Family Sharing - Combining Accounts

I have a family with a large collection of Apple devices. I have some questions about Family Sharing. I have read some of the documentation on the Family Sharing pages but it does not really answer my questions.
Due to some legacy items, we have basically two iTunes Accounts (three if you count one my daughter set up for school). I have one account (with some purchases) & the others are listed with my wife. This has the majority of purchases via iTunes. There are also some purchases on my daughter's school account.
Just recently, I reconfigured our iCloud Accounts to individual accounts for each family member. This was "required" for the changes brought about by iOS 8 & the changes with Find Friends App (need a separate iCloud account for each person). This has worked well.
Now for Family Sharing. I started it off my sending out an invite to my wife, which was accepted on my son's iPhone. Now, my wife is now my son according to Family Sharing (if this makes sense). It appears that I need to set up a separate iTunes Account for each person in my family. Before I go too far on something that I need to back out from (especially considering that everything is working OK at the moment), I need a heads-up on some questions:
Do I need to set up a separate account for each family member?
Since I have already created an iCloud account for each family member, is the iTunes account already created or do I have to create it separately?
Does Family Sharing work off the iTunes Account or the iCloud Account?
Once I have created an iTunes Account for each family member, I set up the Family sharing account under my iTunes Account & send an invite to each family member
Once they have accepted, then we can share iTunes purchases
This mean that my daughter (for example) will be able will be able to download the purchases we have already made under my wife account, even though she is logged on with another iTunes Accound
I will also be able to download the purchases made under my wife's iTunes account (even though I am the Family Sharing "organiser)
Finally, a question about synching with a iMac. I want to synch each device with just one computer in the house. Will this work? Each device will have separate iTunes account. Currently, there is the message about authorising for the iTunes account. What happens when there are multiple devices set up to synch on one computer. Is there anything special I have to do to get it to work (if it does work)?
Some detailed questions, but I have not been able to get clarity on what needs to happen.

I'm afraid that aliases remain tied forever to the account which created them - you can't move them to another account nor turn them into an actual account.

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Family sharing itunes account

Family of 5 sharing itunes account can each have an individual icould account?

Yes, in fact it's recommended that you do. you can create separate iCloud accounts with separate Apple IDs and still share the same iTunes ID (the IDs do not have to be the same). You should also use separate IDs for iMessage and FaceTime to avoid getting each other's text messages and FaceTime calls. Using your individual iCloud IDs for iMessage and FaceTime will accomplish this.

Family Sharing, iTunes Account NOT Apple ID

I'd like to turn on Family Sharing.
However, it seems the only way to turn on Family Sharing is through my Apple ID on my iOS device
Settings > iCloud > Family Sharing
The issue I have is that my iTunes and App Store purchases are not using my Apple ID. I created a different ID (long time ago) for iTunes. So, all my purchases are with this ID, not my Apple ID.
For example: on my iOS device
Settings > iCloud > [email protected]
Settings > iTunes & App Store > myitunesid (there is no @email.com associated with this ID)
All my iTunes (music and apps) purchases are with myitunesid ID, not with [email protected] ID.
I'm assuming if I active Family Sharing with my iCloud (actual Apple ID), there won't be any purchases associate with the account. Nor will there be, as long as I keep using the myitunesid account.
Hope this makes sense.

Yes, in fact it's recommended that you do. you can create separate iCloud accounts with separate Apple IDs and still share the same iTunes ID (the IDs do not have to be the same). You should also use separate IDs for iMessage and FaceTime to avoid getting each other's text messages and FaceTime calls. Using your individual iCloud IDs for iMessage and FaceTime will accomplish this.

How do I invite existing iCloud accounts to my Family Sharing account as Children?

