Family Share child purchases surprise!!

So I setup family share for my wife and kids. My 13 year old is all setup with her AppleId and has to ask for purchases off my main account. (App Store is logged in using her Apple ID - no cc)
When she tried to update her apps she was prompt with a notice stating all free apps will be copied to her Apple ID now.. Sure,, makes sense they are free.
For every free app she tried updating and copy to her Apple ID I had to authorize it and enter my password every time. (32 times to be exact! Quite annoying)
All previous apps I made with my Apple ID (which I'm now sharing with my family) she got no prompt and didn't have to ask permission. Weird...
So now the big test came up! Time to try buying an actual app! She picked an app and clicked on buy. She got a prompt stating she needed to ask permission. So she did,,, I got my prompt asking to approve the purchase on my credit card.
Well.. To my surprise.. The purchase ends up being linked to HER AppleId. She bought that app with my approval and my credit card....whattttt? I thought ALL purchases were still going to end up on MY AppleID... This is not at all how I thought this would work... If she disconnects from Family Share I don't have access to that app anymore...even though I bought it. I'd have to purchase it again.....
There really needs to be better documentation on how all of this works and some advanced options settings so that all family share purchases stay on the main AppleID Of whoever paid for it.
I think I'll set the AppStore Apple Id on all my kids devices to mine like I had it setup before ios8. That way all purchases will remain on my AppleId

Hi there oobeto,
From what you describe it sounds like you may need to invite the 3rd account to join Family Sharing. This section of the following article should help you out:
Start or join a family group using Family Sharing
Invite people to join your family
Use these steps in iOS 8:
Go to Settings > iCloud > Family > Add Family Member.
Enter your family member's name or email address.
Follow the onscreen instructions. After you send the invitation, you can check its status under the person's name in Settings > iCloud > Family.
Use these steps in OS X Yosemite:
Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click iCloud.
Click Manage Family.
Click +, then follow the onscreen instructions.
You can also use these steps to create an Apple ID for a child and add them to your family group. When you create an account for a child, you must use a credit card as the payment method as part of providing your parental consent. After you create the child's Apple ID, you can change your payment method back to a debit card if you choose.
Join a family group
You can accept or decline an invitation to join a family from you iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac. If the invitation is sent to your email address, you can also respond right from your email. To accept an invitation in iOS 8, go to Settings > iCloud > Invitations. In OS X Yosemite, choose Apple menu > System Preferences > iCloud > Manage Family. Then follow the onscreen instructions.
Here's what you'll be asked to do when you join:
Confirm your Apple ID and password.
Choose if you want to share your content and which iTunes Store account you want to share from.
Choose if you want to share your location. If you agree, your location can be displayed on family members’ devices in Find My Friends and Messages, and the location of your shared devices will also appear on family members’ devices in Find My iPhone.
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
All the best,
Sterling

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Family sharing child purchases (under 13)

I just setup 3 new ipad mini's for my sister and her 2 kids (my niece/nephew) and I'm having an issue with purchases from child accounts.
I updated all their devices to ios8 before creating any accounts.
The first ipad is setup with my sister's icloud/appleID account. All her credit card info is loaded and she can now make purchases.
Under her icloud settings I enabled Family Sharing. I used the "create an Apple ID for a child" to create 2 accounts. (they are both under 13)
Now her kids each have their own child Apple ID. Perfect!
Now on each of the kids ipads I setup their icloud with their new Child AppleID account. It shows that they are both part of my sisters "Family" account.
Now, when I go to the app store and select Purchased.. there's NO accounts or purchases being displayed. Strange as this account is linked to my sisters..
So then I went to try and download a FREE app as a test to see if this child account would get a prompt to ASK for permission. What I was presented with was a prompt saying I wasn't logged in the App Store.. so ok.. I went to Settings iTunes&AppStore and tried to login with the child Apple ID (which was already entered without the password). I only got an ERROR stating it can't connect to the App Store. I'm guessing because since this is a child account.. a valid iTunes account doesn't exist yet.
Am I supposed to enter my sisters AppleID account here too now? Doesn't this defeat the purpose of Family Sharing? Makes no sense!
I don't want to proceed changing any other settings just in case they get locked out.
HELP!

nobody has ran in this situation?

Why can't I just use my debit card for adding my child to family share?!

I want to use my child on family share but can't because I don't need or want a credit card, my bank has fraud protection, who actually just called me about fraud because I purchased the newest iPhone! I don't like credit cards. Why can't I just use my debit card as usual? Kids can get credit cards just as easily as they can debit cards! This is ridiculous. Why isn't there another option to verify I am the parent?! I am so beyond angry right now. Like I am being punished for not owning a credit card!! Otherwise there will be another way to do this. A person should have the freedom to use their chosen form of payment without missing out on all the options available. Honestly even if I wanted a credit card I haven't enough credit because of past mistakes. So this is not making me happy at all.

