“A year ago there were rumors that Apple was working on a way to merge Apple IDs, and Tim Cook was reported to have called someone who had complained about the problem and said ‘we are aware of this issue and are working on it,'” TJ Luoma reports for TUAW.
“Well, as the old saying goes, actions speak louder than words,” Luoma reports. “When I wrote about this a year ago, I noted that Apple’s AppleID FAQ said ‘At this time, Apple IDs cannot be consolidated.’ This led some people to speculate that Apple would be announcing a way to consolidate Apple IDs. Today that page says ‘Apple IDs cannot be merged.'”
Luoma reports, “Maybe Apple is still working on this, but a year has passed, a new version of iOS has been released, this problem has still not been addressed, and the only official word we have from Apple has changed from ‘This can’t be done yet’ to ‘This can’t be done.’ I think it is a much safer assumption to make that Apple either tried to figure out a way to do this and couldn’t make it work, or that Apple has simply given up because it had bigger things to worry about. Either way, don’t hold your breath.”
Read more in the full article here.
just make a new email address and change your apple ID to that
otherwise iOS 6 is annoying in the regard that apple listened to the tech retarts about syncing imessages to all your devices. my wife and i share the same apple ID and i had to make sure her phone didn’t receive my texts and vice versa
We have seven iPhone/iPad/Mac users in my household. We all share one iTunes email address for purchasing movies, apps, music, etc.
We each have our own iCloud email address for syncing messages, mail, notes, full iCloud backups, etc. Each of us has multiple devices synced with personal information between them, but which is not shared with devices of others.
That is how to do it.
it was a huge PITA because when i set up my wife’s iphone 5 by default the imessage setting is to receive all texts on all phone numbers associated with an apple ID
how retarted is that?
and same thing with gamecenter. seems like each gamecenter log in is linked to a single Apple ID
You SHOULD share the same apple ID. But you should each select your own iCloud ID. That gives you user distinction between you and your wife.
You both should have the common apple ID in you App Store and ITunes Store setting. Under iCloud, select your own iCloud ID. It’s iCloud that controls syncing not your apple ID.
Then, on all your devices you use your iCloud ID. And your wife uses her iCloud if on her device. No one sees each others email, contacts, calendars, texts, etc.
Apple should make it possible to merge Apple ID’s. However, I know many people who have multiple Apple ID’s and don’t even know it. Theycreated this mess, not Apple!
Wrong, Omalansky. Apple® created mess. You’re not new around here, are you? Remember iTools? Back then, there were reasons people may have signed up for multiple accounts which they used for different purposes. No mess. Just logical uses of Apple’s free services.
Then they converted to paid accounts. They wanted to keep the multiple email addresses/accounts they had already been using for specific purposes. Now, they’re paying. Apple should be happy. Still, users hadn’t a clue something worse was on the horizon.
Now, those kept, encouraged, PAID FOR (Apple® should be happy for the money!), accounts got things attached to them. Different things. Not the users fault in the beginning for now knowing how things would unfold.
Merging accounts seems quite sensible. Why hasn’t Apple® figured this out yet?? Apple® made the changes, not the people with multiple ID’s. The solution should be simple.
Why hasn’t Apple® done it yet??
I think this is an issue. When I couldn’t log onto Apple Technical Support and complained about it, I discovered I had two Apple ID’s. One has ***@mac.com, the other just ***. I don’t need two but I can neither merge them nor terminate one of them. I just have to remember never to use one of them. Buy apps with disparate accounts. That is a real joy when it comes to updating.
Same with me. One ID is not an email address, but rather my User Screen Name in iTunes. Apple created it, yet they tell me there’s nothing they can do about it. Before I realized there were 2 ID’s, I purchased apps on both accounts. It’s been a PITA ever since.
Clarification: I did not create the 2nd ID. Apple acknowledges the problem, however, in their own words, their system doesn’t have the flexibility to merge account information. Amazing that the most sophisticated tech company in the world can’t merge ID’s. Amazing.
+1!
Alent1234, just because you’re a “Retard” doesn’t mean Apple is. My wife, my kids and myself all use our own iTunes accounts & guess what? No problems either! If you’re too cheap to pay for sponge & apps don’t blame Apple.
I don’t see how you could “accidently” create yourself two accounts either Jeffro.
Don’t cry because Apple doesn’t fix your airheadedness people, please.
i guess reading comprehension is not your strength
+1
Maybe the content industry said no way — to music and video transfers.
Spot on.. The record labels and film studios have to sign off on that… And that is info direct from a friend in upper mgmt at a major label.. The execs are not exactly for it and have yet to sign off on it.. Nor are they apparently willing to.
I prepaid for an iPhone 5 using my shared account with my wife, and they almost would not give it to me because I was not her. Lucky I used a credit card in my name! What a mess!
Have any of you looked at the newest Apple TV update? It allows you to have more than one AppleID registered and immediate rotating between accounts. It could be that this is a test of a system to help alleviate (albeit not fix) this situation… It has assisted my family as we have one Apple ID for US Movies and Music and one Apple ID for Japanese Music and Movies.
Has anyone figured out how to take a alias and make it into its own icloud account?
… back in .mac, my wife and I had one account as it cost us $100/year. Then we each had an alias. We used rules to put our individual emails into separate folders.
Now that .mac/mobileme is free we have the same account with the aliases. It would be slick to have them separate so that we can not create a new icloud account for each of us. there are features like “find my friends” and the ios6 stuff that people are talking about that would be nice to use.