How To Backup My Iphone 5 On Itunes

Can I Put Multiple iTunes Accounts on My iPhone?

By Matt Skaggs

i Justin Sullivan/Getty Images News/Getty Images

The iPhone supports countless useful apps, and one of the best known is iTunes. This app works in tandem with your computer's iTunes program and with your iTunes account. Although it isn't exactly possible to put multiple iTunes accounts on your iPhone, you can sync media from multiple accounts to one iPhone, which is almost the same thing.

iTunes on the iPhone

The iTunes app is integrated closely with the iPhone, allowing you to quickly and easily access your music, videos and account information. You can purchase and download media onto your phone using the 3G network or wireless networks. If you have media on a computer with iTunes, you can sync it by connecting the iPhone to the computer with a USB cord. The iTunes Store integrates seamlessly with Apple products, and if you have an iTunes account, Apple has streamlined the process of accessing and using it on the iPhone.

Multiple iTunes Accounts

When different people buy music or movies in iTunes, usually each person is the only one who can sync that content up with an iPhone. This protects the copyright holder from misuse of their media. However, there are plenty of cases when people want to access other people's media for perfectly innocent reasons, such as family members who want to share music with each other. Apple does have an option for syncing media from different accounts onto a single Apple device, such as the iPhone. Technically, you can't put multiple iTunes accounts on your iPhone, but Apple's additional syncing options result in the same effect: You have content from different accounts on one iPhone.

Authorized Computers

The system for syncing multiple iTunes accounts to one iPhone involves authorizing computers with iTunes. When you authorize a computer, you're listing it as a system indefinitely associated with your account, meaning you can listen to your content on that computer, burn up to seven CDs of that content and sync to an unlimited number of iPods or iPhones. You can only authorize five computers, but if you reach that limit, you can always "deauthorize" computers.

All you have to do to authorize a computer is click the "Store" menu at the top of iTunes, click "Sign In" and provide your user name and password, then click "Store" again and finally select "Authorize This Computer." Then you can sync your media with an iPhone, and anyone else who authorizes his account with that computer can sync his content with that same iPhone.

iTunes Multiple Account Access on an iPhone

Another option for accessing different accounts on an iPhone is to simply log out the current account and log into another account. The current account is either the account last logged into or the account last synced with iTunes on a computer. If you want to change accounts, just select "Settings" from the Home screen, then "Store" and then "Sign Out." When the sign-out process has completed, just click the new "Sign In" button and supply the user name and password to access that second iTunes account. This will not give you access to that account's media, however; you have to sync that from a computer.

References

Writer Bio

A lover of technology in all forms, Matt Skaggs began writing professionally in 2010, specializing in Windows computers and Android devices. His writing has appeared on many websites providing a plethora of technology information and tutorials. In 2008 Skaggs graduated from Bob Jones University with a Bachelor of Arts in humanities.