Two iTunes Accounts, One House

When we got our iPods, Ed and I set up separate iTunes accounts. It made sense, because while I like about 90% of the music he likes, he probably hates about 80% of the remaining stuff I listen to (he HATES 80's music, tolerates my jazz and we won't even talk about my choral music passion.)

Anyway, this wasn't such a big deal, we had separate accounts and we each were happy that way. When GameTeen and Chef got their nano and ip (Chef said it was too tiny to get the whole iPod moniker), the size limitations meant their libraries were housed in my account.

This worked out for quite a few years, until we got iPhones. For the most part, Ed championed the free app, and I actually started spending the money I'd placed in my iTunes account. We existed without complaint, until I bought a $15.00 app that Ed coveted.

GoSkyWatch, a fantastic astronomy application that allows you to point your phone at the sky and it tells you which constellation you are looking at. Fantastic app to have on camping trips.

Ed wanted it, and he wasn't about to spent that kind of money on it when I'd already done it. So we went along, one of us having an app that the other wanted, refusing to give Apple more money for something we already owned.

Then we got two iPads and it got worse, because we wanted more apps. Ed bought Garage Band for iPad and I wasn't spending money on it-even though I wanted it. I'd purchased Lego Harry Potter and Hipstamatic (and add on lenses) and he wanted those. We recently found a way to fix our dilemma:

We signed into iTunes with each other's accounts, authorized the machines (under the Store tab) and then selected 'purchased' from the Quick Links menu.

Now I have the apps from his account that I want and vice versa-and you can, too.

Here's a quick video I made to walk you through the process:




Then, if you need the visual cues, here's my front page in the iTunes store:

On the right, down the list of quick links, look for 'purchased'. Once you select it, this is what will appear:



You'll notice a 'download' or a cloud tab next to each app listed. This is important to note for the next step.

Now, I've logged into Ed's iTunes account:


You really can't tell at this point, so will skip to the screen that appears when I clicked 'purchased'.



Here's the difference, the apps are completely different. Again, iTunes will show downloaded or the cloud. Once you've entered the second account, just select the apps you'd like to add to your device, then select sync to add them to your queue.

Then, click on the device, in my case "Ring of Sauron" and run your sync again. You now have the apps you want on your iDevice.

Thankfully, Ed and I don't have to sulk that the other one has a cool app and our wallets don't get emptied as quick.

Apple states that this should only be done for iTunes accounts registered to the same address, but I know quite a few families who have multiple devices and accounts and they haven't figured this out, either.




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