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Splitting Appleid

My wife and I share an Appleid account but this increasingly causes confusion so that it is probably time to set up separate ones. My inclination is to set up new accounts for both of us (we have individual and group email addresses). However, I am concerned about losing data, shared services, etc. The following are some of the issues I have thought of so far.


  1. We share contacts, will it be possible to continue to do this so that either of us can update them?
  2. We also share Calendar, again, will it be possible to do this going forward or will we have to run two calendars and if so, can these be automatically synchronised?
  3. We use Outlook for Mac for emails and have several email accounts. My assumption is that we would still be able to view and operate these from our various devices but we would have to set up under each account.
  4. Where we share an iMac, MacBook, etc will we have to log in separately and set up our own bookmarks, passwords, etc on Safari? Is it possible to clone?
  5. is it possible to share other folders, such as photos?
  6. Where we share Kindle, Sonos sound system, etc I am assuming that we can continue to do this provided each Appleid is set up to use them


I'm sure there are other aspects we need to consider but any advice would be much appreciated

Colin’s iMac

Posted on Jul 24, 2023 3:17 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 24, 2023 3:44 PM

Let's see how many of those items this addresses: ;-)


This support article tells you how to create a new, non-child Apple ID = create an Apple Account. --> How to create a new Apple ID - Apple Support


Merging, splitting or transferring items between Apple accounts (IDs) is for the most part not officially supported. Read the links below for things you may need to do to transfer as much as is possible and to share some others.


Apps and media bought with one ID are permanently associated with that ID. Look into using Family Sharing to continue to be able to use items purchased with one Apple ID with other Apple IDs, and for some data sharing features.

- Family Sharing - What is Family Sharing? - Apple Support

- Set up Family Sharing - Set up Family Sharing - Apple Support


Share folders with iCloud Drive --> Share files and folders in iCloud Drive on iCloud.com - Apple Support


Read How to use Shared Albums in Photos on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac - Apple Support about how to share photos.


If you have signed into the first ID on a device then fortunately when you sign out of that ID, do not erase the device, then sign in with a different ID, it asks you in most cases if you wish to merge the data from the two IDs on your device (toggle the ones you want to on). Say yes and later delete individual items from the other ID that you do not want. Note, in https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254520976?answerId=258453435022#258453435022 a Community Specialist says, "you will not be able to transfer the meta data from one Apple ID to another. Once you switch to another Apple ID the information associated with the old Apple ID will be gone except for physical content on the device like photos and videos." Also turn off storage optimization before doing this. With Optimize Storage, smaller, space-saving photos and videos are kept on your device while all of your original, full-resolution versions are stored in iCloud. Make sure photo optimization is turned off. Manage your photo and video storage - Apple Support



Sign out of iCloud on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, or Mac --> Sign out of iCloud on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, or Mac - Apple Support


If another Apple ID is signed in you may need to enter the password for that ID to sign out of that ID first.


Click on this link to learn how to 'Sign in with your Apple ID' --> Sign in with your Apple ID - Apple Support


A bunch of the above is my standard post which usually involves an iPhone or iPad. The way I can think of doing this on a Mac might be similar and would involve setting up a separate computer user account for her. Then sign into the joint Apple ID so that second account is loaded with the things from the joint Apple ID, then sign out of that and sign into the new one and keep your fingers crossed that at this point it behaves like a mobile device.

Similar questions

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 24, 2023 3:44 PM in response to Ashburn247

Let's see how many of those items this addresses: ;-)


This support article tells you how to create a new, non-child Apple ID = create an Apple Account. --> How to create a new Apple ID - Apple Support


Merging, splitting or transferring items between Apple accounts (IDs) is for the most part not officially supported. Read the links below for things you may need to do to transfer as much as is possible and to share some others.


Apps and media bought with one ID are permanently associated with that ID. Look into using Family Sharing to continue to be able to use items purchased with one Apple ID with other Apple IDs, and for some data sharing features.

- Family Sharing - What is Family Sharing? - Apple Support

- Set up Family Sharing - Set up Family Sharing - Apple Support


Share folders with iCloud Drive --> Share files and folders in iCloud Drive on iCloud.com - Apple Support


Read How to use Shared Albums in Photos on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac - Apple Support about how to share photos.


If you have signed into the first ID on a device then fortunately when you sign out of that ID, do not erase the device, then sign in with a different ID, it asks you in most cases if you wish to merge the data from the two IDs on your device (toggle the ones you want to on). Say yes and later delete individual items from the other ID that you do not want. Note, in https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254520976?answerId=258453435022#258453435022 a Community Specialist says, "you will not be able to transfer the meta data from one Apple ID to another. Once you switch to another Apple ID the information associated with the old Apple ID will be gone except for physical content on the device like photos and videos." Also turn off storage optimization before doing this. With Optimize Storage, smaller, space-saving photos and videos are kept on your device while all of your original, full-resolution versions are stored in iCloud. Make sure photo optimization is turned off. Manage your photo and video storage - Apple Support



Sign out of iCloud on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, or Mac --> Sign out of iCloud on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, or Mac - Apple Support


If another Apple ID is signed in you may need to enter the password for that ID to sign out of that ID first.


Click on this link to learn how to 'Sign in with your Apple ID' --> Sign in with your Apple ID - Apple Support


A bunch of the above is my standard post which usually involves an iPhone or iPad. The way I can think of doing this on a Mac might be similar and would involve setting up a separate computer user account for her. Then sign into the joint Apple ID so that second account is loaded with the things from the joint Apple ID, then sign out of that and sign into the new one and keep your fingers crossed that at this point it behaves like a mobile device.

Jul 26, 2023 11:35 AM in response to Ashburn247

What is Family Sharing? - Apple Support

Contacts are not included in Family Sharing but you can use Airdrop to copy them one by one to another user. See: How to use AirDrop on your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support


I don't know a lot about calendar sharing since I don't use Calendar (such is my life) but it is mentioned in How to stop sharing your iPhone or iPad content - Apple Support


Splitting Appleid

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