Ask to buy functionality with family sharing.

I have set up all the family devices with the kids iTunes accounts, as well as my wife and I having our accounts. All are linked in family sharing. The children have their accounts set up for ask to buy.
The problem, they are not presented with the popup to select ask to buy, they are presented with the iTunes login as though they are me.
I can not seem to find any other reports of this or what possible steps to make to correct it.
Thank you
Dave

My guess is that they are not legged in under their own Apple ID, but instead as yours. In my case we had to sign out on the kid's phone, where we were signed as [email protected], and sign back into the itunes store as [email protected]

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Icloud password loop when declining an ask to buy purchase using family sharing

My daughter asked to buy an app using family sharing. I received the notification on my phone and when I hit decline, it asks for my icloud password. When entered, it asks continuously and will not finalize declining the purchase. Same process on my wife's phone. We were able to approve a purchase, just not decline one.
Help please.
I am using a 4s, my daughter and wife both have 5cs. All running iOS8 with family sharing set up.

Thank you Ms. SJ!!!!
I was having this problem with my youngest daughters account. Your post about establishing the payment history apart from family sharing made a lot of sense. My oldest daughter has had an account for some time that she had been adding iTunes gift cards to, so her account was "established" before it was added to our family sharing group. I had no trouble approving her purchases.
I had set up an account for my youngest daughter a long time ago, but used it only for email and iMessage on her iPod. My ID was used for purchases on the device. After Family sharing was launched and she got an iPad for Christmas, I decided to set up her ID as the primary account on her new iPad and added her to family sharing.
The first problem I ran into with Family Sharing was enabling the "Ask to Buy" function because since I set up accounts for my daughters a long time ago they were both showing as adults. I learned from another post that the fix for this was to change their birthdates to January 1, 2001. I did this and it has them listed as Age 14 on their family sharing profiles - fine.
I then ran into the same problem with Ask to Buy that David Wilkie described above. My fix was a little different from yours and less intensive.
Removed my youngest daughter from family sharing
Purchased an app using her account alone (with an iTunes gift card attached) to establish a purchase history.
I then re-added her to our family sharing group.
I had her purchase a song using "Ask to Buy" and it worked as expected.
Thanks for going through the legwork with support to find this fix and share it. I hope my experience can be helpful as well.

Where is the Ask to Buy option in Family Sharing?

Where is the Ask to Buy option for members in my Family Sharing? I only see the Parent/Guardian option and the Allow member to see your Location option. The articles I found indicate it should be located with the others. Please help.

Hello iboo24,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
To learn more about how to use Ask to Buy with Family Sharing, please take a look at the information in the articles linked to below.
Request and make purchases with Ask to Buy - Apple Support
Get help using Ask to Buy in the iTunes Store - Apple Support
Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities!
Cheers,
Alex H.

Using iTunes credits with Family Sharing

I used to have a debit card associated with my Apple ID, but now that we've enabled Family Sharing with a child on the account, I am required to use a credit card. However, I don't want to put iTunes charges on a credit card. I thought I could avoid this by adding iTunes credit to our accounts. So, I decided to test this. We have her settings set to "ask to buy".
I have credit on my (the organizer's) account. I attempted to purchase a song using my daughter's account on her device. I thought I was supposed to get a message on my phone telling me that she was requesting to make a purchase. Instead, I got a message on her account on her device with a pop-up that said I needed to enter my security code (on her device).
My questions:
- Why was I not notified on my device that she was attempting to make a purchase? Nothing I read suggested that she would get messages on her device that I had to enter information on it. Was this a one-off thing for setting it up? Or, does this only work with apps and not music?
- If I entered the security code, would it charge my credit card or would it realize that I had credit on my account and deduct it from there first?
- If I apply credit to her account, is it true that I will not get a message to verify her purchase?
Thanks for any insight.

iTunes store credit is used for payment if it is on the account. By that, if your daughter has store credit, and she makes a purchase, it would be deducted from her store credit - not yours. So if two children (Billy and John) each have $10.00 in their respective accounts, only THEY can use the credits - iTunes store credit is not shared. If there is not sufficient store credit, then the organizer's credit card will be charged to cover the purchase.
Regarding the pop up security code message, do you still have a restriction set on her device? If so, that could be interfering with the "Ask to Buy" feature of family sharing.
Regarding the last question, I am not sure. The documents are not very specific, but I have read that if Ask to Buy is enabled, you will receive notification if the child tries to download free apps.

