multiple apple IDs

[basildonbond]

somehow I've ended up with 3 apple IDs ... I think I forgot I'd got one and made another then got given another with mobileme - two of them have got lots of apps and music on

I've just got a new computer (old one burgled) and am going through the slow business of downloading them all again for both IDs

however, when I try to sync my ipad it tells me I can only put stuff on from one itunes library - surely that can't be right, can it??

and why on earth can't I just merge all three IDs??

This might help, I think you can just sign in and change it

support.apple.com/kb/HE40

"This might help, I think you can just sign in and change it"

That will change the name for an Apple ID but it won't merge separate IDs into one account. Apple are meant to be working on it, but right now I don't think there's a way around it.

What you can certainly do with music purchases is just move them all into the same iTunes library and sync them from there. There's no security on music that limits the song to be played by just the account that bought it (well tell a slight lie, there used to be, but it was dropped a few years ago).

Apps I'm not so sure about...

thanks badgers - sorry to be so technologically dim but how do you move stuff into the same itunes library?

When you run up iTunes on your computer is all of your stuff in there?

If not where is the stuff that is missing?

"There's no security on music that limits the song to be played by just the account that bought it (well tell a slight lie, there used to be, but it was dropped a few years ago)."

Do you mean there's no security on music bought now or that all music can now be played by any account? Because I have a song that was bought on DH's account, which I copied, and I can play it on my Mac but I cant sync it onto my iPhone or iPad, as it says it's 'not authorised for this device'

"Do you mean there's no security on music bought now or that all music can now be played by any account?"

There's no security on the music that's been bought from iTunes within the last couple of years. You can pop it onto any MP4 player and it will work even though it knows nothing about your iTunes account.

However maybe iTunes is still going to try to play silly s*ds.

So on your Mac and in your iTunes you can play the song but it won't sync when you connect the iPod?

Does anything sync from your Mac and your iTunes to the iPod?

Yes, it will play on my Mac, but when I sync my iPhone and iPad I get a popup - I forget the exact wording but it's something like 'this track was not synced because you are not authorised to play it on this device' Presumably I could get around it by authorising my iPad and iPhone on DH's account, but it's only one track and it would probably cause more than 99p worth of bother

Mmmm.

You could try authorising your Mac against both iTunes accounts and that might get the song to transfer.