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How many computers can I use Lion on? Do I need to use them on one ID?

M

markw10

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 4, 2006
371
0
Hello,

My house has exactly 5 Mac's in it and I wish to upgrade all of these to Lion. In the past whenever I did an OS update I purchased the family pack instead of the standard edition which covered all 5 of the Mac's we own.
Am I correct that now the 10.7 Lion edition in the Mac App Store for $29 covers 5 computers or is there a separate family pack available? Is there now just one version which covers 5 computers?

The other question is how to go about the install. Two of the computers are in my home office but the other two belong to our children and when it comes to using the Mac App Store on all of those computers they are login into my Apple ID (me.com).

The 5th computer is my wife's though and that computer is using her Apple (me.com) ID since she makes her own purchases from the Mac App Store, iTunes, and has her own me.com email on it so her computer is the one that is unique.

Will the above present any problems? Will I be able to buy Lion and install it on the 4 computers on my ID and then have her buy her own copy for her computer or is there a way that I can get one version that goes on all 5 computers even though her computer is using a different ID for the Mac App Store?

Thank you for your help.
 
1 price, 1 copy of Lion for all of the Mac's that YOU own.

Buy it once using your Apple ID, then log in to the Mac App Store using your Apple ID on every computer that you wish to install OS X Lion and click on the Purchased Tab and press Install (if does not matter if your Wife has her own Apple ID, just log in with your ID on her computer).
 
There's only one version of Lion available, and you can use it on up to 5 machines (no family pack). What you Apple suggest is logging in to the Apple ID it was purchased on on each machine and download it separately, which is insane.

Instead, you can download it on one machine which will give an 'Install OS X Lion' application in your Applications folder. Stick it on a USB stick and run the program to update all the computers to Lion in turn.

Or you can make a bootable USB stick or a bootable DVD.
 
AdrianK said:
Or you can make a bootable USB stick or a bootable DVD.
Click to expand...

Not to hijack this thread, but on this note I'm curious (and I feel that its relevant to the OP).

I have an iMac and a MacBook Pro and so I downloaded Lion twice (once on each machine), but I have 2 cousins who live together and both have 13" MacBook Pro's (not the same model, they are 6 months apart and one is the newer than the other). They were wondering if they can just download it once and put it on a USB thumb drive to install it on the 2nd machine?

I couldn't give them an answer because I downloaded the file twice, so I wasn't sure if each download contained different drivers specific for that machine, or is it like the OS X disc from previous years that contain all of the necessary drivers for any machine.
 
AdrianK said:
There's only one version of Lion available, and you can use it on up to 5 machines (no family pack). What you Apple suggest is logging in to the Apple ID it was purchased on on each machine and download it separately, which is insane.

Instead, you can download it on one machine which will give an 'Install OS X Lion' application in your Applications folder. Stick it on a USB stick and run the program to update all the computers to Lion in turn.

Or you can make a bootable USB stick or a bootable DVD.
Click to expand...

It's easier just to download it 5 times. No point in bothering wiht a USB stick unless the OP has a really slow internet connection.
 
saving107 said:
Not to hijack this thread, but on this note I'm curious (and I feel that its relevant to the OP).

I have an iMac and a MacBook Pro and so I downloaded Lion twice (once on each machine), but I have 2 cousins who live together and both have 13" MacBook Pro's (not the same model, they are 6 months apart and one is the newer than the other). They were wondering if they can just download it once and put it on a USB thumb drive to install it on the 2nd machine?

I couldn't give them an answer because I downloaded the file twice, so I wasn't sure if each download contained different drivers specific for that machine, or is it like the OS X disc from previous years that contain all of the necessary drivers for any machine.
Click to expand...

legally no.... It is only for ones that you own.
 
AdrianK said:
There's only one version of Lion available, and you can use it on up to 5 machines (no family pack).
Click to expand...

