Phone rings mine and my wife's at the same time

[ronm99]

So much for Handoff being useful. My wife and I use the same iCloud account because we use the same contacts and calendars.

Apple needs to allow a device to use different iCloud accounts for different features.

My wife and I do this with two separate iCloud accounts, and everything works great. Here is how we have things set up:

iTunes Store: we use the same Apple ID (I actually have a 3rd account just for the store, but just use whatever Apple ID you normally shop with here). Note that this does not need to be the same ID as your iCloud ID. My wife and I and both of my daughters use the same Apple ID for the Apple Store for all of our devices.

iCloud: my wife and I each have our own Apple ID.

For contacts, I turned off iCloud contacts on my wife's iPhone. I then added a second (secondary) iCloud account on her phone, and added my Apple ID. This iCloud account has "Contacts" synching enabled and everything else disabled.

You add a secondary iCloud account by going to Settings --> Mail, Contacts, Calendars --> Add Account. On the next screen, choose "iCloud" as the account type that you want to add. Note that you only need to do this on one of your devices (i.e. you could add your Apple ID as a second iCloud account on your wife's devices, or vice-versa).

With the secondary iCloud account, you can use it to share Contacts, Calendar, Reminders, and / or Notes.

To share our calendars, I just share the Calendars I want to be "joint calendars". You can do this in OSX, or right from the Calendars app in iOS8 (click on Calendars at the bottom, click on the circled "i", and then click on "Add Person" to share). I have one private calendar that I use to schedule events that I may not want my wife to see (surprise birthday dinner, etc.).

If you don't mind the calendars being identical, you can just enable the Calendars synching on the secondary iCloud account.

There is one thing that we lose by doing things this way. I wish I could share the Photos on this secondary account so that our photos would always automatically show up on each other's Photostream. I don't know of any way to do this without sharing Apple ID's.

There is also one "bug" / "feature" with my setup. The concept of "me" is stored in the contacts. If you share contacts in this way, your iPhone will think you are both the same person.

 

[ronm99]

Why not? We have different iMessage accounts, separate FaceTime accounts, but we share the contacts, photos, music and calendar. It's called marriage.

You can do all of this and still have separate Apple IDs (except for photos). See my previous post.

In general, I think it is better to have separate Apple IDs if you can make it work for you.

 

[Dimwhit]

You can do all of this and still have separate Apple IDs (except for photos). See my previous post.

In general, I think it is better to have separate Apple IDs if you can make it work for you.

Good info, thanks. I wish Photos would sync with photo stream, too. That's the only other thing we share. But maybe I just use dropbox sync with mine and import them to iPhoto when I need to.

Thanks!

 

[mw42]

iCloud is inadequate

Are you sharing an iCloud account? If so, don't. You should each have your own Apple ID's for your devices.

My wife an I have have a very integrated life and have been sharing an account across my wife"s and my devices for many years, when I had my ".mac" account sharing wasn't an issue when it was "mobile me" there was no issue iCloud has been inadequate from when it was forced on us that is the problem.

 

[smoking monkey]

Where is the handoff setting? I can't find a setting called "Handoff" at all on my 8.0.2 iPhone 5S.

 

[chrisandersen]

On all of my devices, it would hang up about maybe 10% of downloading. I turned them off and when I went to turn back on, it says in essence the beta is full and we are adding more back on daily.

 

[Stuke00]

My wife an I have have a very integrated life and have been sharing an account across my wife"s and my devices for many years, when I had my ".mac" account sharing wasn't an issue when it was "mobile me" there was no issue iCloud has been inadequate from when it was forced on us that is the problem.

Sounds like you guys can share phone calls now too.

 

[jayes]

Good info, thanks. I wish Photos would sync with photo stream, too. That's the only other thing we share. But maybe I just use dropbox sync with mine and import them to iPhoto when I need to.

Thanks!

I vote for that option too. I wish there was a separate 'toggle' to share photo streams with other family members without having to share Apple ID.

 

[Dimwhit]

I vote for that option too. I wish there was a separate 'toggle' to share photo streams with other family members without having to share Apple ID.

So I finally created an iCloud account that I use for everything but Contacts, Calendars and Photos. I use my main one (that my wife uses) for Contacts and Calendars. That seems to do the job. The problem is the photos. So I turned on Dropbox photos, which will at least get my photos to my home computer after I take them. I just have to go in every so often and drop them into iPhotos. It's not super elegant, but it will get the job done. I don't care about my photos being on my wife's phone and vice versa...I just want them both on our Mac.

