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

kylera

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 5, 2010
1,195
27
Seoul
Do both of you use the same single account for all purchases?

Or do you maintain separate accounts and purchase two of everything?

Or do you have separate accounts but mix and mesh some apps and purchases among devices?
 
Do both of you use the same single account for all purchases?

Or do you maintain separate accounts and purchase two of everything?

Or do you have separate accounts but mix and mesh some apps and purchases among devices?

Not really a couple per se, but my best friend, whom I see as a sibling rather than a friend share iTunes. It happened when iTunes Match came into the fold. She has contributed greatly to my iTunes library in the past several years (>14,000 tracks), so I thought that she should have access to it as well. So, basically her device is locked to my AppleID to purchase anything (apps, music, books, etc). If she were to sign out, use her own ID, then sign back in with mine, she would be locked out. Apple now requires devices to be locked to one AppleID for 90 days; there is no way around that.

Cost-wise, it doesn't really matter for me. She can buy whatever she wants and of course, so can I. My account is only filled with iTunes GC, so at times, she refills it by buying an iTunes GC. Been doing this for at least 2-3 years (whenever iTunes Match debuted), and everything works and have never ran into a problem/issue.
 
I have my DD11 and her 5-year-old sister's iDevices on my account. I see no advantages to putting each device on its own account or each person. Unless you like purchasing the same app or song more than once.
 
Different accounts but I often "share" apps that I want him to check out. He can't be bothered with the App Store. -_-
 
Do both of you use the same single account for all purchases?

Or do you maintain separate accounts and purchase two of everything?

Or do you have separate accounts but mix and mesh some apps and purchases among devices?


The wife and I have our own separate iTunes accounts.
 
Boyfriend has his own Apple ID for his apps and iCloud, but my old iTunes account is logged in so he can sync my music and movies. He doesn't know the password though, and he doesn't make purchases.

I also have my own Apple ID and that iTunes account. Somehow I couldn't use my iTunes account for iCloud when I got an iPhone. So my apps are connected up my Apple ID, and my music and movies are tied to my iTunes account. I haven't tried to merge the two yet. So far there haven't been any restrictions for having the two accounts, and the activation set up gives you the opportunity to log into both.
 
I think that your Apple ID -as properties- should be separated.
 
We don't. I am using spotify at the moment, no need to purchase songs, that's so 2004. Why do you think Apple just purchased beats?
 
I use the same account as my brother for purchasing apps. I don't see any point in buying an app twice unless I have to. Supporting the devs isn't a valid reason since we pay for the apps we use anyway, but just once.

I also have my own iTunes account which I normally use. I only switch to our common account when buying/installing paid apps.
 
Last edited:
We share an iTunes account for all purchases so we don't have to pay twice for purchases, but we also maintain separate iCloud accounts for backups, iMessage, FaceTime, etc.

Very simple, works out well.
 
We share an iTunes account. I really don't see a point in having two separate accounts to pay for an app twice. Not to mention it just makes everything easier.
 
My wife and I have separate iTunes accounts as well. We also use home sharing and just communicate with each other if one of us purchases content. The you can just drag and drop that information into your library. Our taste in music differs slightly, so when choosing to stream music, she can either pull from my library which is available off an NAS, or from her own laptop.
 
My wife and I have separate iTunes accounts. It's not like having to buy a $3 app twice is going to bankrupt us. I also don't use iTunes to manage my music, I've switched over to Google Play and I'm very happy with it.
 
Not really a couple per se, but my best friend, whom I see as a sibling rather than a friend share iTunes. It happened when iTunes Match came into the fold. She has contributed greatly to my iTunes library in the past several years (>14,000 tracks), so I thought that she should have access to it as well. So, basically her device is locked to my AppleID to purchase anything (apps, music, books, etc). If she were to sign out, use her own ID, then sign back in with mine, she would be locked out. Apple now requires devices to be locked to one AppleID for 90 days; there is no way around that.

Cost-wise, it doesn't really matter for me. She can buy whatever she wants and of course, so can I. My account is only filled with iTunes GC, so at times, she refills it by buying an iTunes GC. Been doing this for at least 2-3 years (whenever iTunes Match debuted), and everything works and have never ran into a problem/issue.

Dude.... friendzoned...
 
Somewhat unintentionally, I had my original Apple ID that went all the way back to the first days of iTunes, and my Apple ID (with an email) that moved throughout the years from .Mac to iCloud. Originally I was kind of angry that I could not merge them, but I have grown to like it for this exact reason. I have my original iTunes account strictly for purchases, while my iCloud account takes care of everything else. It works out pretty well, it is tied to my card, and sometimes she will just load it up with a gift card. It's not precise, but hey, it works, and really we don't spend all that much anyway.

My biggest problem with it, given I use iCloud for all my email, it won't let me use any of my alias on my second account. If you don't use iCloud mail, not a problem.

An extension to that, I actually share my account with my parents as well. They rarely purchase Apps, but sometimes I want to share something with them "Like 1password" when I forced them to not have all their passwords "password1"
 
It's not like having to buy a $3 app twice is going to bankrupt us.

Forget $3 apps. I have 'Frozen' on my, my wife's, and my daughter's iPad and it cost me $20 to do it.

By your method it would cost $60.

Have fun with that, but I'm not doing it. I don't care if anyone considers what I do cheating. Downloadable movies are supposed to replace DVDs and I didn't have to buy 3 of those for the family so I'm not about to start buying downloaded movies that way.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.