Splitting iTunes accounts re ios 5 update advice!

lex

Hello,

I wonder if anyone can help. I'll try and include all the details, so please bear with me.

Situation
My family all use one Windows 7 pc, with 1 version of iTunes.
There are 2 iPhones that sync to this version of iTunes.
iTunes also syncs to the contacts in Outlook.
We both use the same version of outlook and the same profile to download our primary email (virginmedia account) and use rules to put it into separate folders.
We do both have separate iTunes accounts set up for purchases.

Problems

Whilst a lot of contacts are shared - we keep getting each others personal contacts downloaded from their iPhone - we'd like to keep these separate.
We get each others apps downloaded onto our phones and I have pages of apps I don't want but can't delete as I don't want to delete his apps when I resync, or they just reappear.
We are wary of upgrading to ios5 because I've heard from two distinctly separate pairs of people with similar set ups that they keep getting each others text messages having done the ios5 upgrade/cloud thing.
I'd like to start using the calendar function and syncing this to my phone as well - but I suspect we don't want to share a calendar either.

So the question is - what is the best way of going about this. I'm not worried about losing all his apps, or about having to reimport music to iTunes from pc.

So far the advice I've been given is to either
1) Set up different Outlook profiles so we have different calendar, contacts options and then sync that to the iPhones individually. However I think iTunes only syncs with the default profile, so we'd have to switch this over when we wanted to sync.
2) Or the alternative is to segment the pc and have different log ons, and two versions of iTunes installed.

Any advice greatly appreciated. I've searched forums for an answer, but haven't had much luck.

lex

jayme1

for the getting each others apps, when you connect an iPhone select it on the left and under the Apps tab you can select which apps will sync with that iPhone this is without deleting them from the computer.

also the recieving each other texts problem is if you sign into icloud with the same Apple ID and activate iMessage on both devices, since you both have separate Apple IDs you wouldn't receive each others iMessages.

I think the easiest solution would be to instead of syncing both your contacts and calendar into the joint pool in outlook on the computer, if you we to both use your own Apple IDs and sync your contacts and calendar with iCloud, your contacts and calendars would them be separate and not be affected by the other,
if you then need your contacts and calendar in outlook you can use the iCloud program to sync one of them.
Or you could just log into icloud.com and use it all there and just not use outlook anymore, if you both have your own web browsers (or use chrome user accounts) then you can both stay signed in at the same time so you don't have to keep signing in and out.

for your joint email account I would also not sync that through iTunes to the phones but instead set the phones up to get the mail via IMAP directly from virginmedia, IMAP keeps the email in sync so if you read a message on one device it reads it on them all.

if you both require your separate contacts and calendar on the computer and outlook then a separate user account is by far the easiest solution.

so to sum sync anything you want to keep separate to iCloud (contacts and calendar) if there is a contact.

before you start I would creat a backup of the contacts and calendar from outlook so you don't loose them if something goes wrong. and update them to iOS 5 one at a time.

I think the set up would go:
-sync and backup one phone,
-update to iOS 5
-follow the steps and sign in with the relevant Apple ID and turn on icloud,
-in the iCloud settings check that contacts and calendar sync is turned on, this should upload your contacts to icloud and you can check this by login into icloud.com on a computer,
-in itunes turn off any setting that make that phone sync with outlook, and also untick any apps you don't want syncing.
-add virginmedia email to the Mail app on the iphone (settings)
-repeat for the 2nd iphone.
-from then on everything would be separate but you can carry on syncing with one iTunes and not end up with each others stuff, and the virgin email would still be shared and you can both access it.

hope I've explained that well, it's a lot harder to explain written down than it is in my head.

althas

If you want to have totally seperate accounts on one PC you can easily do this

Just hold down SHIFT key when you double click itunes to open it. You are then presented with an option to create new account, use current etc. You can then each have your own

Just remember to hold the SHIFT down every time you open itunes to make sure you use your account