HT204150 Sharing the same iTunes, Apple ID and iCloud accounts.

Question

Hi
My wife and I share the same Itunes , Apple Id and Icloud accounts.
How do we keep our contacts seperate, when we open up or back up on I cloud?
As we both have I phones, I would like to keep all my work contacts seperate from hers. Also I don't wish to have her contacts loaded on my phone and vice verser.
Will it mean the I will have to get a seperate apple ID and seperate Icloud account.
Problem is that all our music and photos are on the one Library, because we didn't have two Iphones before, it didn't matter.
We would like to keep the same Itunes library to access music and photos, but like to keep everything else seperate.
Can you please help.
Regards
shervhall

Answer 1

You can continue to share the same ID for purchasing from the iTunes and App stores (your iTunes account/library), but you need to have separate iCloud accounts with separate IDs to prevent merged data such as contacts.  (You aren't required to use the same ID for purchasing as you do for other services such as iCloud, iMesage, FaceTime, etc.)  The only issue is that photo stream is tied to the iCloud account so when you separate your accounts, you will no longer be sharing the same photo stream.  You can still send each other shared photo streams in order to share each other's photos, but they wouldn't be part of the same photo stream.
To separate your iCloud accounts, on the device that will be changing accounts, go to Settings>iCloud and turn all data that is syncing with iCloud (contacts, calendars, etc.) to Off.  When prompted choose to keep the data on the device.  (If you are syncing iWork documents with iCloud, also open your iWork apps and turn off iCloud syncing and choose to keep the documents on your device.)  After everything is turned off, scroll to the bottom and tap Delete Account.  (This will only delete the account from this phone, not from iCloud.  The device that will be keeping the existing account will not be effected by this.)  Next, set up a new iCloud account on this device using a different Apple ID and turn iCloud data syncing for contacts, etc. back to On.  When prompted, choose Merge.  This will upload the data to this new account.  At this point you will have two different iCloud accounts, one for each phone, with identical data on them.
You will then have to go to icloud.com on your computer and sign into each iCloud account separately and manually delete the unwanted data (such as deleting the other wife's contacts from your account, and vice versa).  These changes will be reflected on each phone.  When finished you will have individual iCloud accounts with just your own data on them.
To avoid getting each other's text messages and FaceTime calls you also need to use separate IDs for iMessage and FaceTime.  To change the ID for iMessage on one of the devices, go to Settings>Messages>Send & Receive, tap the ID, sign out, then sign in with a separate ID (such as the new iCloud ID).  To change the ID for FaceTime on this device, do the same thing in Settings>FaceTime.