iPod touch Anone Know How to Properly synch 4-5 iDevices to one iMac account?

[Dorfdad]

I purchased 2 itouches for the kids for christmas, I own one iPad and iPhone 4 as well as my wife having an iPhone4 (total of 5 devices) and my one iTunes account.

Previously I thought you could just hook them up and drag files to each system but what is happening on 3 of these we currently have in use (ipad, and 2 iphone4's) is every time it synch all new apps to ll the devices even when I deselect specific apps my wife does not want.

Also on a side not is is possible for my wife's contacts to be different than mine without here having to create a new account on the iMac? I would hate to have to have 4 different logins when everything we need is under my profile.

Thanks in advance and I appreciate your help in this regard.

Dorfdad

Snow Leopard 10.6.5 iTunes 10.1

 

[Cuckoo]

Well, I'm not very certain what you mean, but I can tell you the following:

- the contact list is stored in address book, so on all your i-devices you will have the same contact list
- the apps on your different devices can be different

If you want the contact lists to differ, I know of no option other than different users for the corresponding devices

 

[Dorfdad]

Ok thanks for the contact list info, however for the idevices It seemingly does not work as you said. If I add a new app and than plug in my wifes iPhone4 the new apps synches to hers automatically even though I only wanted it for mine. I am trying to prevent a nightmare when we hook up all 5 devices to itunes!

 

[TJRiver]

Are you manually managing the apps for each device? Hook up the device, highlight the device in the sidebar in iTunes and then click on the Apps tab for the device being synced.
You should get a full list of all of the apps and the ability to tell iTunes to sync only the selected apps to the device being synced. I have a total of six iPods, Touches and iPhones running off of one iMac, each with its own unique set of apps, music, etc., and it works pretty darn slick.

 

[Dorfdad]

Are you manually managing the apps for each device? Hook up the device, highlight the device in the sidebar in iTunes and then click on the Apps tab for the device being synced.
You should get a full list of all of the apps and the ability to tell iTunes to sync only the selected apps to the device being synced. I have a total of six iPods, Touches and iPhones running off of one iMac, each with its own unique set of apps, music, etc., and it works pretty darn slick.

tried this but when a new app is introduced it automatically adds it to all new synchs

 

[sammich]

In Address Book.app, you can make groups of contacts. Then under the 'Info' tab for each device you can set up Contact syncing for only those groups.

And, under the list of apps, you absolutely sure you've unchecked the box that says 'Automatically sync new apps', for each device?

I have several iTunes accounts and even more iDevices, and I have had no problems managing what gets sync'd.

 

[Night Spring]

tried this but when a new app is introduced it automatically adds it to all new synchs

Make sure you have the most recent version of iTunes. Then, when you connect a device to iTunes and click on the "apps" tab, there should be a checkbox somewhere that says something like "automatically sync new apps." UNCHECK this box. Do this for all your devices.

 

[mofunk]

Each user can have a separate iTunes. There is a way to have several iTunes folders on your iMac. This is just like having separate folders. Instead of creating different loggins. This way each user will have separate files.


I think method 3 is the best option

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1495


I know this works for several iPods, but I haven't tried it for separate iTouch. However I've used several iTouch with my iTunes, but they are only backed up, never synced.