My problem wouldn't be a problem if iPhoto in Mavericks (and soon to be Yosemite) could grab photos from two separate photo streams. That it can't is, in my view, a HUGE oversite. Apple wants household members to have their own iCloud accounts, but they don't provide a way for their photos to all be gathered in the same place. Maybe the new Photos app in Yosemite will do that.

 

[SnowDX]

So I finally created an iCloud account that I use for everything but Contacts, Calendars and Photos. I use my main one (that my wife uses) for Contacts and Calendars. That seems to do the job. The problem is the photos. So I turned on Dropbox photos, which will at least get my photos to my home computer after I take them. I just have to go in every so often and drop them into iPhotos. It's not super elegant, but it will get the job done. I don't care about my photos being on my wife's phone and vice versa...I just want them both on our Mac.

My problem wouldn't be a problem if iPhoto in Mavericks (and soon to be Yosemite) could grab photos from two separate photo streams. That it can't is, in my view, a HUGE oversite. Apple wants household members to have their own iCloud accounts, but they don't provide a way for their photos to all be gathered in the same place. Maybe the new Photos app in Yosemite will do that.

We use iPhoto with two separate Photo Streams and it works for us. We each have a separate user account on the Mac and then iPhoto is set up in each of our accounts to use the same iPhoto library but use our own individual Photo Stream. Each of our individual Photo Stream photos get added into the library into the "Oct 2014 Photo Stream" (or whatever month/year it is) folder on import so we see the photos each other took from our phones.

 

[grissomrt]

You and your wife need to get a life man. It seems like you 2 became 1 person. Purchases are one thing, but contacts, calendars and everything else, the same? Damn.

That was mean! Husband and wife are one! That's not what he was talking about. I feel the same way as that guy. We should not have to change everything around for one update.

 

[deviant]

That was mean! Husband and wife are one! That's not what he was talking about. I feel the same way as that guy. We should not have to change everything around for one update.

then dont change. But don't complain something isn't working when it's not supposed to because it wasn't designed to work that way in the first place.

 

[irnchriz]

You shouldn't tell anyone not to share icloud accounts if there's a use-case for it. My wife and I share icloud accounts so we can share purchases (why should we have to pay for apps twice if we both want it), share the same icloud backup storage space (we each go over the free 5GB so why pay for extra space on two accounts when sharing is less expensive) and, most importantly, we share the same photo stream so that we can see each other's pictures when we take pictures of our newborn.

Basic stuff this:

1. Setup an iCloud account for each user
2. On each users iOS device setup using their OWN individual iCloud account
3. Go into settings and enter the same iTunes account details for purchases if you want to keep it simple and not bother about the purchase sharing of Family.

Now you all have your own email contacts and calendars but all iTunes purchases are from the same account.

Maybe you live in each others pockets or are afraid that your spouse is cheating on you so you might want to use the one iCloud account and share contacts, calendars, photos, iMessage etc but thats just going to end up a garbled mess.

 

[grissomrt]

then dont change. But don't complain something isn't working when it's not supposed to because it wasn't designed to work that way in the first place.

I wasn't complaining. I was asking. 2 different things.

 

[Dimwhit]

We use iPhoto with two separate Photo Streams and it works for us. We each have a separate user account on the Mac and then iPhoto is set up in each of our accounts to use the same iPhoto library but use our own individual Photo Stream. Each of our individual Photo Stream photos get added into the library into the "Oct 2014 Photo Stream" (or whatever month/year it is) folder on import so we see the photos each other took from our phones.

Have two user accounts on our machine is definitely not something I want to do, however. I see it would work, but it would be far too much effort to do (with everything else we share on the Mac). I suppose I could create a dummy account with the sole purpose of having it catch the second photo stream, but it's just such a clunky solution to a problem that really shouldn't exist.

 

[SnowDX]

Have two user accounts on our machine is definitely not something I want to do, however. I see it would work, but it would be far too much effort to do (with everything else we share on the Mac). I suppose I could create a dummy account with the sole purpose of having it catch the second photo stream, but it's just such a clunky solution to a problem that really shouldn't exist.

Ha, and I'm the opposite, I couldn't imagine ever sharing an account. We have shared folders for docs we both need access to but I like having my own desktop and keyboard/mouse/trackpad settings, my own Safari bookmarks, my own app settings, etc. My kids have their own accounts as well.