Problems with Family Sharing

I have not been able to get Family Sharing to work well with my child. I have set up Family Sharing where I am the organizer, my wife is a parent/guardian, and my kids are also in as family members. My youngest is under 13, so I set up an @icloud appleID for her for use on her iPod. No issues in setting it up but I am having two ongoing problems - my guess is that they are related;
(1) When I go to purchases on my iPhone, the following is at the top of the screen: "This iTunes account is set up to use Family Sharing with a different iCloud account than [email protected]" Where [email protected] is my daughter's appleID. I am signed into everything on my iPhone under my appleID, and she is signed into everything under her appleID on her iPod.
(2) She went to download a free app from the App Store. It prompted her to "Ask to Buy" and she selected send. I never received the notification to approve her "purchase" The only way to get the app on her iPod was for me to "purchase" it on my iPhone; she could then download it from purchases on her iPod.
From my searching the communities and other forums (1) seems to be a common problem, but I have not yet seen a global solution posted. (2) also seems to be prevalent.
Note that when my son went to purchase an App for the Macbook Air, I did received the notification.
Any assistance would be great.

Hey Charliebunny,
Thanks for the question. The following resources may help you grasp a better understanding of Family Sharing:
Family Sharing
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT201060
Sharing purchased content with Family Sharing
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT201085
Thanks,
Matt M.

Issue with Family Sharing and unshareable apps

My husband and I just upgraded to iPhone 6's with iOS 8.0. Previously, we both used my Apple ID for all app purchases on our old phones. With iOS 8.0, we turned on the Family Sharing feature. We would both like to install the mobile app for our bank (TD (Canada)). With Family Sharing turned on, this app is listed as one of my purchases. However, it is also listed as "unshareable". I can install the app on my phone, but when my husband tries to install the app, he gets a message saying that the app has already been purchased using a different Apple ID and cannot be installed on his phone. Note that on his phone, he does not even see the app under my purchases when he goes to App Store | Updates | Purchased. However, if he searches for the app in the App Store, instead of a "FREE" button, he sees the iCloud download icon.
Has anyone else run into this problem and figured out how to fix it, or is this just an iOS 8.0/iTunes/App Store/iCloud bug? It actually does not make sense that a free banking app would be "unshareable" under Family Sharing in the first place since several members of the same family will most likely use the same bank.
Thanks for your help!

I have the same issue. I spent an hour on the phone with Apple and they don't have a clean fix for it. The issue seems to be with apps that developers have not yet set the Family share-able flag as yes or no. They said that when developers update the flag this will resolve itself. Meanwhile, if in the app store the details of the app under Family Sharing it says "Not Available" it will be an issue. I found a reasonable workaround for this particular issue by hiding the original purchase and "re-purchasing" as follows: Disclaimer/Note: Not all Apps are share-able, (even free ones.) If the app you are trying to deal with is an actual paid for app, you will be buying it again! Better to wait until the core issue gets fixed, unless you are willing to pay for it again.
1. On a PC or Mac, in iTunes, have the original purchaser log in to the iTunes store, then under Quick Links click on Purchased. Click on Apps at the top and find the app that is at issue. (Hint: The apps are not necessarily listed under the obvious app name. I was looking for Colorspot from SherwinWilliams, and found it under SherwinWlliams, not Colorspot.) Once you find the app, hover over it and click on the X in the upper left corner to hide it. Do this for all the apps that are at issue. (See Disclaimer/Note above)
2. On the iOS device that is having the problem, close the App Store app. (If you have many apps at issue you might make a list, or take a screenshot first)
3. On the same iOS device, find the app and delete it. (not ideal but it works!). Once you have all the apps at issue deleted, reboot, and make sure you are logged in to the iTunes store as the secondary "purchaser", (If you are logged in as the original purchaser you probably wouldn't have the issue in the first place, although to me that means going a bit backwards and not really using the Family Sharing program.)
4. Open the App store app, if you started the whole process with an app that wouldn't update, confirm that the app is no longer listed.
5. Search the store for the problem app as though it was a new purchase (at this point it is.) Once found, it should be listed with the "Free" or a "price" icon. If it shows the cloud and download arrow icon the hiding you did in step 1 hasn't updated yet. Wait awhile longer. (Reboot again? Re-log into store again?) (Also note here, that a properly shared app will show the cloud/download arrow icon and would be download-able without issue.) If it shows as Update, it hasn't actually been deleted from the device. If all is well, you should be able to proceed with a typical "purchase" of the item. (See Disclaimer/Note above) If the family member has multiple devices, repeat 2-5 for each device.
If you have multiple family sharing members wanting the app you will have to repeat step 1, hiding the purchase in each iTunes account until all family members have gone through the re-purchase process. After fixing all of their devices, each person can go back into iTunes, click on Account under Quick Links, go to iTunes in the Cloud section, Hidden Purchases line, click Manage, and unhide the hidden apps. This would be important for future sharing when the bugs get worked out.
Good luck!

