Was iCloud to blame for this family's sad state of upheaval?

6/11/2015

I heard a very sad tale this week - about a family of Apple device users who, because of the incorrect setup of iCloud on their respective devices, is now in a terrible state of turmoil and upheaval.

When 'text' messages are not so private

One member of the household was involved in a very private set of communications with another person outside the family, using the Messages app on the iPhone - thinking that this was just 'texting' and that no-one else would see the 'texts'.

Unfortunately for that member of the household, other members of the family also received the very private replies on their own devices - revealing to them some disturbing information that was never intended for their eyes.

Bl**dy iCloud

The person telling me this story started with the words "Bl**dy iCloud!".

Too many times I hear this - that mis-directed iPhone Messages are interpreted as a deficiency of iCloud. This is then perpetuated as a reason to 'mistrust' iCloud.

What went wrong?

In fact, it is just that (unfortunately), this family's iCloud and iMessage setup was all wrong.

Instead of using separate Apple IDs when signing in to iMessage on each device, they have made the mistake of using a common 'family' Apple ID, shared by two or more members of the family.

To make matters worse, they had probably also signed in to iCloud using that same Apple ID on each of their devices.

This would mean that their iCloud setup would be a tangled mess, one that results in family members seeing (and perhaps deleting) each others' Contacts, and maybe seeing Calendar events that were not their own. (They may even have ended up seeing each others' passwords, and more.)

Have you made the same mistake with iCloud and Messages?

It's time to check your own iPhone, iPad and those of the rest of your family. Do you also have this iCloud confusion?

Please feel free to tell us about your iCloud woes below - or ask a question of iTandCoffee.

If you are in an iCloud mess, iTandCoffee specialises in helping families in this situation.

Contact Us for assistance - you can visit the iTandCoffee shop in Glen Iris, or we can come to you in Boroondara, Stonnington and surrounding suburbs.

Understanding iCloud - Get the FREE GUIDE

iTandCoffee has a fantastic, informative guide to iCloud, called 'Introduction to iCloud'. We are offering this guide for FREE for a limited time to iTandCoffee Club Members.

Visit The iTandCoffee Clubhouse to find out how to get this guide››

If you are not yet a member of The iTandCoffee Club, it only costs $30 year to gain access to great offers like this, as well as regular free/half-prices sessions, unlimited access to iTandCoffee's Handy Hint library, free videos of classes, slideshows of classes and more.

Find out more about The iTandCoffee Club here››

Or join our "Understanding and Using iCloud" class

Why not come along to the 'Understanding and Using iCloud' class at iTandCoffee on Friday 27th November, 10:00am - 12:00pm

Find out more and book here ››

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