Mad Parent,
I feel your pain. We refuse to have credit cards, too; yet it's required in order to create a child's apple id. I will most definitely be leaving feedback with Apple. This is absolutely ridiculous that we can't just use our debit cards! Mine is a VISA. I use it to make CREDIT CARD transactions everywhere else, why not be able to use it the same way here!?
I just had to restore my sons phone because he forgot his 4-digit password and got it disabled. I didn't have it already on my itunes so my only option was to restore it. I wanted to create his own apple id so he didn't have to keep using mine. Because every time he downloads a new game it automatically ends up on MY device as well, not just his. Anyway, he needs his own apple id. But, apparently, that won't be happening until Apple gets their heads out of their butts and figures out how to serve ALL of their customers!
Signed,
Equally Mad Parent

Family share purchase approval not working

We've set up family sharing across 4 iOS devices. two parents, two children, we've enabled "ask to buy" on the child accounts (ages 13 and 14). All devices are running the latest version of iOS. We've set up a credit card for the family organizer.
When one of the children tries to buy something in iTunes or in the App store, they get a message that says that they need to verify their payment info. If they click on "verify" they get asked to provide a method of payment. They cannot make purchases using the family organizer's credit card. I entered the credit card info, and now they are able to make purchases without any approval.
I went into settings on the child phone, pulled up iCloud, and it shows that the organizer's credit card is associated with this family group.
What am I doing wrong? How do I allow the child accounts to use the family share credit card?

I believe the credit would have to be on his iTunes store account, not yours, in order to be applied to his purchases before any balance due is charged to the organizer's credit card. Your purchases would be charged to your credit first.

How do I use family share to setup a new device for my child when I don't already have one with iOS 8?

My kids want apple products.
I don't own any.
I buy an iPad for one and an iPhone for the other, but I can't set them up because they require me to setup Family Share and create accounts. I can't do that because I don't have a device with iOS 8 already setup.
I do have a valid AppleID. I've had it for years. I use it with iTunes.
I wish they would just let me manage the account setup and Family Share through a web page. Right now I'm dead in the water and Christmas is approaching fast.

I have found a solution.
It turns out that all the documentation I could find on the web was wrong. At least in the case of the iPad I just bought. I did manage to borrow a device so that I could setup family share and the kids accounts, but when I went to enter the new existing account into the setup of the iPad, it then started leading me through the process to create the account (clearly it didn't bother to check if it really existed already). In reality, I believe had I just entered a "new ID" for my child, that didn't exist, it would have led me through the same process. As it was, I had to back out to the first screen and skip the creation process, since I had already created the IDs elsewhere.
The only part I'm not clear on, is if I still would first have needed to turn on family sharing for my ID before starting this whole process, or whether it would automate that while creating the child AppleID.

How can i set up an apple id for a child in family share with a debit card?

I am a new iphone user and I would like to setup a family share account on the cloud for my daughters. It says I should be able to use a debit card, but it keeps telling me that I need a credit card to prove I am an adult? My card is a debit/credit card.

You can't. The use of a credit card to verify your identity and give consent for a child to access online services that may collect data is a legal requirement. You can change the payment method after setting it up if you like.
If that presents a problem for you, complain to your congressman. Apple didn't implement the requirement because the wanted to, but because the law requires them to.

I have a family member added to my iCloud account thinking that we could share my purchased storage, but that has not happened.

I have added my wife to my iCloud account so that we could share my purchased storage (200GB), but I find no indication on her devices that she is able to do that. She has access to no more that the basic storage. All Apple devices have latest software installed (iPhone 5 & 6, iPad 3 & mini 2, MacBook Air 2011 & 20012). Is there another procedure that I need to use, after adding her as Family on my iCloud account?

iCloud storage is assigned to and only available for the AppleID it was created under. It is not included as a shared resource for Family share.

HT204053 Is it possible to have two (or more) different icloud mail accounts (not alias) under the same apple id? If not what is you best advice for all family members to have their own e-mail and still share the purchases under the same apple id. Thanks

Is it possible to have two (or more) different icloud mail accounts (not alias) under the same apple id? If not what is you best advice for all family members to have their own e-mail and still share the purchases under the same apple id. Thanks

mannyace wrote:
Thanks for the response.
So I basically won't run into any trouble? I
There should be no issues. Its designed to work like that. You don't change Apple IDs just because you get a new device.
mannyace wrote:
Thanks for the response.
Is there any chance that the phones can fall out of sync?
Unlikely. But nothing is impossible. Though I don;t see how that would happen. As long as both are signed into the Same Apple ID / iCloud Account they will be N'Sync. (Bad Joke)
mannyace wrote:
Thanks for the response.
If I get a message or buy an app or take a photo on the iPhone 5, how do I get those things onto the iPhone 6?
If you buy an App, you have 2 ways to get it to the iPhone6: If Automatic Downloads is enabled in Settings->iTunes & App Store, it will automatically download to the iPhone 6 when you buy it on the 5 and vice versa if you buy it on the 6, it will download to the 5.
Alternatively, you can simply go to the App Store App->Updates->Purchased and look for the App there and download it. Purchased Apps will not require payment again. i.e They'll be free to download to the iPhone 6 once purchased.
SMS Messages will sync over using Continuity as long as they are on the same Wifi network. Otherwise, restoring the iPhone 5 backup to the iPhone 6 will transfer all messages received up until the backup was made onto the iPhone 6.
Images, can be transferred either through Photo Stream
My Photo Stream FAQ - Apple Support
Or any Cloud service you want such as Dropbox, or One Drive.
mannyace wrote:
Also, something i forgot to ask initially: Should I update the iPhone 5 to iOS 8 first or does that not matter?
If you want the Continuity features as explained above you need to update the iPhone 5 to iOS 8. Otherwise its not all that important.

Family share and non itunes purchased music

My wife and I are going to get an ipad mini for the house that we will use for a lot of music storage and entertainment for the house. We have a TON of cd's we purchased back in the day. If I load those into my iTunes, will my wife be able to access that music using family share? Or can you only access music that was purchased? She wants to be able to get that music on her phone.
Thanks!

Okay, so I did as you said, and tried to remove all music from my iphone, and nothing changed on the phone. The unplayable music and playlists all still show up and the purchased music is still playable and on the phone despite removing it all.
I just now told it to not sync any music at all (unchecked the larger sync music tab) and for some reason it repeatedly re-checked itself. After 7 or so attempts I got it to only put on 10 songs (idk why any or even why these particular are on) but now I'm going to try re-adding songs back on.
YESSSSSSS! IT WORKED!!! GAWAAHAHA FINALLY, THANK YOU SO MUCH!

HT5622 Can you share ITunes purchases across multiple Apple ID's within a family? I want to share my music library and apps with my kids, but not have their ipones tied to my Apple ID. What's the best set-up to accomplish this?

Can you share Itunes purchases with family members without them using your Apple ID?

SHARING iTunes MUSIC
http://macmost.com/five-ways-to-share-music-in-itunes.html
Sharing Apps with Family
http://macmost.com/sharing-ios-apps-with-family.html
More Info here > Here-

How do I MERGE the purchases of two iTunes accounts into one Family Share?

We have purchased many apps via two iTunes accounts. How do we merge these purchases into on Family Share account

Hi MacHead2010,
I am not quite sure exactly what you mean by your question. It is not possible to merge two iTunes Store accounts. See this article for reference -
Frequently asked questions about Apple ID - Apple Support
Using Family Sharing, however, does allow all members of a Family Sharing group to use the content such as music, apps, etc on each other's devices.
See this article for how to set up Family Sharing -
OS X Yosemite: Set up Family Sharing
This article will tell you what content can be shared -
Which purchased content can I share using Family Sharing - Apple Support
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L

If i invite my child who is 24 to Family Share do they have to use the credit card I set up or will they have the option to use their own?

I want to set up Family Share, but I want my kids who are over 18 to have the ability to use their own credit cards when purchasing an app or something from iTunes. Is that possible or do they have to always use the card I have on file?

All purchases have to be charged to the organizer's card. The only way to avoid this would be for him to purchase and redeem iTunes store gift cards to create a credit on his iTunes store account. Then his purchases would first be deducted from his credit before any remaining balance would be charged to the organizer's card.

I can't family share a song I purchased today

I bought several songs today. I tried to family share these songs with my wife. Only one of the songs showed up in my recent purchases list. Does anyone know why this happened? Can some songs not be shared?

Soo. I fixed it. All I did was move the files to another place, and then moved them back. Then I just opened it, and it appeared in the library again.

How to get Star Wars Rebels in-app purchase to transfer to children's Family Share account?

My wife downloaded the Star Wars Rebels game to her iphone and to the kids ipod/iphone with a different apple id. We then purchased the full version from inside the app for $5.00. I deleted the version on the kids phone, and went through the family share purchases in itunes to download the version that my wife had. The game works but is limited because it is still telling us that we need to buy it.
How do I get the in-app purchases to transfer to my kids (family share) account.
Yes I tried the restore purchases button in the app already with no success.

Hi, Matt.
Thank you for visiting Apple Support Communities.
I understand that you are running into an scenario where an in-app purchase will not show on a Family Sharing device. At this time, in-app purchases are not able to be shared via Family Sharing. I did verify that the Star Wars Rebels app is able to be shared, but the Content Packs offered with this app are in-app purchases. If you wish to access the Content Pack on another device, you would need to purchase it on that device.
There are a few things that you can't share:
Songs added to iTunes Match from outside the iTunes Store
In-App Purchases
Items that are no longer available on the iTunes Store
Items that were hidden
Apps that aren't shareable
Which purchased content can I share using Family Sharing
Cheers,
Jason H.

IPhone purchases billed to different iTunes accounts on family share?

My wife and I are on a Family Share plan with two iPhones. We did the activation under my iTunes account, but we each have an iTunes account. Is there a way to keep the iTunes purchases separated so that items she buys on her phone are billed to her iTunes account rather than mine?
Is this possible?

There can only be one iTunes account on the iPad, so all App Store apps must be associated with the same account. That said, there are ways to get your own set of apps on the device:
You can send a link to an app on the App Store to the person, and have them expense the cost.
You can gift your apps to the person, and have them install it themselves. You'll end up getting billed for it.
You can work with an enterprise developer to create a custom provisioning profile that allows you to install their apps on your specific device.

Family Share child purchases surprise!!

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