I have one account for all this stuff. I thought this was going to be a post about how everyone else is getting it wrong :)

Isnt this just the user creating multiple accounts for something they didnt have to?

I mean all this stuff would work with just one account right?

Many people didn't really have a choice. MobileMe Accounts (@me.com email addresses) were automatically set up as a new Apple ID - even if the user already had an existing Apple ID for the iTunes Store.

When iCloud was introduced, anyone who wanted to keep their old @me.com email address, also had to keep the second Apple ID.

This is silly. I have one Apple account that I've used for everything from iTunes logins to Appstore login to the iPhone developer account..

I've only recently begun to use one canonical email address, so I'm in the same boat as the author. By now, though, I can remember which one to use when.

I'm on the same boat as the author but mostly because I've lived in 3 different countries in the last 2 years, and had to register for iTunes with 3 different credit card locations.

My iPhone has apps and Audiobooks from all these 3 accounts and I cannot reliably keep them updated, sync-ed, and backed up with iTunes. It's a mess and it keeps me from using the iCloud services properly.

The iTunes & App Store experience is great for mainstream use cases but painful if your situation deviates from the norm.

I have a similar problem with Google - all my analytics accounts are linked to my pro email address, and my gmail is with, er, my gmail address. So I spend the day logging in and out. Would love to be able to consolidate the two.

Google allows for multiple logins. I have one pro gmail account and one personal, and I'm signed on in both at the same time, all day. From time to time I get logged off of one or another, but it works quite well overall.

This just seems to be cookies that expire. Even with one account you have to sign in again once every blue moon.

I have one US, Japanese, Swedish and UK account. Buying music legally has never been harder, especially since I have to have credit cards that are registered in those countries too.

Cue comments about how obviously this problem could be avoided and this person is doing something wrong.

Never mind her explanation of how this happened and how it's a real problem and how real users (far less technical than the author) could run into problems.

This is a mess that happens with most companies that have been in business for a while (Microsoft, Google, Apple) and their various id schemes + services over time.

It's a real problem Apple could solve.

Indeed... In fact the only problems I've ever heard anyone have with an iDevices were issues with updating (solved by OTA iCloud updates) and account issues. A page that's both comprehensive and simple that lets you manage your account(s) seems to be something they've skipped over, or at least haven't rolled out yet.

I have none. I have no itunes account, and no appstore account. That means that I can't use any of these apps and that's exactly how I want it to do. iTunes stopped being vaguely usable around OS X 10.4, FWIW. The AppStore may be nice enough to use, but is probably not worth the deal for me; Apple has no business knowing anything about me. As I don't like what's coming with OS X anyway, sooner or later I'll jump ships for good.

I fail to see how you not wanting to use iTunes has any relevance to the problem of joining up multiple accounts.

That's the way I solved this particular problem. No iTunes -> no account -> no problem. As I don't like what Apple products are becoming, I advise people to choose this solution. Haters (fanbois) gonna hate, etc.

Btw., I can't stop thinking about your comment regarding iTunes, "stopped being vaguely usable around 10.4". I don't mean to pick an argument, but I really wonder what you mean by that. As far as playing music it is just as good (meaning perfectly fine) now as it was back in 10.3 when I began using OS X.

iTunes sure has grown since, and does a lot more than playing music today, but it still plays music painlessly, just as it did 7 years ago.

And then there's always Vox: http://voxapp.didgeroo.com/

I first used iTunes on Mac OS 9. Since then it only grew bigger, slower, more cluttered (I don't care about iP* devices, I wouldn't use them at any price).

For years I've found it much too big and clunky for my taste. VOX is indeed fine.

The app store uses your ITMS account. They are one and the same stores.

I don't know the details in and out as I don't use them. I care about privacy (no FB account) and openness (Free Software for ever). Apple is on a downward slope on both accounts.

I have three: one linked to my credit card (that only works in Brazil), one with itunes credits on the american store (to buy games) and a third one for ios development (using my company's email).

Used to have a third one back on the mobileme days, but have no idea of what happened to it...

I have one for iTunes, I have never needed another one.

I have two out of necessity. One for my Canadian iTunes account, the other for my American. I no longer use my Canadian one as I live in the us now. However, if I want to update apps purchased from my Canadian account, I have to switch. This is painful. Switching means settings like match get switched off and aren't turned back on when I move back over. It means syncing gets disabled. It means if I switch before other downloads are finished, apps are stuck in a half state of downloading but having stopped. I have to delete them and download the again. The app store icon will of course show me how many apps need updating across all my accounts. However, I can't use the update all button because I'll be asked to log in with the right account. As mentioned before logging in to another account while apps in the previous account are downloading will usually cause problems. Logging in is painful as well. After logging in with a new account, it doesn't just log you in. No. It tells you your apps is associated with a different store, despite being on the update page, and whisks you off to some other location, which then needs to load before becoming responsive again before you can go back to the update page again. There, you staart the whole thing over again.

On the other hand, Steam doesn't care and works just fine.

Wait, why did you create US account at the first place!? You can change the country and the payment info right?

US app store has a greater selection then the Canadian app store in apps, music, movies, etc.

I have two: my ITMS account - which is also used for iCloud/AppStore etc. - and my ADC account. Not sure what else is needed, because from 7 years of being an OS X user nothing else has sprung up.

MobileMe is dead. Go to me.com/move to transition your account to iCloud and avoid this headache.