ANNOUNCING THE PUBLIC BETA AND OPEN SOURCE: See below.
With the constant growth of tablet usage, especially that of the iPad, there has been one large gap between picking up the laptop and picking up the iPad: User Profiles.
A tablet is not a phone, nor is it used like one. A phone stays in your pocket, and usually you are the only one who accesses it. On the other hand, most tablets make their way to the coffee table, for any member of the household to grab.
The problem here is personal space. We don’t want to have to log our significant others out of their Facebook account every time we use the tablet, or have to use web-mail because someone else’s accounts are signed in to the mail client. That ruins the convenience of having a quickly accessible tablet.
Thus, we have created User Profiles, a new application for jailbroken iPads that will solve this dilemma.
Features include:
- Fast user switching for multiple accounts on re-spring (Approx 5 seconds)
- Independent wallpapers and other settings like brightness
- Seperate settings for iTunes applications (Facebook, Twitter, etc)
- Unique icon image per user
- Support for independent Email/Contacts/Calendar accounts
- Different bookmarks, history, and site logins for Safari
- Shared applications: Install an App on one user, it auto-installs for the other
- Complete iTunes compatibility
- Shared Cydia settings support
- Clone existing user to new user
- v2: Optional password security for accounts
- v2: Multiple skins, such as OSX and Win7
- v2: Support for unlimited users (v1 is limited to 6 [UI Limitation])
Keep watch on our RSS Feed, Twitter, or Facebook for a video of User Profiles in action.
Public BETA and Open Source
After time limitations keeping me from working on the project, an offer to purchase, and a competitor (albeit buggy one) on the market, I’ve decided to release User Profiles as Open Source, and enable a public BETA.
READ THIS. If you choose not to and destroy your iPad, don’t blame us.
This software is BETA, it does not work perfectly. Use at your own RISK.
This app may crash your iPad and force you to do a restore. Rarely have we seen this, but it has happened (reported once).
There is one MAJOR unsolved bug. When deleting, updating, or installing a new application, may times icons will vanish or turn white for users that are not logged in. If this occurs, use theWhite/Missing Icons? button to correct it. You will probably have to do it 3 to 6 times. You WILL lose icon organization, which is why we recommend only installing, updating, or deleting apps from your primary user, to ensure that user remains consistant during the test.
During the BETA, there will be a button at the top labeled BETA: Backup. Please make sure you have MORE free space on your device than currently used by Applications (not media), and use this button to do a full, static backup. If anything goes wrong, you can restore manually via SSH using this backup (stored in /var/mobile).
To participate in the public BETA, add the following REPO to Cydia: http://apt.nowsci.com
For instructions on how to add a REPO, visit: http://modmyi.com/wiki/index.php/Adding_a_repo_to_Cydia
GitHub Repository
If you would like to participate in the development of this project, and help fix the issues listed above, please take a look at our GitHub repository: https://github.com/Fmstrat/User-Profiles-for-iPad and/or comment below.
118 Responses to “User Profiles for iPad: User Switching and Multiple Accounts for iOS”
Can’t wait for this; looks great. Gonna be so useful. Cheers.
i would love to be one of the beta testers for this apps
I’d love to beta test as well. This would be perfect for our home!
Yes please. Sign me up
hi, would love to test this app. looks ace. sign me up please.
thanx
Is this running on the iPad2?
Sign me up, very familier with the IOS
[email removed]
That looks really nice. How much does it cost?
Any chance there are still beta spots open?
I’d like to know if there still opportunity to beta this too! Thanks
@Brian: Yes, it should work fine on the iPad 2, and will be tested there in the BETA phase starting this coming week.
Sign me up for beta! This looks great!
I’d love to be a beta tester!
I’m a DJ/promoter who could REALLY use this kind of thing to keep my personal and DJ content separate on my ipad. I’d love to do it on my iPhone as well, but baby steps
i’d love to test the app!!!
I have been a professional software tester for years. I’d like to take a stab at “User Profiles.” And, I’m very meticulous with my bug reporting.
I have a new iPad 2 16GB Wi-Fi
iOS Version: 4.3
Jailbreak Method: Whatever becomes available for the iPad 2.
Contact method: E-mail me at [removed]
I would love to beta test as well
Wow! I can’t believe no one has done this yet. I’d love to test it. We have an iPad at work that we pass around for the on call technician. It would be great to have separate profiles. I could load mine up with all my stuff so I can grab and go when it’s my week to use it. Sign me up for beta testing!!!
I am HIGHLY interested.
iPad on 4.2.1
Jail broken w/ greenp0ison
PLEASE PICK ME
Great.can’t wait to get this! Essential for the pad.
I would like to test it in my new ipad!
We need this yesterday.
Please hurry.
I want to be a beta tester!!
I’d like to try this.
Would love to beta test this.
Would love to beta test this
email:
ipad 2, 16GB
I would love to test this app…we currently have a business need for this type of app and would like to see if it would fufill it. I would proovide full feedback on why or why-not it fits our need. PLease let me know if I qualify for this test.
Is this available? If not yet, when?
We have a pilot group going in the hospital I work for. I am the IT contact and this would be helpful. Definitely interested in beta testing
Would love to test. My wife and I share and it’s annoying.
Sign me up! I can’tbwait to test!!!
Any ETA yet? (approximately at least) Sorry for bugging, but I just can’t wait for your AWESOME app!
How can I beta test. My wife and I share a jail broken iPad.
Thank you
Hi Guys,
Ipad 2 on its way for work. 3 way share in a team – will utilize pretty much all your features. Would love an invite to a beta as we could use the ipad properly in the team.
[...] We'd probably not use it for videos/music since we have other devices for that.. However, User Profiles for iPad: User Switching and Multiple Accounts for iOS | nowsci.com is an intriguing way of introducing user profiles to the iPad.. [...]
This app will definatly save some marriages! Id love to beta test if the opportunity is still available.
This looks awesome, will solve a big problem we have sharing one iPad per household.
Cannot wait
I’d love to be a beta tester!
Awesome looking! Would love to test it out.
I would love to be a bata tester
Will this work on any device… ie an ipod touch?
@Kink: No, it will only work for an iPad for now, sorry.
Can I join the beta test?
Thanks,
Thompson
I would love to be a beta tester
Would love to Beta test also, if you’re still accepting.
Cannot wait for this to go live!
I’d have to agree this is definitely going to fill a huge gap in the iOS for iPad. I assume this requires a JB to work? I hope we get an iPad2 JB soon so I can start to beta test.
I would like to be a beta tester too. Ciao.
Count me in please!
i’m in. i need this badly for customers when i go to their sites to do a demo of our companies ipad app. don’t want them to see all my personal information.
count me in too
Hey,
can i have a beta ?
Ill be a beta tester
Please, let me be a beta tester!
I would love to test this feature.
Looks good but this already exists! It’s called Switch and we’ve been using it in our house for a year. Good luck with it though!
I too would love to be a beta tester
@Ruth: Switch is only a multi-user Web Browser. This application supports full multi-user support. I.E. independent email accounts, separate web settings, different background images, back light settings, Angry Birds game saves, etc.
I have beta tested foe a couple of apps and I am a great beta tester. I would love to assist.
I too, would love to beta test multi profiles!
I would love to beta test this application. Sounds like the perfect fit for me.
This would be a great enhancement – would love to be a beta tester please.
I would love to become a beta tester for this app. Sounds very useful
Still accepting testers?
@Jeff: Not at this time, I’m pretty sure we’ve got all the kinks identified, and unfortunately one of them is pretty serious. Icons will go white or vanish after updates on secondary users. One person has reported a crash because of it, too. Trying to work this out and then it will be released.
This is wonderful! This is a functionality that iPad could sorely use. Will this be available in the App Store or on Cydia?
@Justin: Cydia only, unfortunately.
Is there a list I can sign-up for to be notified when this releases?
@Abhay: You could subscribe to my RSS feed, or follow on Twitter or Facebook. I don’t overwhelm with posts, so likely that would work well for you.
brilliant!!
afte a lot of internet searching…. i cam across this….
superb
i wuld love to help make this a better app.
i own an iPad 32gb 3g
can u please supple me with details…
my email id is :
also will this be reales on the app store or cydia ?
I would like to beta test.
Hello, is it still possible to test? If so, I would LOVE it!
This software has been on beta like forever… I doubt its real…
i would love to test
@Doubt: No, it’s real, I just can’t get past the icon bug. I’m probably going to just release the source code and let others hack at it as I don’t have time to complete it with all my other projects.
@ben yeah. please release the code.
@ben, please don’t give up on this… I don’t have an iPad yet, but this would be a killer feature that would justify a purchase of one. I just don’t see real benefit of an iPad if only I can use it. But if user profiles allow me, my wife and my kids to have separate profiles on one device, then that’s a big win in my books.
I just jail broke my iPad 2. I’d love to test this out.
iPad 2 16 gb wifi iOS 4.3.3
email:
Let me know what I can do to help
If the current issue only happens after an update, I (and many other users) would be willing to forgo updates – or re-install your app every time as a profile app is just about the most game changing ipad app I can think of. . .
Desperate for this – love to beta test if there is a chance!
iPad 2 – 16Gb 3G model (White)
When is the “planned” release of this?
any idea when you’ll be releasing this?
would need this for the office Ipad. sounds really interesting.
just one question, how are you going to contact me? If can’t put anywhere my email?
best regards
Come on guys! Please launch this application!
Make it official via apple store. The need is very urgent for home use as on business level!
Thanks!
Would love tot test
iPad 2 jailbroken, have multiple interested family members. I’m an IT guy, so will test thoroughly.
it takes forever to login in my 2nd i.e guest account..
sorry now its working good..but it akes abt a min to login to a account
I have been a beta test for the original googlemail, gmail+, Slingbox and other Cydia apps and would love the opportunity to be one of your Beta testers on this app. It looks awesome and I would find it extremely useful with my work and family usage. My email address
Many thanks in advance.