My kids have had various iOS devices over the years, and created their own iCloud accounts for backups, email, etc with the introduction of iOS 7 (maybe 6). Family Sharing is a long overdue solution to managing to all the devices in a family.
My question is: How do I invite an existing iCloud account holder into my Family as a Child?
By default, these accounts are imported as Adults. Deleting my kids' accounts and starting over with new accounts is NOT and option, therefore without the ability to flag these existing accounts as "Child", this Family Sharing is a useless feature.
Any insights on how I can invite Child accounts to my Family Sharing Organizer account would be much appreciated.
~Rick

If the child is 13 or older, you can. Just set the birthday to 13 years old and it will work just fine.
If the child is under 13, you can't. Apple decided that you didn't need that functionality, just like me and apparently half the planet.

How do I change the organizer of a Family Sharing account

My husband is the organize of our Family Sharing iCloud account, and since he travels a lot, it makes it difficult for him to approve app downloads for our kids. I'd lIke to change the organizer to my account so we can avoid this, but I can't figure out how to do that and wasn't able to find anything on Apple's support site. Has anyone done this is and can give me some direction?
TIA

Here's what iTunes Podcaster help says:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html
Troubleshooting Your Feed
iTunes should update your listing at least once every 24 hours. If you made changes more than 24 hours ago that are not yet reflected in your iTunes listing, there is a good chance that your feed has broken. When iTunes encounters a broken feed, it ignores the feed and continues to display the old data.
Here is a set of recommended steps to fix your feed:
Ping your feed to make sure iTunes has attempted to update your feed recently.
Review the technical spec, particularly the example feed, to ensure that every detail of your podcast’s feed is supported by iTunes.
Use a feed validation service like www.feedvalidator.org to check for particular problems. This may be helpful in determining a specific problem with syntax.
If you used a software- or online-based feed creation service, check to ensure your settings there are correct and iTunes-compliant.
Subscribe to the feed in iTunes to see if it works. Open iTunes, go to the Advanced menu, choose "Subscribe to podcast..." and enter your feed’s URL.
Hope this helps - Podcaster's discussion board might have more answers:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1107

Family sharing with a non primary iCloud ID?!

I have been living in different countries for the past couple years.
I have:
Account A - primary iCloud account (also as developer account) set to HK (no iOS App purchases)
Account B - my App Store account in HK
Account C - my old Canadian iTunes account where I bought apps and most of my movies (even now) when iTunes wasn't available in HK.
My question is .... My iPhone, iPad, Macbook are all using my Account A as primary account. iPhone, iPad can let me set iTunes with a different account (Account B & C) other than my primary iCloud account.
When I tried to set up family sharing with Account C so my brother and sister can share the movies I bought from Canadian iTunes, it asked me to log out my iCloud Account A from iPhone and login with the one I want to share. But my all my Apple devices are using my Account A as primary where phone book, calendar and more are associated with. How may I set family sharing on Account C ONLY without setting up Account C as my iPhone iCloud account on my phone or any other Apple devices?
Thank you very much and looking forward to hear from anyone of you.
Regards,
Richard

Howdy Willoughbee,
It sounds like you want to know if you can use Family Sharing to share purchases with with other family members when you aren’t the Organizer. Yes, the article linked below provides a lot of great information about Family Sharing and will walk you through sharing purchases with family members.
Sharing purchased content with Family Sharing
I hope this helps.
-Jason

Family Sharing won't work because I have two separate accounts for iCloud and iTunes

I have two Apple accounts, one that is connected to my iTunes Store purchases, and another for iCloud. I had to do this for reasons related to transitioning from the old MobileMe service to iCloud a few years ago.
So now with Family Sharing, if I use my iTunes account, I can't share calendars or other iCloud type information, and if I use my iCloud account I can't share my music and app purchases.
Is there anything I can do to remedy this? Can I combine everything into a single account somehow?

Under "Setting up Family Sharing" here: https://developer.apple.com/icloud/documentation/family-sharing/ it says:
"You can accept a Family Sharing invitation from any compatible iOS device or Mac where you are signed into iCloud. Or, if the organizer is nearby, they can simply ask you to enter your iCloud Apple ID and password during the setup process. To complete setup, you will also confirm the Apple ID you use for the iTunes, iBooks, and App Stores so you can share your purchases with family members."
This suggests that you can specify a different ID for the iTunes store if you aren't using your iCloud ID for purchasing.

