two user accounts with two apple IDs???

[ayres]

hi all, so last year, i gave my dad my macbook pro... i wiped it clean, signed him in with his ID, added some pics to iphoto and music to itunes. simple, right? later, he took it to a computer tech to get help transferring over old files from his dell.

my dad's computer illiterate and probably misled the techs... they created a second user account, and added my apple ID in addition to his. it really messed everything up, as now, the app store wants to update iphoto for BOTH apple IDs (didn't know that was even possible). additionally, all his music is on one account and not the other, and one account has some iphoto pics, and the other account has different iphoto pics.

it's a mess. and i don't want my apple ID on his computer... so what do i do? it seems easiest to wipe it clean and start over, but i'm worried about losing some files - especially figuring out how to combine the two iphoto libraries.

thoughts?

 

[r0k]

hi all, so last year, i gave my dad my macbook pro... i wiped it clean, signed him in with his ID, added some pics to iphoto and music to itunes. simple, right? later, he took it to a computer tech to get help transferring over old files from his dell.

my dad's computer illiterate and probably misled the techs... they created a second user account, and added my apple ID in addition to his. it really messed everything up, as now, the app store wants to update iphoto for BOTH apple IDs (didn't know that was even possible). additionally, all his music is on one account and not the other, and one account has some iphoto pics, and the other account has different iphoto pics.

it's a mess. and i don't want my apple ID on his computer... so what do i do? it seems easiest to wipe it clean and start over, but i'm worried about losing some files - especially figuring out how to combine the two iphoto libraries.

thoughts?

Our family of four had this problem once with purchased items on the kids' machines and ipods. We finally decided it was time to strictly enforce one ID per user. In some cases, I have an app I want to only use once on my wife's machine and I will log in my account on her machine and use my apple id in the app store on her machine to download the app. This is perfectly legal as you own anything you buy in the app store and install it on any device(s) you log into (within reason).

I suggest you put your dad's apple id in and not yours when you set up his machine. If you find he is missing some content, you have the option to contact Apple and see if they will issue credits to his account since they were purchased on your account by accident. If you decide to visit and you want to run one of your apps or listen to some of your stuff, there is nothing wrong with logging into the app store from your account (NOT HIS ACCOUNT) on his Mac. Just make sure that his keychain contains nothing about your account and that if you do decide you want to log in to your apple id from his machine it is only done using a separate user account for you on his Mac.

 

[ayres]

thanks for the response...

as a matter of fact, i don't want my id on there AT ALL. i'm not sure why the techs added my apple id to his computer in the first place. and he surely has no idea.

its all very confusing. so should i just restore the computer? i'm not worried about lost purchases... he's barely purchased anything anyway. again, it's saving the two iphoto libraries from each user account and somehow combining them.