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My brain hurts...

by Tichy 14y ago

My brain hurts...

andrewmunsell 14y ago
It's a little easier to follow if you are going through the process and have something to look at. But yeah, it's needlessly confusing and complicated, but it does work. We have 4 iPhones and 2 iPads running this way.
arrrg 14y ago
It’s not complicated. The short version: Don’t set up your kids’ devices with your Apple account because that is going to sync everything. I think that is logical and obvious. Apple helpfully also provides the option in the setting to sign up with a different account just for purchases. Then not all the stuff but just purchases will be synced. I’m not sure how you can do it much easier. Suggestions? Sure, this is a pain and it should be easier, but I’m not sure how? (I’m also sure that not many people sign in with their accounts on their kids’ devices. Seriously. That’s just a weird thing to do.) Wouldn’t the most logical thing to do be to just not sign in with anything when you set up the device (I honestly don’t think kids need iCloud accounts for what they will be doing with an iPod touch) and then to try and find some way to sign up only for the store to get your purchases on the device?
- georgemcbay 14y ago
  The device should just natively support multiple profiles with a login system like newer versions of Android do and link everything to the profile and not the device. It would solve this issue as well as the many issues that arise when a family attempts to share an iPad. There are lots of reasons Apple may not want to do this (it is difficult to get right if not baked in from the start, it may result is less iPad sales, etc), but I think it is clearly the right thing to do for proper UX.
  - arrrg 14y ago
    How would that solve this issue? I don’t understand. This seems unrelated. Do you honestly want to tell me that first creating an account for the kids and then creating an separate account (you do not plan to use) just to get purchased apps on there is in any way, shape or form a simpler solution? Yes, Apple should support multiple accounts, but that’s unrelated to this problem.
    - georgemcbay 14y ago
      It would make the entire setup process more logical. While it may result in slightly more steps at initial setup time, it would bring clarity to the process, so you wouldn't be in the situation you are now where clearly many people are Doing It Wrong because Doing It Wrong is the easy path. Also, it makes it easier to undo the damage if you actually do go ahead and do it wrong, no need to do what amounts of a factory reset of the device to get to your desired state. Usually the best UX is the one which has less steps for the user, but in some situations that can be taken to an extreme which removes important clarity of what is actually happening from the user, and IMO Apple's current device setup system suffers from that.
      - arrrg 14y ago
        I completely disagree with you there. Multiple accounts are messy and add tons of complexity. They are anything but easy to understand. I think Apple needs to add them, but I always envisioned them as a pro feature. Throwing normal users into a multiple account setup process seems like a very bad idea to me. I’m also not sure how multiple account creation can prevent this specific failure in any way. Someone who is inclined to set up their kids’ devices with their own account will likely not doing anything different during the same step in a multiple account set up process.

My brain hurts...

by Tichy 14y ago

My brain hurts...

It's a little easier to follow if you are going through the process and have something to look at. But yeah, it's needlessly confusing and complicated, but it does work. We have 4 iPhones and 2 iPads running this way.

arrrg 14y ago

It’s not complicated. The short version: Don’t set up your kids’ devices with your Apple account because that is going to sync everything. I think that is logical and obvious. Apple helpfully also provides the option in the setting to sign up with a different account just for purchases. Then not all the stuff but just purchases will be synced. I’m not sure how you can do it much easier. Suggestions? Sure, this is a pain and it should be easier, but I’m not sure how? (I’m also sure that not many people sign in with their accounts on their kids’ devices. Seriously. That’s just a weird thing to do.) Wouldn’t the most logical thing to do be to just not sign in with anything when you set up the device (I honestly don’t think kids need iCloud accounts for what they will be doing with an iPod touch) and then to try and find some way to sign up only for the store to get your purchases on the device?

georgemcbay 14y ago
The device should just natively support multiple profiles with a login system like newer versions of Android do and link everything to the profile and not the device. It would solve this issue as well as the many issues that arise when a family attempts to share an iPad. There are lots of reasons Apple may not want to do this (it is difficult to get right if not baked in from the start, it may result is less iPad sales, etc), but I think it is clearly the right thing to do for proper UX.
- arrrg 14y ago
  How would that solve this issue? I don’t understand. This seems unrelated. Do you honestly want to tell me that first creating an account for the kids and then creating an separate account (you do not plan to use) just to get purchased apps on there is in any way, shape or form a simpler solution? Yes, Apple should support multiple accounts, but that’s unrelated to this problem.
  - georgemcbay 14y ago
    It would make the entire setup process more logical. While it may result in slightly more steps at initial setup time, it would bring clarity to the process, so you wouldn't be in the situation you are now where clearly many people are Doing It Wrong because Doing It Wrong is the easy path. Also, it makes it easier to undo the damage if you actually do go ahead and do it wrong, no need to do what amounts of a factory reset of the device to get to your desired state. Usually the best UX is the one which has less steps for the user, but in some situations that can be taken to an extreme which removes important clarity of what is actually happening from the user, and IMO Apple's current device setup system suffers from that.
    - arrrg 14y ago
      I completely disagree with you there. Multiple accounts are messy and add tons of complexity. They are anything but easy to understand. I think Apple needs to add them, but I always envisioned them as a pro feature. Throwing normal users into a multiple account setup process seems like a very bad idea to me. I’m also not sure how multiple account creation can prevent this specific failure in any way. Someone who is inclined to set up their kids’ devices with their own account will likely not doing anything different during the same step in a multiple account set up process.