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iPadOS 16 and still no multiuser support :-( Why can’t we use one iPad inside a family, with each user having his/her own apps, settings, bookmarks and so on? (

iPadOS 16 and still no multiuser support :-( Why can’t we use one iPad inside a family, with each user having his/her own apps, settings, bookmarks and so on? (Ok I know, Apple needs to sell an iPad to each one of us :-) )

Melatonic 4y ago
Seriously. Ridiculous.
steve_adams_86 4y ago
I know enough families with multiple iPads that I’m assuming the answer is that it drives sales
- jclardy 4y ago
  100% at this point. A few years ago Apple introduced a classroom feature which is essentially a multi-user mode, only for education. It is already essentially built, they just have to enable it for general usage.
  - twoodfin 4y ago
    My understanding of the classroom feature is that it’s built around a classroom usage model: Hand out clean iPads in the morning, students sign in, collect them in the afternoon, wipe, repeat. It’s not designed for fast (enough) switching or maintaining “hot” data from multiple users simultaneously on the same iPad.
    - vlovich123 4y ago
      > It’s not designed for fast (enough) switching or maintaining “hot” data from multiple users simultaneously on the same iPad. I can’t see that being the reason. The HW difference between the iPad and Mac are minimal.
      - twoodfin 4y ago
        Sure, but the argument was that Classroom “already does this”. Not by Apple’s standards for such a feature, it doesn’t.
  - Gigachad 4y ago
    It's apparently not as fully functional as you'd expect. It's designed where apps will have their data all stored in the cloud and profiles act as just a single sign on where the apps will sync down the correct data depending on the signed in user. Especially important as users will be switching around between physical devices so it all has to be cloud storage anyway.
- Jemm 4y ago
  This is the answer to many of Apple's design choices
lostgame 4y ago
Another pretty brutal failure on Apple’s part. There’s literally no excuse for this beyond greed. Multi user support is a base level OS feature.
floydnoel 4y ago
iPad has had multi user support for quite a while, it is necessary for schools, etc. I set it up via Configurator 2. It isn’t difficult. Send me an email if you need help getting it working, happy to help!
- fnordpiglet 4y ago
  https://support.apple.com/guide/deployment/shared-ipad-overview-dep9a34c2ba2/web https://support.apple.com/guide/deployment/shared-ipad-overv...
- Tagbert 4y ago
  That really isn’t multi-user support though, is it? You are just doing rapid reinstalls with a new user profile, wiping the old profile each time. It seems like a pretty crude hack because profile support was not built into the first iOS.
robbiet480 4y ago
I know at least for mobile phones multi-user support is patent encumbered thanks to Nokia [1]. Maybe similar situation to how Apple wants to do it on iPad? They do have multi-user support for education only on iPad. 1: https://mspoweruser.com/nokias-patent-restricts-android-multiple-user-account-switching-to-tablets/ https://mspoweruser.com/nokias-patent-restricts-android-mult... EDIT: Bottom of article says Apple pays royalties to Nokia to use the patent so maybe they only want to do it for education to keep costs low?
- cmeacham98 4y ago
  That article is ancient. Current versions of Android support multiple users on phones as well (and have for several years).
  - Aachen 4y ago
    But did the patent expire or did manufacturers just pay royalties or hope Nokia doesn't enforce?
    - cmeacham98 4y ago
      The patent linked in the article was never even granted, it's been abandoned since 2009 (3 years before the article was even written). I suspect the author entirely made up the "patent issue" to write this blogspam-like garbage, and that Google's decision to initially restrict the feature to tablets had nothing to do with patents.
      - robbiet480 4y ago
        The article I linked sourced from TechCrunch at https://techcrunch.com/2012/10/29/why-android-jelly-bean-4-2s-multiple-user-account-switching-is-tablet-only-hint-nokia-patented-it-for-phones/ https://techcrunch.com/2012/10/29/why-android-jelly-bean-4-2...
        cmeacham98 4y ago
kcplate 4y ago
I get why folks would want this, but personally I kind of feel like it’s a personal device, akin to a mobile phone.
- Jedd 4y ago
  Android's had multi-user capabilities since v4.2 (2013-07). This doesn't mean that a 1:1 relationship between a person and their phone / tablet isn't the common configuration - I'm sure it is - but it's fair to say that 'the rest of the world' has had this feature for nearly a decade. As a sibling comment noted, Apple has developed this feature already in their 'the first hit is free' (aka the Education <sic>) version, so at this point it smells a lot like a plain old vanilla-flavoured marketing ploy.
  - Gigachad 4y ago
    I think the real answer is that Apple does not see Android tablets as real competition so they don't need to match Android feature for feature since someone considering an iPad will not consider a Samsung tablet a viable alternative.
    - kcplate 4y ago
      Just my opinion, but I have both apple and android Samsung tablets (use both for testing), The android tablets are simply not in the same ballpark in terms of quality and UX. So if I was Apple, I doubt I’d take the android tablet market seriously. Android mobile phones are viable alternatives but not the tablets.
      - Jedd 4y ago
        To be fair, that first statement conflates Samsung and Android, so the second half of your first line should be that Samsung tablets are not in the same class. Samsung's take on Android is, in my experience, dreadful.
- Gigachad 4y ago
  Personally I only use my ipad as a drawing tablet. I'd be perfectly happy to share it with family members if that didn't mean giving access to my entire apple account and notifications / IMs / Photos
harha 4y ago
This + the guest user would be amazing. My iPad's typically in the living room, if someone want's to quickly look up or show something, this would be ideal. The regular user would be great for the rest of my family, especially when traveling. We're just not going to get extra iPads for everyone for relatively low time spent on the device.

