iPhone Could use some counsel on iCloud please..

[Brother Esau]

Hey guys,

I am getting familliar with the iPhone 5 and iOS 6.1.2 after not having an iPhone since my 3GS was stolen over a year ago and a lot has changed.

iCloud: what is the running consensus from the geeks here should a separate account be created just for iCloud and should I refrain from using my Apple ID in tandem with iCloud?

I would think that is would be more secure to have a separate account for iCloud (that was not a option when I first used it) but is there any downside to doing this at all?

For the sake of stating the facts here, there is just me and I have no spouse or children so that is not a factor that needs to be considered here.

Anyone care to throw me a line on this one and speak on their personal experiences with iCloud and the differences surrounding doing it with a separate account vs just using your APPLE ID?


Thank you as always.


Cam

 

[bradl]

Hey guys,

I am getting familliar with the iPhone 5 and iOS 6.1.2 after not having an iPhone since my 3GS was stolen over a year ago and a lot has changed.

iCloud: what is the running consensus from the geeks here should a separate account be created just for iCloud and should I refrain from using my Apple ID in tandem with iCloud?

I would think that is would be more secure to have a separate account for iCloud (that was not a option when I first used it) but is there any downside to doing this at all?

For the sake of stating the facts here, there is just me and I have no spouse or children so that is not a factor that needs to be considered here.

Anyone care to throw me a line on this one and speak on their personal experiences with iCloud and the differences surrounding doing it with a separate account vs just using your APPLE ID?


Thank you as always.


Cam

when I signed up with MobileMe, I did not use my email address or my AppleID for my ID with MobileMe. So that gave me a me.com address for my ID. That was what I used for accessing every part of it, from mail, to the gallery, to iDisk, etc., while still retaining my Apple ID for use with iTunes.

When MobileMe got rolled into iCloud, that ID I had got changed from a me.com account to an icloud.com account. This gives me the access I had previously for iCloud, while retaining my Apple ID (which is different email address completely) for iTunes.

Nothing much more gets added, except for multiple addresses that could be used for things like Facetime, as you could use either ID for it. I haven't looked into storage lately, so that may be different, but at the least, you'll have different accounts for different access. Security wise, that is a good thing, as for if one account gets compromised, you won't lose everything.

BL.

 

[Brother Esau]

when I signed up with MobileMe, I did not use my email address or my AppleID for my ID with MobileMe. So that gave me a me.com address for my ID. That was what I used for accessing every part of it, from mail, to the gallery, to iDisk, etc., while still retaining my Apple ID for use with iTunes.

When MobileMe got rolled into iCloud, that ID I had got changed from a me.com account to an icloud.com account. This gives me the access I had previously for iCloud, while retaining my Apple ID (which is different email address completely) for iTunes.

Nothing much more gets added, except for multiple addresses that could be used for things like Facetime, as you could use either ID for it. I haven't looked into storage lately, so that may be different, but at the least, you'll have different accounts for different access. Security wise, that is a good thing, as for if one account gets compromised, you won't lose everything.

BL.

@bradl
Thanks brother, much appreciated!

 

[dejo]

Mod Note: This thread was temporarily closed for cleanup, and moved to a more appropriate forum. Now that it's reopened, please remain civil.

 

[CTHarrryH]

I'm similar to last poster - had a Apple ID that I used for store purchases and then a mobile me which became my icloud id. (they gave me an icloud email but I never use it). I really don't use the me email for almost anything. It is the applid ID for my phone and iPad.
Given my choice I'd have only one but there is no way to merge accounts as of this time.
Every time I'm asked for a password on my devices I have to "remember" which one they want. It would be nice to have only one.

I'm sure there is a way to convert over but honestly things seem to get screwed up for me occasionally with things such as iMessage now and if it all works I leave it alone.

 

[wallyu]

My apple id is the same that I've had since dotmac. It still has a mac.com suffix. It is my primary email address, my iTunes store account and my iCloud id/address as well. One account - one id - one password. I never worry about which account I'm on. I have seen people have problems with multiple accounts/names/passwords/ids. Even within apple it can be problematic. Sometimes when I send a text to my wife I'm not sure which account is receiving it. My wife has (finally) switched (almost) everything over to an iCloud account which has helped her and me. This singularity works well for me.

That said, I had some thinking to do when we gave our two boys iPad minis for Xmas. New iCloud accounts for the boys? Share our accounts? What's the best way to share games, apps, books, music, etc. without buying everything multiple times? What's the best way to set up email?

I know it's not your situation but it may help alleviate some fears you may have either way you go. I broke it down into three main components: iCloud, iTunes and email. iCloud handles: mail, contacts, calendars, reminders, web browser, Notes, Photo Stream, docs & data and others. The iTunes account handles the iTunes Store, downloads, music, apps, books, etc. Emailing is whatever accounts you have set up and can include iCloud, me, dotmac, Yahoo, gmail, aol, etc. You can view just one account or all of of them combined.

So here's what I did: First, I gave everyone their own iCloud account/id. I switched over my dotmac account and my wife's .me account to iCloud and gave the boys a new iCloud account each. This way we each can text/email/facetime each other individually. The kids have parental controls/restrictions on them and I am the administrator.

Second, I set up a family iCloud account that appears on all devices. Only my wife and I can administrate it. It is the account that we use for the iTunes Store on all devices so that anything that is purchased on any device can appear on all devices. And that happens almost instantaneously.

Third, for email everyone has their own iCloud account for personal use. I added the family account to each device as well. This way any one of us can send a text or email that the whole family will see. An example is when I took one of the boys skiing, I emailed some pics/vids to the family account and everyone got them. But we do not give out this address. It is a family-only pipeline. However my wife also has a few other email accounts that she uses (you can have multiple accounts active).

I still sync each device to a computer, even though I don't think that you have to anymore. I do it so that I can manually control which apps, music, etc. get on each device. For obvious reasons my wife and I do not want all the games that the kids have and the kids do not want all the apps that we have. Initially I downloaded every app that we both had acquired onto the family account. From there I set up each device to only load what each person wanted. I was also able to do a clean-up and delete a number of older apps/games that weren't used anymore. For music I sent up a separate playlist for each device on iTunes and have the settings configured to only sync to that playlist. This way we each can customize our music by simply adding or deleting tunes in each playlist.

You can do a little mix and matching also. I have it set up so that my iCal appears on my wife's iPad and iMac. She doesn't use iCal so it helps her to see what my work/play schedule is in order to deal with the kid's schedules.

I hope this helps someone out there! I spent a bit of time researching how to do this and I have to say that so far it is working quite smoothly and flawlessly!