Separate iTunes accounts with family sharing

I would like to keep my children's iTunes accounts separate as they use gift cards to pay for their purchases. Is this possible with Family Sharing?

You have posted your question in a relatively ow traffic forum - Using Apple Support Communities, basically concerned with how to use, navigate, find stuff in he overall Discussions area.
If you will post the devices you are using and their OSes, we can ask our gracious Hosts to move it a more appropriate forum where I am sure you will get an answer.
best regards
ÇÇÇ

Difficulty with Family Sharing

I'm having a bunch of issues with Family Sharing. Since in apparently touches the App Store, iTunes Store, iOS, and OS X / iTunes, I'm not 100% sure where to post this.
I have a family of 4, all of whom have unique iTunes IDs. For me (primary user / organizer) I have 2 IDs. One for iTunes. one for iCloud (data). All other users have one ID.
I set up family share, and added my wife as a parent, and my two kids as children. No apparent problems.
When I tried to test it out, I ran in to the following issues:
1.) each of my children were invited to become the organizer of a Family Sharing group, even though they were both enrolled in my Family Share. I was the person using their devices at the time, so I declined. I do not know what would have happened if they had the devices and accepted, nor do I know if it will happen again.
2.) passwords... we are constantly being barraged for requests for passwords... back to back. Ideally, I would love my kids to be able to make purchases without passwords as long as I have to approve them anyway. Is this possible?
3.) I thought one of the big features was that any purchase one Family Share member made was available to all users in that Share group. So far (a couple of hours later) neither of the songs that I purchased off of my two kid's individual iPads (separate Children accounts) is available to me on my iPad, iPhone, or Mac / iTunes. I have the options for automatically download songs turned on.
4.) The Parent Approval process seems to be flawed, or I'm not quite understanding it. When the notification comes in, if you're at your iPad or iPhone and you see the notification right away, you can approve it. Then your kid has to enter their password AGAIN to download it. If, however, you don't catch the notification right away, it disappears. I don't see where it is flagged for you, as the parent, as a TO DO item. It is in the NOTIFICATIONS screen, which I rarely use. Problem is that, even though it is in the notification screen, tapping on that notification does nothing except for "kind of" freezing the screen. I say "kind of" because hitting the home button brings you back to the home screen and normal function, but I can see no way to actually approve their purchases. I'm getting the same results on an iPad Air (gen 1), and iPhone 6 plus.
I think there were a couple of other snags, but these are my big issues. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Welcome to the Apple Community.
Yes

Why can't we use iTunes gift cards with family sharing? After Christmas, we now have lots of account credit we can't use. Very frustrating.

Why can't we use iTunes gift cards with family sharing? After Christmas, we now have lots of account credit we can't use. Very frustrating. There is no option found for using account credit.

I just logged out of my daughter's account and back in, and now it works. Deducted from gift card account balance. So I hope this is resolved.

Should I switch from shared iCloud account with wife to two separate accounts with family sharing?

