Q: My kids each have their own iPod touch. They both have seperate user accounts for their iPods but they share the same iTunes Store account. Is there a way to separate one of these off this account onto their own seperate account without losing all of the purchased music?
– Renee
A: You can certainly do this, and it’s actually very easy. Simply set up an additional iTunes Store account under one of the two user accounts on your computer and have that person use that iTunes Store account instead of the original one. Any music that was previously purchased under the old iTunes Store account will continue to work without any problems as long as you don’t specifically DEauthorize the computer for that account.
Basically, any given iPod can store and play content from up to five different iTunes Store accounts, so in this case, content from the old shared account and the new account can easily co-exist on the same iPod, and will continue to work seamlessly.
The only thing to keep in mind is that if you purchase a new computer or reinstall the operating system on your existing computer you will need to re-authorize all of your iTunes Store accounts again individually. This can easily be done by selecting Store, Authorize Computer from the iTunes menu—do this once for each iTunes Store account that is used on your computer. Further, you should always DE-authorize your computer if you are planning to replace it, take it in for service, or performing major upgrades. The Store, Deauthorize Computer menu option can be used for this, and again should be done for each iTunes Store account on the computer.