Tuesday, 29 November 2011

Back to tech things - use of iPhone and iCloud

Using one calendar among all family members

We have a complicated computer usage in our house. I have a Macbook, my wife has a MacBook, I have an iPhone and so does she. I also have an iPad. My son is about to get an iPhone, but he has a PC.

The problem is iCloud and synchronising. We have separate and different Apple IDs just as we have different MobileMe email addresses. This on the face of it means that her computer syncs (email, contacts and calendar, apps, books, etc) with her iPhone and mine syncs with my iPhone and iPad.

But what we need is to have one common family calendar, leaving separate mail accounts. So that anyone putting an entry in the family calendar could give notice to any one else. We will also have our son soon as a new iPhone user and we have to see how he will fit in - he has yet another Apple iD/MobileMe email address.

How to solve the problem?

How to get your own synchronised mail & contacts etc, but someone else's calendar? As a pre-requisite set up a calendar on what we will call the "master" machine, in my case my MacBook, and give it a new unique name.

Then this is how you do it on the second iPhone:

1 Go to Settings > iCloud > Account and enter your own Apple ID and password for your iCloud account, that will get things synchronising. (If you are coming from Mobile Me then go to iCloud.com and upgrade first)

2 But turn on syncing for everything except calendars.

3 Next go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account, and add the iCloud account of the person who will keep the "master" calendar.

4 Finally, go back to Settings > iCloud > Accounts and now select the "master" persons account name, then turn on Calendars and chose in the calendar app the unique calendar name you set up above on the "master" machine.

The calendar will sync to the "master" account, while your mail and contacts etc will sync to your personal one.

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