How can I Migrate/Split itunes/icloud account for a large family now that they have family sharing

Ok, now that Apple has finally come out with family sharing I need to get things sorted out and I think it is going to be a mess. I have 6 family members (my spouse and 4 children) all sharing/using one itunes account. For parental reasons this made perfect sense. Now with the the advent of family sharing and such we have alot of sorting and migrating to do and I am very unsure how to go about it. Here is what we have.
Myself - I have a 64GB iPad 3 and a 64GB iPhone 5
Spouse - 64GB iPhone 5
Children - x4 16GB iPhone 5C (pink, blue, green, and a yellow)
We have had one itunes account now for several years, we used to have x4 16GB iphone 4's and a 16GB iPod touch 4 so we needed it to be shared at the time. We all have different Game Center ID's and Facetime/iMessages are all setup to the phone numbers (aside from mine which also uses the itunes e-mail). We currently have 1 upgraded icloud account with 200GB of storage on it (love the new tiers). So here are the questions.
1) How do I go about using and isolating all the devices so they can all use the iCloud storage? Right now if I try and setup backups by device under the what to backup there is no simple "Full Backup" option, they have all the categories separated. I cannot backup my daughters contacts without forcing a merging of them and so on. Same thing with Documents and Data. Would I need to setup a different iCloud account for each device now?
2) iTunes Music/App purchases. Now that they have a family sharing function I am assuming it would be a good time to separate all the devices (aside from my personal iPad/iPhone). If I understand correctly we need to setup a new itunes account for each and link them with family sharing, does this then allow us to disperse/move items from a singular to the multiple account (at least a one time option to move around) or would it simply be shared off the original account? My daughter for example will be 18 next summer and as such no longer under our care. How do we move her items to her account? She has a lot of purchased Music. Now keep in mind I am talking about an account for someone who was 12 when she had her first device and as such needed to be under her parents.
I just want to state that repurchasing things is NOT an option, and to be frank, according to Canadian laws pertaining to *licensing* we actually own the product if we paid for it and have the right to transfer the ownership thereof. This issue went through the courts regarding used copies of OEM editions of Microsoft Windows several years ago and they closed the legal *license* vs ownership separation.

Go to appleid.apple.com to manage the ID, sign in and select to the Name, ID and Email Addresses section, then change the birth date on the bottom right. At the present time you may not be able to enter the correct birth date, but others have had success changing the year to 2000, or the date to 1/1/2001, both of which will have child ID status.

How do I set up family sharing if all my family members emails are already associated with my iTunes account?

I want to set up family sharing but it won't let me because all the emails are already associated with the one iTunes account we have. I am afraid to delete because my children use that email address for text messaging. How do I set up family sharing if all my family members emails are already associated with my iTunes account?

Hey Wendaroski,
I am not quite sure what you mean by "my family members emails are already associated with my iTunes account" but what you need for each family member is an Apple ID. Yours would be the one for your iTunes account.
If the other members of the family already have an Apple ID you can invite them to join the family group. If not they will need to create one, using their email address. This article shows how -
Set up an Apple ID in iTunes - Apple Support
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Be well,
Brett L

Can I use two different iTunes accounts on one computer without using Family sharing

So my wife made the mistake of logging into her iTunes account on my computer to purchase some music and she also (without knowing what she was doing) turned on family sharing at some point.
This is irritating for multiple reasons:
Now I have hundreds of artists added to my iTunes match, all of who I care nothing about and don't want the clutter in my artist list, but I can't figure out how to permanently delete them off of my account. Also, now if I login to my account on iTunes I can't play any of my music for 90 days.
Is there ANY way for me to re-organize my music, delete her junk, and get myself back to where I can play my purchased music on my iTunes account? Any time I try to organize or delete her music it shows back up next time I open it.
I almost feel like I need to download all of my music off of the cloud, delete my iTunes account, and then open another one AFTER organizing my music while offline and then enable match again. Everything is so cluttered and frustrating. Looking for some advice.

