How to use differing 'My Info' on iPhone/iPad

Question

Hi everyone,
I am using an iPhone and my wife an iPad. Both devices are set up using the same Apple ID in order to easily share App Store purchases and for iCloud as well. In Settings.app under Mail, Contacts, Calendars you can tell the device who you are by selecting your contact info under My Info. So I did select mine on the iPhone and my wife’s contact on the iPad. So far so good. But sometimes, and I haven’t quite found out how and why, this Info automatically changes!
It is always the last edited setting which propagates to the other device. So for example, if I set my info on the iPhone and afterwards my wife’s on the iPad I well end up with her info on my iPhone as well. It happens the other way around, too. I haven’t yet figured out how this happens. So it could be over the air or while syncing via USB which I sometimes do for faster device backups. It could also happen when using a specific app or service.
Maybe someone can shed some light on this? I’m sure that I could just use separate Apple IDs on both devices, but I’d rather not. Everything works and is easier to handle. Even FaceTime and iMessage support different Caller IDs when using the same Apple ID. So it’s only this little thing that’s left…
Thanks and hoping for a solution
Björn

Answer 1

Easy, no need to be harsh. I might not be a Level 9  Discussions user, but I’ve been an Apple Technician for more than a decade now. So believe me, I know what I’m talking about. Be it OS X Server or emptying the Trash. But even I come here from time to time to learn from others. Well, back to topic and being a little more specific:
The 'My Info' setting always belongs to the first iCloud account you add to an iOS device. In this account you create at least 1 contact, the one you will be using for 'My Info'. You then do the same on your other iOS device using NOT the same iCloud account, of course. You only need to enable contacts syncing in iCloud preferences for these primary accounts. From here on you can use differing 'My Info' on your 2 iOS devices without a problem.
But you may know that you can use more than one iCloud account at a time. Only the primary one will offer all iCloud options like Photostream. But what they all offer is contacts, calendars, etc. So if you intend (and I did) to share these 2 between your devices you can add them using a second iCloud account to both of your iOS devices. This makes it 3 accounts all in all. You could even go further and add another one just for 'Find my iPhone' if you like.
I would’ve used the built-in sharing of Calendar.app instead, but Contacts.app does not (yet) offer sharing contacts with others. That’s why I went with the third iCloud account as a secondary account to both iOS devices.
Apple of course recommends using just one Apple ID for everything to make it easier. But in some scenarios this just won’t cut it, which is even described in one of their support documents.
I hope that now you have an idea what I’ve done…
Good night
Björn
PS: It would be nice if people did not insist on being right. They too can sometimes learn something!