Divergent Thought

         by Josh Barfield

With the release of iCloud and the potential it provides there is a lot of confusion about how to set everything up in a multi-account environment. I’m going to detail how we plan to configure everything for our devices and what we expect the outcome to be.

First, a few details. iCloud allows server side storage and synchronization for many items. Those include:

• Mail – (provided @me.com address – not your existing email)
• Contacts
• Calendars
• Reminders
• Bookmarks
• Notes
• Photo Stream
• Documents & Data
• Find My [Device]
• Storage & Backup

The scenario:

We have one central Mac that all of our devices sync with. We have an iPad 2. I have an iPhone 4 and my wife, Sandi has an iPhone 3GS. Her 3GS currently syncs with her own user account and iTunes account (Apple ID) on our Mac. I exclusively use my iPhone, so I want all of the syncing on it to be around my account. She exclusively uses her iPhone, so she wants all of the syncing on it to be around her account. We both use the iPad but she uses it more than I do. I would like some things synced to it but other things should be synced with her account such as calendar and contacts. We are alright with using two separate Apple IDs for purchases – you can always authorize one account for the other device to share apps and avoid multiple purchases. This way her apps stay with her device unless I want to share. We don’t care about sharing photos via Photo Stream. In fact, I will likely not use it. I want Find My [Device] to be under the same account for all devices for easy access.

The solution:

First I’m going to define an iCloud master account. The master account is the one configured in Settings -> iCloud on your iDevice. The master account must sync Photo Stream, Documents & Data, and Storage & Backup. Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Bookmarks, Notes, and Find My [Device] are all optional. They can sync with the master account or with a second iCloud account.

I will configure my iPhone with my Apple ID and my iCloud account. This iCloud account will be the “master” account. Since I am using the master iCloud account for all of my syncing, that’s all I need to do for my iPhone.

Sandi’s iPhone will be configured with her Apple ID and with her own iCloud account. We want her data only syncing with herself, so there is no need to use the previous master iCloud account on this device. That’s all she needs for her iPhone

The iPad will be configured my Apple ID and with the master iCloud account and set to sync Documents & Data, Storage & Backup, and Find My [Device]. Photo Stream will be turned off because I’m not using it. We will then add another iCloud account to the iPad via the Mail settings. This will be Sandi’s iCloud account. Her iCloud account will be configured to sync Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Bookmarks, and Notes. These will sync with the cloud and with her iPhone, and will not sync with my iPhone.

Lastly we will want to share a few calendars between accounts. From either account we can create a calendar on iCloud and then share it with another iCloud user. This makes the calendar show on all devices and just like that we’re connected.

There are obviously many different ways to approach device syncing and accounts  but I believe this will be the smoothest for our uses. I’m really looking forward to the ease of connectivity that this software is going to provide!