Syncing multiple (4) iPhones to one iTunes account

[Kaphias]

So the whole family just got new iPhones for Christmas... Dad already had a iPhone 3G, so therefore he already has some apps. We've all been using the same iTunes account (one e-mail) for our computers, iPods, and his iPhone for many years now, and have built up a large collection of files. We'd like to continue to all share the same account and therefore be able to have access to the same apps. What I don't want is to have to have all the phones sync the same items, I'd like to be able to pick and choose what music and what apps to have on each phone. I've also read that having different contacts on each phone my be an issue.

As a note, I'll be leaving in just over a year for college and would consider starting my own account at that point. Are there any college students here who are using a parent's account? Is there any way to keep the music I bought on our current account and transfer it to my new one, if I decided to do so?

And keep it all legal, please. ;)

[Laura]

I've never shared an account with anyone so I am not sure about all of the intricacies. You could start by opting to manually manage your music/videos. This setting can be found by clicking on your iPhone on the iTunes sidebar, Summary>Options>Manually manage music and videos. That should keep your music /videos separate.

 

Apps are fairly straightforward, as you can check/uncheck which apps you want to put on the phone.

 

For contacts, you'll need to put each person's contacts under a different group in Address Book.

 

Then in iTunes, click on your phone>Info>Sync Address Book Contacts, and select which group goes to your phone. Although in my picture I should have selected "Selected groups," rather than "All Contacts."

 

Hope that helps with some of it!

[UnknownRemoval]

You should be able to create a separate playlist for each person and select all the songs you want and add them to your playlist. Then sync the playlist to your iPhone. Repeat for each phone.

[Guy]

You can separate all the music etc into different playlists, although I'm not sure if you can do this for videos.

 

You can use different users, and just have music/what have you saved in each persons individual 'My Music' folder, although you may end up with duplicates. That way you will only get your own music on your iPhone. This is what I'd recommend, it works fine for me + my family.

[jasignhagj]

Don't sync. When you connect the phones, cancel the first sync and uncheck all of the sync boxes. Then you can just drag what apps, music and videos you want to your phone.

[Kaphias]

One month follow-up: everything works perfectly. As we're all on separate computers, iTunes continues to act like we're using three different accounts, and we've had no issues with contacts, apps, music, etc. If I want to use an app my brother bought on his computer, I just get him to e-mail it to me, then I can use it too. Thanks everyone.

[jasignhagj]

Glad to hear it worked for you :thumbup: