My wife is thrilled with the "new" iPad 2 she inherited when my new iPad arrived. I wanted to configure information technology for her so she could get up and running, so I thought I would just alter a few settings here or at that place and give it to her using my settings. After about 30 minutes of tweaking, I decided to start over from scratch.

The reason is unproblematic: there are merely and then many settings underlying the personalization of the iPad that un-doing them all was well-nigh impossible. It was much easier to add the things that I knew she would desire rather than remove the things that she might not. Even the things that I knew I wanted to modify, like Messages, left residual effects behind. For instance, Spotlight had cached my iMessages, and connected to evidence them even later I had logged out of my iCloud business relationship and into my wife's.

Long story brusk: start make clean, sync dorsum the apps and media you want to keep, and piece of work from at that place. Here's how.

Backup your iPad and transfer purchases from iPad (optional)

Before you reset the iPad, you lot probably want to back it upward and transfer all of your app and media purchases to iTunes. You tin practice this by connecting your iPad to iTunes and Control + clicking (or right-clicking, or ii-finger-clicking on a trackpad) on the iPad in the devices list in iTunes. You'll get a contextual menu that lets you sync, support or transfer purchases.

Of course you can always re-download apps and music from the App Shop/iTunes Store, merely if y'all have large applications it will be faster to sync them from iTunes.

You lot may also want to fill-in your iPad, just in case. Chances are you already backed it upward earlier transferring yourself over to the new iPad, just it doesn't injure to practise it again.

Full Reset

All of your data from the iPad tin can be deleted very simply either from iTunes (by clicking the Restore button on the device summary screen, and and so choosing "Prepare as a new device" in one case information technology'south wiped) or correct on the iPad. On the device, become to Settings » Full general » Reset and cull Erase All Content and Settings. Yous will be asked to enter your passcode lock (if you have one fix) and then confirm your choice.

Equally ane of our commenters points out below, you tin can also issue a Wipe command using Find My iPad, if you lot're so inclined.

(Aside: y'all may have gear up the option to delete your data if you enter the incorrect password 10 times. However, the iPad will showtime to introduce a delay after a sure number of mistaken entries, so that isn't a good manner to reset your iPad on purpose.)

Once you reset, the iPad will reboot, and afterwards a few moments you volition see the initial configuration settings. One of these is the setup detail for an iCloud account. Even if you are planning to share App Shop purchases, each person should accept their own iCloud account/Apple ID. The reason is that Letters, FaceTime, and many other setting are specific to particular users. Likewise, more than and more applications volition start to be able to sync documents through iCloud, and you will near likely desire those to exist personalized.

The good news is that Apple provides y'all several places to enter unlike Apple IDs. For the initial setup, make sure to enter the Apple ID of the main user of the iPad. If you need to create one, you tin can do it right on the iPad.

Sharing App Shop Purchases

One Apple ID tin exist used on upwardly to 10 "devices and computers" ("devices" here refers to iOS devices). Information technology is very important to notation that "[o]nce a device or computer is associated with your Apple ID, you cannot associate that device or reckoner with another Apple ID for 90 days." And then you'll want to get this correct the first time.

In most circumstances, the only affair y'all'll desire to share an Apple ID for is App Store purchases. To change that Apple ID, go to Settings » Store and tap on the Apple ID. So tap "Sign Out" to logout the current Apple ID from the App Store. And then log in with the Apple ID y'all have used for purchases in the past.

Sharing Calendars and Contacts

Sharing calendars is very piece of cake. Just get to iCloud.com, log in with your Apple ID, and click on the calendar you want to share. So enter the email address of the Apple ID you want to share your calendar with, and decide if y'all want to requite them "View & Edit" access (so they tin can add, delete, and change events on your calendar), or just "View Merely" admission. (Different Google Calendar, iCloud calendars practice not have an option for only sharing "Busy/Free" information without specific details.)

You don't need to practise anything at all to enable that sharing on the iPad itself; that'due south done at iCloud.com.

My wife and I share our calendars that manner, but we too want to share our contacts too. Every bit you lot'd expect, we accept not merely family members in mutual, but too friends. If nosotros are planning to see at a restaurant, I'll enter the information into my iPhone, and it will sync to her iPhone (and iPad) too.

On my married woman's iPad, I went to Settings » iCloud and turned off Contact syncing, since that connects to her account and is empty. Then I went to Settings » Mail, Contacts, Calendars, chose "Add Account..." and then select iCloud from the listing of business relationship types. I entered my iCloud information, and and so only enabled Contact syncing.

Pro tip: When setting up contact sharing on my wife's iPhone 4S, I waited for the contacts to sync and then went to Settings » General » Siri » My Info and chose my married woman's contact data.

Other Apple IDs

Hither are another places you'll need to enter your Apple ID:

  • Domicile Sharing: Settings » Video » Home Sharing

  • FaceTime: Settings » FaceTime

  • Letters: Settings » Messages

  • Game Center: For some reason, Game Center settings aren't in the Settings app, simply if you launch the app, it will prompt you for your Apple ID.

(Annotation: iTunes Match nether Settings » Music appears to default to the same Apple ID every bit in the App Store, which makes sense since it's linked to music purchasing)

You lot may besides want to download and install Observe My Friends and iBooks every bit the outset two must-have apps, since Apple does not include them with iOS by default.

Apple even suggests using i Apple tree ID for iCloud and i for the App Store as an alternate setup. Whether you choose to do this for your config is up to you, but if y'all want to avert buying essential apps separately for your family's two devices (or more) then you lot probably want to apply the same Apple ID for the App Store on all of them; you might want to turn off automated download of app purchases to the hand-me-down device, though -- and the same with Photograph Stream.

Some other important decision is which Apple ID yous want to utilise for Find My iPad. I associate all of our iOS devices and Macs with our master Apple tree ID (the same one used for making App Store and Mac App Store purchases). That mode, we tin can have a single "console" for tracking down anything that goes missing, rather than having to remember a list of Apple IDs and their associations with specific devices.

Worth the effort

Resetting the iPad might seem like extra work, just I believe that it'due south well worth it. You may discover that yous and your spouse (or whoever receives your hand-me-downwardly iPad) have very different preferences. Fortunately my wife and I both agree that Keyboard Clicks (Settings » Full general » Sounds » Keyboard Clicks) are atrocious, and the side switch (Settings » General » Use Side Switch To) on the iPad should exist used for Lock Rotation, not Mute.

If you passed your previous iPad along to a family fellow member, let me know what other settings you customized for them. We discussed sharing an iPad betwixt spouses back in 2010.

Thanks to PJ and David C. for suggesting this postal service.