There is no 5 computer limit. For personal use, you can install anything from the Mac App Store on any number of computers that you own or control.
 
wpotere said:
legally no.... It is only for ones that you own.
Click to expand...

My question is not a legal one since both of my cousins are sisters who live in the same household and are college students. If it makes you feel any better, last summer my aunt bought one of them a MacBook Pro at the start of school and then for Christmas bought herself an iMac and my other cousin a MacBook Pro as well (since her HP laptop stopped functioning).

They have 3 Mac's at home that my aunt bought (so I don't think Apple is going to be knocking on their door if they share the same MAS ID) and they would like to install OS X Lion, but they live sort of on the outskirts of a big city in a rural area and only have DSL 1.5 Mbps.

Rather than download a 4GB file 3 times at a very slow speed, they would like to just download it once and install the same file on all 3 Mac's. My question was, does the OS X Installer have the drivers for all of the Mac's, or does it download just the drivers for that specific Mac?
 
saving107 said:
My question is not a legal one since both of my cousins are sisters who live in the same household and are college students. If it makes you feel any better, last summer my aunt bought one of them a MacBook Pro at the start of school and then for Christmas bought herself an iMac and my other cousin a MacBook Pro as well (since her HP laptop stopped functioning).

They have 3 Mac's at home that my aunt bought (so I don't think Apple is going to be knocking on their door if they share the same MAS ID) and they would like to install OS X Lion, but they live sort of on the outskirts of a big city in a rural area and only have DSL 1.5 Mbps.

Rather than download a 4GB file 3 times at a very slow speed, they would like to just download it once and install the same file on all 3 Mac's. My question was, does the OS X Installer have the drivers for all of the Mac's, or does it download just the drivers for that specific Mac?
Click to expand...


If they pay for it, you can use your downloaded copy. However, what you are posting is considered against the terms you agreed to and you are stealing at this point. Justify it however you want, but it is what it is. :rolleyes:
 
wpotere said:
If they pay for it, you can use your downloaded copy. However, what you are posting is considered against the terms you agreed to and you are stealing at this point. Justify it however you want, but it is what it is. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I am not giving them my copy. They are going to purchase their own copy, they just don't want to have to download it 3 times on their very slow DSL internet.

Since I have 25Mbps down High Speed Internet, I downloaded Lion individually on both of my machines and so I couldn't give them an answer if downloading it once would work for all 3 of their Mac's.

That is my question.

(if this info matters, we live 120 miles apart from each other, so no they can't come to my house to download it). If what I asked above does not work, then they are willing to purchase the USB stick from Apple.
 
BiggAW said:
It's easier just to download it 5 times. No point in bothering wiht a USB stick unless the OP has a really slow internet connection.
Click to expand...
There's nothing difficult about dragging and dropping a file on to a USB stick.

saving107 said:
I couldn't give them an answer because I downloaded the file twice, so I wasn't sure if each download contained different drivers specific for that machine, or is it like the OS X disc from previous years that contain all of the necessary drivers for any machine.
Click to expand...
Everyone gets the same Lion download from the App Store, it's not specific to hardware at all.

BaldiMac said:
There is no 5 computer limit. For personal use, you can install anything from the Mac App Store on any number of computers that you own or control.
Click to expand...
Correct, no idea where I got '5' from o_O
 
saving107 said:
I am not giving them my copy. They are going to purchase their own copy, they just don't want to have to download it 3 times on their very slow DSL internet.

Since I have 25Mbps down High Speed Internet, I downloaded Lion individually on both of my machines and so I couldn't give them an answer if downloading it once would work for all 3 of their Mac's.

That is my question.

(if this info matters, we live 120 miles apart from each other, so no they can't come to my house to download it). If what I asked above does not work, then they are willing to purchase the USB stick from Apple.
Click to expand...

One download will work on all three of their Macs. Here's how to make a bootable installer to install it on multiple Macs:

Macworld.com: How to make a bootable Lion install disc or drive
 
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