If your household is anything like ours, you’ve got multiple “i” devices floating around the house. In our household, we’ve managed to collect an impressive number of these App Eaters is the past year. Baby Doll was the first with the free iPod Touch she received as part of Apple’s Back To School promotion last summer when we bought her a MBP as a graduation gift. Then we gave Ignatz an iPod Touch for Christmas. I scored a first-generation iPad when Verizon put them on sale a few days after the iPad 2 was released. And, most recently, Baby Doll finally decided she what she wanted for her 19th birthday — an iPhone.
Even though we’ve been sharing computers for years, the kids and I have always maintained our own iTunes accounts. Naturally, with this scenario of maintaining individual iTunes accounts but sharing computers, we’re well familiar with the different means of sharing music. But sharing purchased apps is a relatively new issue for us. I’ve known for some time that sharing apps within the family was both technically and legally possible but I wasn’t quite sure how to make it happen.
I avoided the issue for a couple of weeks but recently had a situation where I either had to figure out how to share a purchased app or give in and buy a second copy. Since I had so much trouble finding a clear, concise (and correct) set of instructions for how to do this, I thought I’d share my newly gained knowledge with anyone else trying to figure this out. If you find this post helpful, I hope you’ll leave me a quick comment (nothing like a little positive feedback, huh?).
Prep
Consider what method of transferring the app will work best for your situation. Even if you’re copying an App from one iTunes account to another on the very same computer, you’ll still need a way to move a file. I’ve heard that this can be accomplished by attaching the file in an email but I went the old fashioned route and used an external device.
I keep a portable hard drive at hand for file/music backups, etc. so I used it to move the app from one computer to another. You could use a hard drive or a jump drive, or if you’re living with one foot way in the past and one in the right-here-and-now, you could burn the file onto a disc.
Step 1
Log into the “giving” iTunes account. In the Library => Apps section, locate the icon for the app to be shared.
In iTunes => Library => Apps
Step 2
Click on the desired app icon then drag and drop it — either onto the hard drive or jump drive, or on your desktop. It really doesn’t matter at this point where you drop it just as long as you drag it out of iTunes as that’s what creates a copy of the app file.
Drag & Drop App icon
This drag ‘n drop action will result in a new file being created — one with an .ipa extension. If you put the file on your desktop, move it to your portable drive or email it to yourself.
new .ipa file
Step 3
Once you have the file transferred to your hard drive, thumb drive or emailed, log into the “receiving” iTunes account (on the second computer or separate user account as the case may be). Now reverse the process — grab the .ipa file and drag ‘n drop it onto the “receiving” iTunes Library => Apps. As you drag the file and hover in the iTunes Library, you can release the mouse and drop the file as soon as you see a green “+” symbol appear.
When the new App file has been added to the iTunes Library, the App’s icon should appear in the proper section to the right (the App icon section is divided into three categories depending on whether it’s a universal app or if it’s specifically formatted for the iPhone/iPod touch or the iPad).
Step 4
The final step is to give the “receiving” iTunes account permission to use this App. If you’re already sharing music purchased on different iTunes accounts, your individual iTunes accounts might already be authorized to play purchases from the “giving” account. If not, you will need to have the “giving” iTunes account holder authorize the “receiving” iTunes account. This is done by going to Store => Authorize This Computer in the “receiving” iTunes menu.
