iPhones, iClouds and Sprint

[noelle1228]

Hi All,

We have 3 iPhones on a Sprint account. We want two of them to be able to share Contacts, Mail, etc., but NOT the third. We don't want the third iPhone user to be able to see anything related to the other 2. This person does not have access to the Sprint account at all.

Right now we have a temporary fix on, we turned OFF all iCloud settings on the 2 phones, but that of course keeps us from using iCloud backup. The complicated solution is to go to a Sprint store and move the third phone to a separate account.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Is this an iCloud solution or a Sprint solution?
Thanks -

 

[eyoungren]

The easy solution would be to put the third person on a seperate Apple ID. Log them out of the current Apple ID for iCloud and log them in under a new Apple ID.

That will keep them separate and they won't be sharing any iCloud space. They can sync to their own iCloud storage.

Keep in mind that any app purchase on the other Apple ID won't reflect to the new Apple ID.

 

[dccorona]

The easy solution would be to put the third person on a seperate Apple ID. Log them out of the current Apple ID for iCloud and log them in under a new Apple ID.

That will keep them separate and they won't be sharing any iCloud space. They can sync to their own iCloud storage.

Keep in mind that any app purchase on the other Apple ID won't reflect to the new Apple ID.

Actually, since you can use a different account for iCloud and store, you could actually have all 3 share a store account if you want, so you can buy an app once and put it on all 3 (same with songs, etc), but still keep the iCloud accounts separate.

But yes, this is the right solution. Sprint accounts don't have anything to do with the shared data. Put the 2 phones you want sharing contacts etc on the same iCloud account, and put the 3rd on a separate iCloud account. Set the store accounts on each to whatever you choose (2 shared one separate, all shared, each individual). The store accounts won't be responsible for sharing any data aside from app music and video purchases

 

[noelle1228]

Hi eyoungren,

This person already has a separate Apple ID, as far as we know.

So this won't sound too mysterious, this is an ex wife and for practical reasons, we are keeping her phone under our Sprint account for another year or so, until property issues completely resolve.

Meanwhile, when we turn iCloud settings ON, on the other two phones respectively, our Contacts, Calendar, Notes etc commingle. He can see mine and I can see his.

We absolutely cannot afford for the third person to be able to access our information. It would be disastrous, to say the least.

She's not very computer savvy and doesn't have a computer at home. As far as we can tell, she hasn't activated iCloud because we don't see any of her information. Or she could just have her settings turned off. But we want to be proactive and fix the problem before it occurs.

Thanks

 

[eyoungren]

Actually, since you can use a different account for iCloud and store, you could actually have all 3 share a store account if you want, so you can buy an app once and put it on all 3 (same with songs, etc), but still keep the iCloud accounts separate.

Yeah, I wasn't sure about that. I knew you could log out of the app store seperate of iCloud, but I wasn't sure that there wasn't some crossover there or not. Thanks for clearing that up.

As to the new Apple ID, you have to go over to Apple's website and create it. Once it's created then you can use it. It's based on email addresses, so the third person will have to have a their own valid email address.

 

[noelle1228]

Or conversely, the two of us can create a new Apple ID and use it for all of our stuff, and leave the third person to her own existing Apple ID?

 

[blue43fan]

I'll keep it simple; for the phones that you want to share iCloud info, sign into the same iCloud account. For the one that you do not want to share info, sign into a different iCloud account, or keep the phone off of iCloud altogether.

 

[eyoungren]

This person already has a separate Apple ID, as far as we know.
…because we don't see any of her information.

If you can't see any of her information then she is on a different Apple ID as you indicate and she then cannot see your info.

But if you want to be safe, go ahead and create a new Apple ID just for you two and use that. If she knows the old Apple ID you have you won't be compromised because you'd be under the new Apple ID.

Of course any purchases you made on the old Apple ID won't reflect to the new one. In that case you might have to call Apple, explain the situation and see if they can move your purchases to the new Apple ID. I don't know if that is possible or not though. I've only had an iPhone since December of last year so all of this is relatively new to me.

 

[noelle1228]

Thanks, I need it simple. All this time I thought the solution lay with Sprint because the 3 phones are on the same billing account.

We have no control over her access to iCloud. So the solution lies in us using a separate apple ID

...but that does not explain why he and I (using different apple ID's) currently have commingled Contacts on two different iPhones. They commingled the day I got my iPhone and signed into iCloud with my apple ID. At the time he still had a Blackberry.

Anyway thanks, I appreciate the help!

Noelle

 

[eyoungren]

If he is logged into his phone using the same Apple ID as you then he would get your contacts and you his if the option to use iCloud for contacts is selected on both phones.

There are any number of ways his contacts could have been moved from his Blackberry to his iPhone. They'd then merge with your if the above paragraph is true.

 

[noelle1228]

Thank you for the help!