My husband surprised me with an iPad for my birthday, loaded with about 25 apps. However, those apps are now tied to his personal iTunes account on his MacBook, so when I go to sync the iPad with my own MacBook, my iTunes wants to override his apps with the apps that I had previously purchased for my iPhone. I don’t want to do this, so I haven’t synced my iPad yet. Ideally, I would like to merge his apps with my apps. Is there any way?
Yes. Any content that your husband purchased through the iTunes Store on his Mac or through the App Store on the iPad—apps, music, TV shows, and movies--can be stored on up to five authorized computers. Those five computers can then sync to any number of iPads or iPhones.
Each iTunes account can be authorized on up to five computers.
First, authorize your Mac with your husband’s iTunes account name and password. In iTunes, choose Store > Authorize Computer and type in his iTunes account information. Then you’ll need to copy his iPad apps onto your computer so that his apps and your apps can peacefully co-mingle in your own iTunes library. The easiest way to do this is to plug your iPad into your computer. If iTunes asks you if you want to overwrite your iPad with your own apps, decline that option for now (you’ll do that later).
Next, iTunes will ask you if you want to transfer your husband’s apps into your own iTunes library. Click the Transfer Purchases button, and all your husband’s apps will now be sitting alongside your own apps inside iTunes. You can verify this by clicking Apps in the sidebar of iTunes.
Click Transfer Purchases to bring purchased iTunes Store and App Store content onto your authorized Mac.
You can then sync your iPad once again, and iTunes will ask you if you want to overwrite your iPad with your apps. This time, you can allow that to happen because you’re now bringing over all of your apps--yours and your husband’s combined.
