Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Can Anyone Tell Me What Happened Here & How to Fix It???

V

VideoNewbie

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 6, 2009
476
6
Okay so the other day my mom was asking me why her phone's programs are identical to my dad's programs and im guessing what happened was my mom & dad have been downloading apps to their new iphones under one itunes account and everytime they plug their phone into their computers it syncs everything to match?

What i am gonna do this weekend is help my mom create her own itunes account but im confused as to how the whole syncing thing works...

1.)
if i create a new account for her will i have to restore her phone to default before doing so? is there any way to retain all her current settings photos programs etc. ??

2.)
i want my parents to be able to plug their phone into the same computer without the computer trying to sync all their stuff and make their programs match (which is what its currently doing)...how would i go about setting this up???
 
You can't share apps between accounts they're going to have to pay for them all over again.
 
I'd suggest leaving them as-is so that they can share apps that they want to without buying them twice - but turn off Settings - Store - Apps so that they don't automatically get whatever apps the other one purchases (they can manually load the app onto both phones without extra fee if they want to). This is how my wife & I handle our phones.
 
seanfranklin said:
I'd suggest leaving them as-is so that they can share apps that they want to without buying them twice - but turn off Settings - Store - Apps so that they don't automatically get whatever apps the other one purchases (they can manually load the app onto both phones without extra fee if they want to). This is how my wife & I handle our phones.
Click to expand...

Yea you don't want to create another account. It sounds like they are syncing with iTunes on the same computer. That can cause the behavior you described. I get around this issue by creating separate user accounts on the computer. Then the devices can sync with different iTunes libraries, and they won't share anymore. It will still be tricky the first time because the phone is already synced with another library, but you can get around that.
I believe there is a solution without using separate computer user accounts as well, but I find multiple accounts to be the easiest. The actual iTunes account will still be the same though.
 
Turn off the settings in iTunes to automatically syncing new apps to all iDevices.

Turn off the settings on the phone to auto download newly purchased from app store.
 
SporkLover said:
Turn off the settings in iTunes to automatically syncing new apps to all iDevices.

Turn off the settings on the phone to auto download newly purchased from app store.
Click to expand...


huh? how would this solve my dilemma?

even if i turned auto syncing and auto downloading off , itunes would still do the same thing (deleting apps) when i eventually manually sync the phone or when i manually download apps on the iphone through itunes.


im sorry if im confusing anyone let me try to articulate my question better.

what i want to do is this:

my mom & dad live in northern california. my mom is visiting me for the weekend down here in southern california and i want to help arrange her phone and help her download some apps.

i will be using my own computer to do this. i cant use the itunes account under the admin user tab on my computer because that is the itunes account that i use and in doing so it would erase all her apps and make her phone mirror the apps on mine....i cant use the itunes account under a new computer account either because it would erase all her apps and leave her with nothing (since the itunes account on the new user account would be a complete clean slate)

so what do i do? how can i help my mom arrange/download apps so that when she goes home she can still connect to the computer at home and retain all of the apps and settings ive made for her?

my worry is that if i spend all this time setting up the phone for her, downloading apps, organizing her apps into folders etc. that as soon as she goes home and tries to connect the iphone to the home computer to sync or back up that it will make her delete all the new apps on her phone to try and mirror whatever apps are on the itunes program on the home computer.
 
Just do it on the phone. And maybe teach her what to do on the computer so she doesn't mess it up.
 
VideoNewbie said:
huh? how would this solve my dilemma?

even if i turned auto syncing and auto downloading off , itunes would still do the same thing (deleting apps) when i eventually manually sync the phone or when i manually download apps on the iphone through itunes.
Click to expand...

You said......

what happened was my mom & dad have been downloading apps to their new iphones under one itunes account and everytime they plug their phone into their computers it syncs everything to match?
Click to expand...

and.........

i want my parents to be able to plug their phone into the same computer without the computer trying to sync all their stuff and make their programs match (which is what its currently doing)...how would i go about setting this up???
Click to expand...


You don't have to setup a second iTunes account if you turn off the auto sync features for the phone and itunes. You only drag and drop the programs you want to use on each phone. I used to have the problem of having programs I downloaded to my ipad or ipad 2 on each other, or onto my iphone, turn it off and you dont have to worry about it.

As long as the iphones are uniquely named in itunes, everything should work ok.
 
VideoNewbie said:
huh? how would this solve my dilemma?[snip][/b]
Click to expand...
Definitely don't set it up on your machine. As soon as she plugs it in to her machine, it'll want to erase everything.

Not only disable the function on the phone to automatically download apps over-the-air that are purchased on other devices, but turn off automatic app syncing in iTunes (Summary tab when the phone itself is plugged in via USB).

Make sure each phone as a unique name ("Dad's phone", "Mom's phone") in iTunes.

Making separate accounts will just force the user of the new account to rebuy all the apps, videos, etc.
 
xraydoc said:
Definitely don't set it up on your machine. As soon as she plugs it in to her machine, it'll want to erase everything.

Not only disable the function on the phone to automatically download apps over-the-air that are purchased on other devices, but turn off automatic app syncing in iTunes (Summary tab when the phone itself is plugged in via USB).

Make sure each phone as a unique name ("Dad's phone", "Mom's phone") in iTunes.

Making separate accounts will just force the user of the new account to rebuy all the apps, videos, etc.
Click to expand...


guys,

i did all this but im not understanding the remedy of "just give the phone a unique name"

i did this but all the apps are greyed out
?????
screenshot20111212at105.png

(note the above image is just a sample not an actual screen shot of the current apps on the phone..just using it to illustrate what the greyed out appearance looks like)

how can i re-arrange or download new apps to her phone in this condition?
the only thing it will let me do is "sync apps" and if i do so it will erase all her current apps with my apps in my itunes

also as you can see there are two news stand app icons is this a bug? how do i get rid of it?
 
Last edited:
If you are trying to manage the iphone from your computer, rather than it's home computer, you won't be able to manage the apps.
 
Make sure your parents have separate iCloud accounts set up on the device and disable auto-download of applications on both devices.
 
alphaod said:
It clearly says in the KB article that you can only share items between computers using the same account.
Click to expand...

You have to use 1 account to do the transfer, but that doesn't have to be the account you use normally on the device. Read the legal terms for iTunes app, music, etc purchases. The license is for something like up to 5 people within a household.

APP STORE PRODUCT USAGE RULES

(i) If you are an individual acting in your personal capacity, you may download and sync an App Store Product for personal, noncommercial use on any iOS Device you own or control.
Click to expand...

(iii) You shall be able to store App Store Products from up to five different Accounts at a time on a compatible iOS Device.
Click to expand...

http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/terms.html
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back