2 iPhones, 1 iTunes and a lot of confusion!

[davethackwell]

Hi,

I've spent a long time now online trying to find the answer to my question and although I've found some people asking the same sort of thing, I can't seem to find anyone in exactly the same situation as me. I would be very grateful if somebody could help me.

Situation:
My girlfriend is about to take on my iPhone 3G
I am about to buy the iPhone 3GS
We have one Mac

Issue:
We both want to use our iPhones with seperate apps, music, contacts, notes etc. but would like to be in a situation where we don't have to pay for music from iTunes twice if we happen to both want some of the same music. If this isn't possible easily or without fuss then we just want to be able to sync our iPhones to the same Mac without overwriting any of each others info.

Solutions:
Even with only one Mac there seem to be so many options available to us but I can't figure out which would be for the best. I can see the following:

1. Share the same Mac User Account and the same iTunes library with one iTunes login (I think this one will cause the most problems)

2. Share the same Mac User Account and the same iTunes library but use different iTunes logins (Might be ok?)

3. Share the same Mac User Account and same iTunes login but use different iTunes libraries.

4. Share the same Mac User Account, different iTunes login and different iTunes libraries (presumably this one would work completely fine but obviously wouldn't let us share apps/music)

5. Use two seperate Mac Accounts but use same iTunes login

6. Use two seperate Mac Accounts and seperate logins (presumably this one would work completely fine but obviously wouldn't let us share apps/music)

What I would like to be able to do:
1. Pay only once for the music and apps that we both want
2. Have different notes and contacts backed up to the Mac

I would very much appreciate peoples help on this. Maybe there are other people out there with more than one iPhone but only one computer that have been in the same situation as me.

Thanks

Dave

[Europa]

You can have different logins and separate iTunes accounts and share the music. When one person downloads a song, they need to drag it to the deskop and then place it in a music folder. The other person can then put that song in their iTunes library. You can copy and paste apps too, but once you sync, I think it will remove them since they weren't purchased under that account.

Because of that app syncing problem, I would just have separate computer logins but share the same iTunes account. You'll save money that way. Your contacts and notes will be tied to each individual phone, they won't be shared even if you use the same iTunes account.

[davethackwell]

Thanks very much Europa for your quick reply, I am glad that what I said made sense.

So as far as you know, I could set up different Mac Logins and therefore have completely seperate iTunes libraries but use the same iTunes account on both? Can you see any potential problems with this set up?

If I do what you say above, what is the best way of me getting some of the music from my current iTunes library into the new library that will be created when I set up my girlfriend's new Mac login? Presumably the copy & paste thing you described would work fine because we'll be using the same iTunes account?

Thanks

[flightmedic]

Thats what the wife and I do.

We have the same iTunes log in for us that way we can share apps.

We sync different apps, different playlists and different videos.

It seems to work.

We both have 32GB 3G S phones.

Jim