Apple One will manage users with multiple Apple IDs, but questions remain
The newly announced Apple One services bundle could manage users who have multiple Apple IDs for different services, but the exact details of the support are still unclear.
Credit: Apple
Initially, the iTunes Stores and Apple's cloud services were managed separately. Because of that, users may have different IDs attached to their iCloud and Apple services like Apple Music.
> One such person is Microsoft Senior Cloud Advocate Christina Warren, who brought up the issue in a Tweet on Sept. 15. A day later, Apple's Chris Espinosa responded simply that Apple One "manages that," adding that he double-checked.
Espinosa was one of Apple's first employees and helped pioneer the Family sharing feature, which deals with multiple Apple IDs. Of course, Espinosa's answer was fairly short on detail, so it isn't entirely clear what he means just yet.
Some Apple One tier, by their nature as a shared service, will allow support for multiple Apple IDs. Whether or not Apple will allow multiple IDs to be consolidated into a single account, or whether they'll take up additional "slots" on an Apple One plan, remains to be seen.
Apple One -- announced at Apple's "Time Flies" event -- bundles various Apple services together at different but lower price tiers, allowing users to save money on multiple subscriptions.
Credit: Apple
Initially, the iTunes Stores and Apple's cloud services were managed separately. Because of that, users may have different IDs attached to their iCloud and Apple services like Apple Music.
> One such person is Microsoft Senior Cloud Advocate Christina Warren, who brought up the issue in a Tweet on Sept. 15. A day later, Apple's Chris Espinosa responded simply that Apple One "manages that," adding that he double-checked.
It manages that. I just double-checked.
-- Chris Espinosa (@cdespinosa)
Espinosa was one of Apple's first employees and helped pioneer the Family sharing feature, which deals with multiple Apple IDs. Of course, Espinosa's answer was fairly short on detail, so it isn't entirely clear what he means just yet.
Some Apple One tier, by their nature as a shared service, will allow support for multiple Apple IDs. Whether or not Apple will allow multiple IDs to be consolidated into a single account, or whether they'll take up additional "slots" on an Apple One plan, remains to be seen.
Apple One -- announced at Apple's "Time Flies" event -- bundles various Apple services together at different but lower price tiers, allowing users to save money on multiple subscriptions.
Comments
The problem I run into is regarding the requirement for the same credit card on a Family Share account. I was considering adding my adult daughter and my in-laws to the Family Share, but everyone wants the freedom to manage their own payments for the music, books, and apps they want separately because they don't want me paying for everything (aren't they nice?), and dealing with reimbursement is a bother. Now that the Apple One bundles are coming, I'll have to think a little more about this.
It also meant I could add my Calendar and Contacts to my work machine where the policy is that the company controls what software is installed and how it is licensed.
For a long time this was made even better by the fact the email and account ID did not need to match so my ID for one account was a long defunct email address making breaking that account that much more difficult.
Min Family Sharing, you can’t buy anything with your own credit card, you have to use the organiser’s. When you leave the family, you need to re-purchase everything that were shared. It not sharing, it’s just a deferred payment.
Mulitple Apple IDs? from multiple countries please!
I always wonder with each release of a new service, will I be locked out of using it because I have two IDs?
I would love to end this nightmare of tangled IDs.
I noticed recently when I was doing some tweaking on my wife's computer that I could add a second credit card to her payment options for her Apple ID (using Family sharing). I did not have time to delve farthing into it. Can one set a default card? Does it give you the option to choose which card with each transaction?
Anyone else have experience with that?
Thanks,
While it's true that you can have several payment methods for Apple ID, on Family Share accounts, all purchases only go to the one card that is set by the Family Organizer as default. The default can be changed by the Organizer, but it is always only just the one default that all individual purchases get charged, with no choice by individuals to change it. HOWEVER, if an individual has "money" in their Apple ID balance, that will be used first, before the Organizer gets charged. So there is a way for individuals to pay for their own stuff*. Individuals can add to the balance either by use of an Apple gift card or by adding money with the method described here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208687 (I haven't tested the "add money" method, so I can only assume that the individual will be prompted to choose their own payment card). As the Discussion post states, if the individual's balance is depleted, then the charge goes to the Organizer...
*There is another "however" here: Subscriptions like iCloud Storage and Apple Music are always paid for by the Organizer. Since these new bundles are all subscribed services, looks like I'd be on the hook for those. Oh well. So how nice am I?
Here are the criteria (as of 2016) for having all three addresses: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201771
There are two ways to sign into iCloud, using the iCloud address and using the Apple ID associated with your iCloud account. In my case, my Apple ID is my Mac.com address, but the "primary email" used for notifications is the me.com address. I'm sorry, but I'm unwilling to experiment with changing those settings, since everything works perfectly for me in a home with multiple Mac/me/iCloud accounts used for different purposes.
https://appleid.apple.com/
The support page is here:
https://support.apple.com/apple-id
The point of this AI article is that some of these things, which have been stable since 2012, may be changing with Apple One, especially with regard to iCloud. It should all work seamlessly, but you never know. I know in my case I have multiple iCloud accounts that I pay for increased storage on, and obviously I'd like to consolidate them all into "One" ...