Switching an Apple ID on an iPad without losing data?

Forums › Apple iOS and devices › Switching an Apple ID on an iPad without losing data?

CutCutCut

1039 posts

Uber Geek

#245633 14-Feb-2019 10:07

So I'm not an apple user. I have no apple products in my house except for an iPad which we got for my eldest child last year as that is what they were using at school BYOD. So I set up an apple ID, but all in my name etc. Now we've just been delivered iPad number 2 for child number 2 for school, and I realise that setting that up using the same apple ID is not really ideal. So I've created some child accounts for the both of them linked to my apple ID. Setting up the new iPad with this should be fine, but I want to switch the first iPad apple ID from mine to one of the child accounts. My eldest child is very worried about losing game and app data when I do this, I've been looking online and it seems that everything should be ok, but I've found various guides on doing this and they all seem to be slightly different. I'm wondering if somebody more familiar with the iPad and Apple has done this before, and how to I ensure he doesn't loose his app data when I switch from one ID to the other?

PhantomNVD

2619 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#2178199 14-Feb-2019 11:22

No data would be lost, though her access to ‘your’ iCloud and game CENTER data would be lost. Apps and app locally stored data will remain.

If they are setup as child accounts with ‘your’ main AppleIF being the adult, family sharing should take care of all app updates... though it may occasionally prompt you for your iCloud password if that device has apps that want updates but don’t support family sharing. (Google family sharing for details on that?)

Check ‘Your’ gamecenter account to see if the games she uses use it for their scorekeeping, this will be the only issue aside from iCloud storage

CutCutCut

1039 posts

Uber Geek

#2178204 14-Feb-2019 11:29

Ahh ok, I'll check the gamecenter stuff. I'm a little foggy as to what is exactly on the icloud, I know there were too many photos to backup to the free 5GB so i turned the photo option off, as there were all going to his google photos anyway. Is the icloud just a backup or is it possible that some data lives on there instead of the iPad? I do remember seeing somewhere that anything on the iCloud would be deleted from the iPad. Perhaps I'm better to turn iCloud off completely before signing out of the old ID?

coffeebaron

6231 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2178212 14-Feb-2019 11:50

Is the ID that is under your email been basically exclusively your child's? If so, you should be able to change the email address for that Apple ID, thus changing the Apple ID, but it still being the original one. You'd then make sure you removed your email address from that account so you could create a new Apple ID with original email address for you.

For future readers of this thread: when setting up Apple accounts for kids, never use your own email. Always set them up with their own personal email address (which can just be an alias for your own email box). Saves future pain of separating out an Apple ID later, and all the complaints of why am I getting so and so's text messages etc.

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CutCutCut

1039 posts

Uber Geek

#2178217 14-Feb-2019 12:01

Basically yes. I guess I could try doing it that way. I have now setup the family sharing thing with my apple ID as the organiser or whatever they call it. Very good advice to setup as you say, being not too familiar with the workings of the Apple ecosystem I've had to learn as I go. I think I've just discovered another hurdle. I have no apple device or computer myself, but the icloud for windows is mentioned on Apples website in regards to family sharing but I've just discovered that it looks like you can't actually use that for managing anything. I was hoping I could use that to accept app installs etc, but it looks like you need a mac or idevice to do that. Sigh.