Darren
This is by far the most biggest thing to happen to the jailbroken community. I haven’t seen a more useful feature for the iPad and for this alone, hundreds of thousands of families will join the jailbreak community. I think you’ll be owned by Apple soon.
For anyone following comments, public BETA and Open Source github repository are open.
saw v2 notes up there, is it ready for testing also in the repo?
@Jerm: Unfortunately v2 will not go into dev until I or a contributor figure out the white icon issue. Thanks.
Can you hide apps on one profile with poof and not be affected on the main profile. Plus keep icon / folder history on the main profile. We want to limit the apps shown for our kids. To where only education apps are shown. Then a game profile for play time, etc…
@Jimscsi: Anything is possible, unfortunately with the icon bug I haven’t continued development on this unless another developer wants to continue it. The code is open source now so anyone can contribute.
Hey there,
How can I use the Backup to restore the iPad?
Please help me with this issue because all settings disappeared like Mail etc
Mans thanks
can anyone tell me what files have to be replaced on the ipad with the backupfiles to restore the ipad???
thanks in advance
@Michael @Charly: The Backup directory is a copy of directories in /var/mobile as they were prior to running the app. Just rename the current directories, and move the backup ones in, then reboot. Once you’re sure everything is good, remove the directories you renamed.
Unfortunately, as long as there is no jailbreak available for the iPad 2, there is o chance using this application.
awesome app – just JB’d my iPad 2 on 5.0.1 and this is the first thing I installed… so far so good.
One quick question – iPad 2 5.0.1 JB’d with Absinthe. If I set a passcode lock PIn on one user profile, it is using that same PIN for all user profiles. Is there a setting I am missing or is that how it is right now? Everything else is working great but if I can’t use unique passcodes for each account I lose the reason for installing the app.
Thanks!
Hi, just got a hold of this- two questions:
1) how can I get everything from git and work it on Xcode as it’s missing the xcodeproject file or did you not use Xcode?
2) have you considered using the command uicache from user mobile since all your code are actually shell codes?
uicache is included in UIKit Tools package (though it was installed directly into may jb ipad2) and it’s the “”correct”" way to rebuild the cache so you might want to throw into the “swap user” code and clean white icons.
http://jailbreakqa.com/questions/72772/all-cydia-apps-white-icon
Any news on the V2 availability? Password protection is a very nice feature to have it. Thanks
Does this work properly on the WiFi +3G 64GB iPad 2?
After rebooting multiple times to clear the icon cache, it seemed to remove all my apps :/
I am now restoring the iPad 2 (iOS 5.0.1).
Thanks for the great utility, though!
Well, iy is a very good idea, but does not work, for now. I’ve used it for two days, and without any great change, the icons turned white, and no matter what I tried, they stayed that way. I tried to create other users, but while doing that, the ipad restarted and lost alll the apps, but the backup stayed on disk.
Can I please be a beta tester for this app
Has anyone tried this on the new iPad?
I noticed there is little to no current data regarding this tweak. Is it still being supported and worked on? Will it work on an iPad2 with 5.1.1? I’d love to try it out on mine but I’m not willing to trash my pad just to test this out. It’s taken me quite a bit of time to get my pad just the way I want it and the warnings for this tweak say it will mess up my icon locations. That’s not a small issue for me since theming and custom icon folders is something that makes jail breaking so cool. I wonder if ‘Springtomize’ and ‘SBSettings’ and all the other cool little tweaks still work in the secondary profiles.
Just installed on my iPad 3 and created 2 accounts. This is great!
Ipad 3….
Please keep me informed for beta testing. I’d love to be involved.
Cmaxilom@gmail.com
Hello I would like to donate and sponsor your work drop message if interested
This is the first app I have found for this purpose that works on 5.1.1. Really useful app that I would certainly pay for…looking forward to v2…
Found a Way to get rid of the white icons. Doing an respring in sbsettings will bring back colours to your iPad. Missing icons is solved by using the special inApp button in the app. Also waiting Will bring back the icons.
Love this app.
Does it still work
I want it but I can’t jailbreak my ipad 2
Any news on resolving the white icon issue? This software is sorely needed! Thanks
I am looking for a better way to control a shared ipad with kids. Multiple user profiles is exactly what I want. Here are two suggestions. First, allow main user profile decide if an app should only be for the main user profile, certain user profiles, or all user profiles when app is installed. Second, allow main user profile to setup different configurations and parental controls (restrictions) for each user profile or apply to all user profiles. Good luck!
Userorofiles is something that should have been incorporated into the ipad from the get go. I would like the mechanics under the hood to work differently to make more efficient use of storage space. It seems to duplicate the entirety of each app for every profile. Anyway I recently noticed the repo disappeared and I suspect that means this has project has been mothballed. I look forward to seeing it return. I would happily pay 4.99 for a few more features and the squashing of the white/missing icons bug.
[...] PDF File Name: User profiles for ipad: user switching and multiple PDF Source: nowsci.com Download PDF: User profiles for ipad: user switching and multiple [...]
[...] I also did a quick Google and noticed this software that is out in beta and is exactly what you want, but it looks quite experimental and your iPad needs to be jailbroken to install it: /archive01/userprofiles/ [...]