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multiple phones, multiple people in same household? Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
My husband (Windows user) and I (Mac user (yeah, I know, we sound like a TV commercial)) recently upgraded from Treos to iPhones. The possibility of using OmniFocus (which I use on the desktop) and getting my to-do list back into my pocket was too much to resist.

I am eagerly awaiting a WebDAV solution for myself that does not require knowing how to talk to the guts of my computer (I looked at that thread and said, um, no, I'm not even going to try that -- could someone write a script or something?). Until then, I am using MobileMe to sync my phone and desktop, and that's working just fine so far.

The question is about the possibility of getting my husband and myself to share an OmniFocus file -- so, for instance, when I go to the grocery store, I'll know what items he has added to the list, and vice-versa.

1. Is it possible for us to sync one iPhone to another?

2. Alternatively, is it possible for him to sync his iPhone to my MobileMe account?

3. If either of those were to work, would he need to buy another copy of the OmniFocus iPhone app, or would my license apply to the family?

For all of these, how would we actually accomplish this?

If it's not currently possible, consider this a feature request, some kind of "family option" that would enable multiple users in the same household to share a single OmniFocus database.

Thanks!

-- Aimee
 
All you need to do to share your OmniFocus database between your desktop/laptop, your iPhone, and your husband's iPhone is to set up your husband's iPhone with OmniFocus/MobileMe the same way you did yours. No additional license required.

You should make a practice of occasionally getting all three devices in sync simultaneously. This will help keep your database compact, which will make the sync process for the iPhones run more smoothly.
 
Aimee, as whpalmer4 says, you can use MobileMe for your husband's phone as well. However, keep in mind that if the two of you both separately make changes to the same item, the one that was changed most recently will be kept when the changes get merged, and the other change will be discarded. This includes things like reordering child tasks - if one of you renames a project and the other one adds a task to that project, then one of those changes (the one made least recently) will be discarded when the changes all get synced together.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by whpalmer4 View Post
All you need to do to share your OmniFocus database between your desktop/laptop, your iPhone, and your husband's iPhone is to set up your husband's iPhone with OmniFocus/MobileMe the same way you did yours. No additional license required.
Thank you. Here's my confusion.

1. How do we tell the App Store (either on the iPhone or on the PC) that he should be able to share my OmniFocus license and thus download the app without paying again? How will that affect any other apps he has already downloaded in his own name?

2. Is he going to be able to just sync with my MobileMe account by using my username/password in the OmniFocus settings and will that confuse anything else on his iPhone?

-- Aimee
 
I don't know the details of the App store licensing scheme; it may not be possible. I was thinking about the Mac end of things when I said no additional license should be needed, and didn't consider the possibility that your phones might be linked to different accounts and not already have the application on both. If you are stuck buying another license, better that you have to buy an extra iPhone app license than an extra desktop license, given the relative prices!

Yes, he would just use your MobileMe username and password to set this up. I do not believe (but cannot promise) that this should affect anything else on the phone, as it is an OmniFocus setting, not a phone-wide setting. It's a reasonable question, as on the Mac, it does use the system-wide setting for MobileMe username and password.

Last edited by whpalmer4; 2008-10-09 at 09:41 AM..
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by aimee View Post
1. How do we tell the App Store (either on the iPhone or on the PC) that he should be able to share my OmniFocus license and thus download the app without paying again? How will that affect any other apps he has already downloaded in his own name?
If you sync both phones to the same iTunes library, you share all licenses. If you sync them to separate libraries, you'll need a second license. You can always reset which library your husband syncs to, by resetting his phone; you can still have different settings on the two phones, as almost everything is done on a per-phone basis; only the library assignation is shared.

Quote:
Originally Posted by aimee View Post
2. Is he going to be able to just sync with my MobileMe account by using my username/password in the OmniFocus settings and will that confuse anything else on his iPhone?
It's fine and won't change anything about the rest of your phone; per-app settings are kept separate from one another.

-RS
 
Actually, it's more a question of whether you share the same iTunes Store account. As with media content, you can have up to five computers authorized for the same iTunes Store account, and ergo can have up to five computers authorized for the same App Store items.

If you're syncing to different libraries, then simply find the OmniFocus.ipa file (should be in your "Music/iTunes/Mobile Applications" folder) and copy that to the second computer and import it into the iTunes library on the second computer in the same way that you would for an audio track (ie, File, Add to Library or just drag it onto the iTunes window). Once in your second iTunes library, it will sync to your second iPhone in the same way that any application purchased on that computer would.

In fact, you could also just attempt to re-purchase the app on the second computer. As long as you're using the same iTunes Store account, you'll be notified that you've already purchased the item and can download it again for free to that computer (this is different from media content, which would need to be re-purchased).
 
 


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