Melatonic 4y ago

Seriously. Ridiculous.

steve_adams_86 4y ago

I know enough families with multiple iPads that I’m assuming the answer is that it drives sales

jclardy 4y ago
100% at this point. A few years ago Apple introduced a classroom feature which is essentially a multi-user mode, only for education. It is already essentially built, they just have to enable it for general usage.
- twoodfin 4y ago
  My understanding of the classroom feature is that it’s built around a classroom usage model: Hand out clean iPads in the morning, students sign in, collect them in the afternoon, wipe, repeat. It’s not designed for fast (enough) switching or maintaining “hot” data from multiple users simultaneously on the same iPad.
  - vlovich123 4y ago
    > It’s not designed for fast (enough) switching or maintaining “hot” data from multiple users simultaneously on the same iPad. I can’t see that being the reason. The HW difference between the iPad and Mac are minimal.
    - twoodfin 4y ago
      Sure, but the argument was that Classroom “already does this”. Not by Apple’s standards for such a feature, it doesn’t.
- Gigachad 4y ago
  It's apparently not as fully functional as you'd expect. It's designed where apps will have their data all stored in the cloud and profiles act as just a single sign on where the apps will sync down the correct data depending on the signed in user. Especially important as users will be switching around between physical devices so it all has to be cloud storage anyway.
Jemm 4y ago
This is the answer to many of Apple's design choices

lostgame 4y ago

Another pretty brutal failure on Apple’s part. There’s literally no excuse for this beyond greed. Multi user support is a base level OS feature.

floydnoel 4y ago

iPad has had multi user support for quite a while, it is necessary for schools, etc. I set it up via Configurator 2. It isn’t difficult. Send me an email if you need help getting it working, happy to help!

fnordpiglet 4y ago
https://support.apple.com/guide/deployment/shared-ipad-overview-dep9a34c2ba2/web https://support.apple.com/guide/deployment/shared-ipad-overv...
Tagbert 4y ago
That really isn’t multi-user support though, is it? You are just doing rapid reinstalls with a new user profile, wiping the old profile each time. It seems like a pretty crude hack because profile support was not built into the first iOS.

robbiet480 4y ago

I know at least for mobile phones multi-user support is patent encumbered thanks to Nokia [1]. Maybe similar situation to how Apple wants to do it on iPad? They do have multi-user support for education only on iPad. 1: https://mspoweruser.com/nokias-patent-restricts-android-multiple-user-account-switching-to-tablets/ https://mspoweruser.com/nokias-patent-restricts-android-mult... EDIT: Bottom of article says Apple pays royalties to Nokia to use the patent so maybe they only want to do it for education to keep costs low?

cmeacham98 4y ago
That article is ancient. Current versions of Android support multiple users on phones as well (and have for several years).
- Aachen 4y ago
  But did the patent expire or did manufacturers just pay royalties or hope Nokia doesn't enforce?
  - cmeacham98 4y ago
    The patent linked in the article was never even granted, it's been abandoned since 2009 (3 years before the article was even written). I suspect the author entirely made up the "patent issue" to write this blogspam-like garbage, and that Google's decision to initially restrict the feature to tablets had nothing to do with patents.
    - robbiet480 4y ago
      The article I linked sourced from TechCrunch at https://techcrunch.com/2012/10/29/why-android-jelly-bean-4-2s-multiple-user-account-switching-is-tablet-only-hint-nokia-patented-it-for-phones/ https://techcrunch.com/2012/10/29/why-android-jelly-bean-4-2...
      - cmeacham98 4y ago

kcplate 4y ago

I get why folks would want this, but personally I kind of feel like it’s a personal device, akin to a mobile phone.

Jedd 4y ago
Android's had multi-user capabilities since v4.2 (2013-07). This doesn't mean that a 1:1 relationship between a person and their phone / tablet isn't the common configuration - I'm sure it is - but it's fair to say that 'the rest of the world' has had this feature for nearly a decade. As a sibling comment noted, Apple has developed this feature already in their 'the first hit is free' (aka the Education <sic>) version, so at this point it smells a lot like a plain old vanilla-flavoured marketing ploy.
- Gigachad 4y ago
  I think the real answer is that Apple does not see Android tablets as real competition so they don't need to match Android feature for feature since someone considering an iPad will not consider a Samsung tablet a viable alternative.
  - kcplate 4y ago
    Just my opinion, but I have both apple and android Samsung tablets (use both for testing), The android tablets are simply not in the same ballpark in terms of quality and UX. So if I was Apple, I doubt I’d take the android tablet market seriously. Android mobile phones are viable alternatives but not the tablets.
    - Jedd 4y ago
      To be fair, that first statement conflates Samsung and Android, so the second half of your first line should be that Samsung tablets are not in the same class. Samsung's take on Android is, in my experience, dreadful.
Gigachad 4y ago
Personally I only use my ipad as a drawing tablet. I'd be perfectly happy to share it with family members if that didn't mean giving access to my entire apple account and notifications / IMs / Photos

harha 4y ago

This + the guest user would be amazing. My iPad's typically in the living room, if someone want's to quickly look up or show something, this would be ideal. The regular user would be great for the rest of my family, especially when traveling. We're just not going to get extra iPads for everyone for relatively low time spent on the device.