I honestly can't think of one thing we need to share that hasn't worked with separate accounts. We share a photo library and an iTunes library. Oh and we share a couple other libraries for other software. We just keep the libraries on our shared folder but then within the app we can set things up the way we personally like them.

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with how you're doing it, just expressing that my mindset is different so it's just something I can't grasp. I often spend time grumbling about how Apple doesn't have their multi/user up to snuff and that the OS is still designed too much for one account that everyone uses. LOL

I hope you end up finding a solution that is workable for you.

 

[St8kout]

"Love living in Louisiana"- ugh!

I moved from Baton Rouge to Las Vegas over 2 years ago and never looked back. After Katrina a huge portion of New Orleans (double ugh) moved to Baton Rouge and made a mess out of it; they brought with them nightmare traffic and a soaring crime rate.

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack your thread, but I'm still so glad to be out of there.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

After reading all 5 pages of this thread, I don't think I ever want to be married.

I have everything set up the way Apple intended. And it all just works. Add one more person though and based on this thread, it will start to fall apart.

 

[HereBeMonsters]

I quite like the idea of handoff, but I've found that my iPad will continue to ring after I've answered the call on my iPhone.
Is it supposed to do that?

 

[6836838]

This has to be one of the most depressing and pathetic threads I have ever read. It sounds like marriage it turning a few couples into one person here! By all means, have a shared calendar etc, but the same account for contacts, photos, purchased etc? Wow.

----------

I quite like the idea of handoff, but I've found that my iPad will continue to ring after I've answered the call on my iPhone.
Is it supposed to do that?

Yes. To p1ss you off.

 

[Dan70]

You shouldn't tell anyone not to share icloud accounts if there's a use-case for it. My wife and I share icloud accounts so we can share purchases (why should we have to pay for apps twice if we both want it), share the same icloud backup storage space (we each go over the free 5GB so why pay for extra space on two accounts when sharing is less expensive) and, most importantly, we share the same photo stream so that we can see each other's pictures when we take pictures of our newborn.

Yeah nowadays there is no point.

Family Sharing covers this issue so it is a bad idea to share accounts.

 

[chrisandersen]

"Love living in Louisiana"- ugh!



I moved from Baton Rouge to Las Vegas over 2 years ago and never looked back. After Katrina a huge portion of New Orleans (double ugh) moved to Baton Rouge and made a mess out of it; they brought with them nightmare traffic and a soaring crime rate.



Sorry, didn't mean to hijack your thread, but I'm still so glad to be out of there.

Vegas. Really?

 

[Dimwhit]

Ha, and I'm the opposite, I couldn't imagine ever sharing an account. We have shared folders for docs we both need access to but I like having my own desktop and keyboard/mouse/trackpad settings, my own Safari bookmarks, my own app settings, etc. My kids have their own accounts as well.

I honestly can't think of one thing we need to share that hasn't worked with separate accounts. We share a photo library and an iTunes library. Oh and we share a couple other libraries for other software. We just keep the libraries on our shared folder but then within the app we can set things up the way we personally like them.

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with how you're doing it, just expressing that my mindset is different so it's just something I can't grasp. I often spend time grumbling about how Apple doesn't have their multi/user up to snuff and that the OS is still designed too much for one account that everyone uses. LOL

I hope you end up finding a solution that is workable for you.

Well, I'm the main user on the computer. My wife and kids don't use it enough to worry about. Plus, I bought my wife a MB Air a couple years ago, so she mainly uses that.

Since the photos issue was the only problem, I just have my wife on Photo Stream and I have my photos/vids uploading with Dropbox. Every few weeks, I'll import them to iPhoto. Works just fine. Not ideal, but not enough of an issue that I care.

I will say, video on the iPhone 6 Plus takes up a TON of space being 1080. I wish I could cut it down to 720.

 

[VSMacOne]

Looks like it's been mentioned in here but here's our setup:

1. Shared Apple ID used only for apps and iTunes Match
2. Separate iCloud accounts for each of our photos, backups. Each one is linked to an iPhone and MacBook.
3. 1 shared photo stream that we both add to.

I have yet to run into a situation where this setup is problematic.

 

[pectin232]

So did you turn of HandOFF? we are all curious

Even turning handoff to 'OFF' when phone A (A B C D under same ID) calls phone b phone C rings but not D. When Phone A gets call from someone 'Outside' A B C rings but not D. Settings for all 4 phone identical. Phone are used for visually impaired individuals. In ios 6 and 7 there was nothing of this nature. No we do not want to setup separately Apple IDs for the phones.