep doing what you're doing. (Besides that one fact your details match my own setup.) You can still sync the old music from the "abandond" account. But going forward you'll only be logged in to and buying from a single account.

 

[ideal.dreams]

That's funny because I use iTunes with 3 iOS devices for 2 people and I have zero problems.

What, exactly, is supposed to be happening to me that's bad?


OP - You should pick 1 iTunes account for you to both share from now on. Other than that, just keep doing what you're doing. (Besides that one fact your details match my own setup.) You can still sync the old music from the "abandond" account. But going forward you'll only be logged in to and buying from a single account.

I wasn't clear in my above sentence. I should have said that iTunes isn't meant for more than one person with different content. I'm sorry for the mis-communication. You can definitely share iTunes with 2 iDevices, but the content on both will be exactly the same.

 

[Small White Car]

You can definitely share iTunes with 2 iDevices, but the content on both will be exactly the same.

You can still choose what you do and don't want to sync. They don't have to be the same.