My wife and I have always shared 1 iCloud accpunt between our our 5s phones, iPad, and an old 4s which is now just a toy for our toddler. With ios 8 I am not sure if it is possible or practical any more. We do it to share purchases and the photo stream and a Google calendar.
With ios 8, it seems to be impossible for both of our phones to share their location. From what I can tell, only 1 device at a time on the icloud account can share its location. Is that a correct assumption? And icloud no longer gives the option for each of us to sign into separate itunes accounts on find my friends. We are forced to sign in with our 1 shared iCloud account. So we can no longer use find my friends to see each other's location.
So has ios8 rending sharing an iCloud account useless? I'm wondering if we now need to have separate accounts and link them with family sharing. Will we lose the benefits of having our 1 shared account? I just wanted to make sure we wouldn't lose anything if I set her up with a new account and linked it with family sharing.

I have lots of questions about this and other things too; I have been sharing my account with my wife and daughter for years through 10s of iPhones and iPads and with the introduction of IOS8 we are having lots of new and not so fun problems.
As to your question about location. I have three iPhones and one iPad using the same account now (on IOS 8) and all four devices show up with Find my iPhone. My wife's was not showing up today but I went in and turned on the new feature "Send last Location" and all of a sudden her phone was able to be found again. Not sure if that will solve your problem but just wanted you to know that I have the four devices all showing up in Find my iPhone with a shared account.

Why can't I use PayPal with Family Sharing? Have a US Visa card but foreign address, and Apple does not seem to be able to cope with that (even though it is a multinational corporation). Could we lean on Apple to change this policy?

Paypal for Family Sharing - Why can't I use PayPal with Family Sharing? Have a US Visa card but a foreign address, and Apple does not seem to be able to cope with that (even though it is a multinational corporation). So I set up payment with Paypal, and it worked fine. Now I want to take advantage of Family Sharing, but Apple won't allow it. Could we lean on Apple to change this policy?

If you are not in the US then you cannot use the US store, the store's terms say that you have to be in a country to use it - if you are using the US store then you are risking having your account disabled.
In terms of feedback for Apple : http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Using Apple ID Balance with Family Sharing Enabled

I currently have 4 Apple accounts setup within my Family Sharing settings. All four are setup to use a shared payment method from my account. My primary account has a balance, yet any purchase made from a family member only uses the credit card. Only purchases I make deduct from my balance. Is there a way to have the shared family devices pull from the primary account's balance first before charging the credit card?

Hello MattPanton,
Lets see if we can isolate the issues with Family Sharing. Lets start with the Contacts issue. Now with Family Sharing, Contacts is something that is not part of what can be shared. You would be looking at things like purchases, calendars and the Find My iPhone features. So as far seeing the wrong contacts, check to make sure that your account is not signed in anywhere on her devices. To answer your other question about how to obtain someone else’s purchases you would need to navigate to the appropriate store, like iTunes and App stores, and navigate to the purchases area and you should see the option of the other person to see what you can download to your device. Take a look at the articles below and let me know if you need any thing else or further assistance.
Family Sharing
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201060
iCloud: Change iCloud feature settings
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2613
Sharing purchased content with Family Sharing
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201085
Regards,
-Norm G.

HT201976 With Family sharing can you share specific iTunes Playlists rather than the complete library?

With Family sharing can you share specific iTunes Playlists rather than the complete library?

With Family sharing can you share specific iTunes Playlists rather than the complete library?

Using iMessage on iOS 8 with family sharing can other people linked to the account see my iMessages? We each have our own apple IDs.

Using iMessage on iOS 8 with family sharing can other people linked to the account see my iMessages? We each have our own apple IDs.

no… the way to confirm is make sure in settings>messages>send and receive that all the apple ids are different in there.

Is DRM still present within the Apple Store with Family Sharing on?

It seems as though any album between 1998-2004 is not compatible with Family Sharing and ultimately doesn't download property. It will say it downloaded and it appears in my music library, but it won't play. Please help if you have a solution. I've been looking for ages.

Sullyrows,
If you purchased any songs from the iTunes Store before mid-2009, they were likely DRM-infected.
If you or a family member downloads a fresh copy, it too will have DRM. To play it, the computer must be authorized to the account from which it was purchased.
I am not aware that Family Sharing creates any exception to this, although I have not actually tried it.

Ask to buy functionality with family sharing.

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