

How many Apple accounts do you have to remember? - Luyt
http://rachelbythebay.com/w/2012/03/16/appleid/

======
keeran
I have one account for all this stuff. I thought this was going to be a post
about how everyone else is getting it wrong :)

------
bobbles
Isnt this just the user creating multiple accounts for something they didnt
have to?

I mean all this stuff would work with just one account right?

~~~
rbnio
Many people didn't really have a choice. MobileMe Accounts (@me.com email
addresses) were automatically set up as a new Apple ID - even if the user
already had an existing Apple ID for the iTunes Store.

When iCloud was introduced, anyone who wanted to keep their old @me.com email
address, also had to keep the second Apple ID.

------
nacs
This is silly. I have one Apple account that I've used for everything from
iTunes logins to Appstore login to the iPhone developer account..

~~~
tricolon
I've only recently begun to use one canonical email address, so I'm in the
same boat as the author. By now, though, I can remember which one to use when.

------
scg
I'm on the same boat as the author but mostly because I've lived in 3
different countries in the last 2 years, and had to register for iTunes with 3
different credit card locations.

My iPhone has apps and Audiobooks from all these 3 accounts and I cannot
reliably keep them updated, sync-ed, and backed up with iTunes. It's a mess
and it keeps me from using the iCloud services properly.

The iTunes & App Store experience is great for mainstream use cases but
painful if your situation deviates from the norm.

------
benohear
I have a similar problem with Google - all my analytics accounts are linked to
my pro email address, and my gmail is with, er, my gmail address. So I spend
the day logging in and out. Would love to be able to consolidate the two.

~~~
wazoox
Google allows for multiple logins. I have one pro gmail account and one
personal, and I'm signed on in both at the same time, all day. From time to
time I get logged off of one or another, but it works quite well overall.

~~~
tuacker
This just seems to be cookies that expire. Even with one account you have to
sign in again once every blue moon.

------
unkoman
I have one US, Japanese, Swedish and UK account. Buying music legally has
never been harder, especially since I have to have credit cards that are
registered in those countries too.

------
pragmatic
Cue comments about how obviously this problem could be avoided and this person
is doing something wrong.

Never mind her explanation of how this happened and how it's a real problem
and how real users (far less technical than the author) could run into
problems.

This is a mess that happens with most companies that have been in business for
a while (Microsoft, Google, Apple) and their various id schemes + services
over time.

It's a real problem Apple could solve.

~~~
tammer
Indeed... In fact the _only_ problems I've ever heard anyone have with an
iDevices were issues with updating (solved by OTA iCloud updates) and account
issues. A page that's both comprehensive and simple that lets you manage your
account(s) seems to be something they've skipped over, or at least haven't
rolled out yet.

------
wazoox
I have none. I have no itunes account, and no appstore account. That means
that I can't use any of these apps and that's exactly how I want it to do.
iTunes stopped being vaguely usable around OS X 10.4, FWIW. The AppStore may
be nice enough to use, but is probably not worth the deal for me; Apple has no
business knowing anything about me. As I don't like what's coming with OS X
anyway, sooner or later I'll jump ships for good.

~~~
bruceboughton
I fail to see how you not wanting to use iTunes has any relevance to the
problem of joining up multiple accounts.

~~~
wazoox
That's the way I solved this particular problem. No iTunes -> no account -> no
problem. As I don't like what Apple products are becoming, I advise people to
choose this solution. Haters (fanbois) gonna hate, etc.

------
herval
I have three: one linked to my credit card (that only works in Brazil), one
with itunes credits on the american store (to buy games) and a third one for
ios development (using my company's email).

Used to have a third one back on the mobileme days, but have no idea of what
happened to it...

------
mackyinc
I have one for iTunes, I have never needed another one.

------
jasonlotito
I have two out of necessity. One for my Canadian iTunes account, the other for
my American. I no longer use my Canadian one as I live in the us now. However,
if I want to update apps purchased from my Canadian account, I have to switch.
This is painful. Switching means settings like match get switched off and
aren't turned back on when I move back over. It means syncing gets disabled.
It means if I switch before other downloads are finished, apps are stuck in a
half state of downloading but having stopped. I have to delete them and
download the again. The app store icon will of course show me how many apps
need updating across all my accounts. However, I can't use the update all
button because I'll be asked to log in with the right account. As mentioned
before logging in to another account while apps in the previous account are
downloading will usually cause problems. Logging in is painful as well. After
logging in with a new account, it doesn't just log you in. No. It tells you
your apps is associated with a different store, despite being on the update
page, and whisks you off to some other location, which then needs to load
before becoming responsive again before you can go back to the update page
again. There, you staart the whole thing over again.

On the other hand, Steam doesn't care and works just fine.

~~~
tuananh
Wait, why did you create US account at the first place!? You can change the
country and the payment info right?

~~~
jasonlotito
US app store has a greater selection then the Canadian app store in apps,
music, movies, etc.

------
hackermom
I have two: my ITMS account - which is also used for iCloud/AppStore etc. -
and my ADC account. Not sure what else is needed, because from 7 years of
being an OS X user nothing else has sprung up.

------
robwgibbons
MobileMe is dead. Go to me.com/move to transition your account to iCloud and
avoid this headache.