1. Give her a separate user account on your computer. If you have a backup copy of the library, you can restore it.
2. If you encounter a 90-day waiting period, click here and ask the iTunes Store staff if they'll remove it.
(125941)

How can I move my wife's account under my apple ID to a new Apple ID for her and switch to family sharing?

I have 4 devices under my apple ID. 1 iPAD is used by my wife and has her own mail account setup. With family sharing, I would like to move that account to an Apple ID of her own and add her to the family list. How do I do that?

Hello Godde
Lets start with checking out the articles below for setting up Family Sharing and more information about Apple ID’s. I will say that you will not be able to transfer any purchases to a different Apple ID, but you can rename the Apple ID. If you want to use Family Sharing, then you will need to just create a new iCloud account and then follow the steps in the second article to start sharing content between you to.
Using your Apple ID for Apple services
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4895
Sharing purchased content with Family Sharing
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT201085
Regards,
-Norm G.

How can a parent restrict a child's access to a PARENT'S PRE-EXSISTING iTunes account via iCloud's Family Sharing Program?

How can a parent restrict a child's access to a PARENT'S PRE-EXSISTING iTunes account via iCloud's Family Sharing Program? To explain further... I have a young son who is on my iCloud family sharing program... I am excited to be able to share SOME of my music in my iTunes library, but there are some songs and music videos that are not age appropriate for him and currently there is no way to restrict him from viewing and downloading anything off of my iTunes library. Yes, I suppose I can delete the songs he shouldn't have access to, but I don't think I should have to do that... I paid for them and still like them and listen to them while I work out or am without my kids. Is there a way for me to personally select which songs/videos I would like to "hide" from my children in an effort to shield them from inappropriate content?

Hello ggg39,
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!
I understand that you have some content in your iTunes library that you would like to restrict access for the child set up on Family Sharing with you. To do this, you can set restrictions on the child’s device as described in the attached article.
Family Sharing - Apple Support
Now kids under 13 can have their own Apple IDs. As a parent or legal guardian, the family organizer can create an Apple ID for a child and add the child to the family group automatically. Ask to Buy is turned on by default, and the organizer can also limit the content kids have access to on their devices through Restrictions on an iOS device or parental controls in OS X and iTunes.
For more information on restrictions and how to set them up, please reference the next attached article.
About Restrictions (parental controls) on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support
Have a great day,
Joe

A method to convert an existing iCloud account to a Child iCloud Account for Family Sharing

I do not see any method by which to convert an existing iCloud account (we have three set up for our kids, all their birthdays are set later than their actual birthdays so we could grab their actual names before they were all gone years ago) to a new Child iCloud Account for use with Family Sharing (namely to be able to take advantage of the new features: Family Calendar, Photostream, 'Ask to Buy' on the Stores, etc. on their own iPad minis.
If this is just not possible under the current scheme, please oh please Apple make this an option - there are probably thousands of others in this same boat, and I refuse to give up my kids' iCloud accounts!

I've read every string and workaround solution on these forums (to date). There's really no good options here.
USER STORY: My kid (age 7) has an iPad 2. I created an email address for him (which he doesn't know about). I created an apple ID for him (which he also doesn't know or care about) and I set up his Apple ID with my credit card. In addition I've set up parental controls on the iPad to lock it down and make it more age appropriate. Over the past year or so it's worked out fine, he sees something he might like, brings the iPad to me and if I approve, I enter the Apple ID Password and approve the purchase. After a year of doing this, he has a nice little collection of apps, kid songs, a few movies, etc. I would like to move my kid over to a legitimate kid account now that Apple has released features that support this. Currently the ability to convert an account does not exist. Seems like it should be easy to change a birthday, etc.
Almost seems like Apple is penalizing us for getting our kid an iPad last year.
Apple - Please consider my user story for your upcoming feature enhancements.

I set up family sharing wrong, so i left family sharing and joined the right way agin but an error occurred and now it tells me I'll have to wait 364 days to rejoin again! How can I reset my account so I can use it again?

WWhen I set up family sharing i did it with me as family organizer, but as my spouse is the organizer I had to leave the "family" I created and join his. But while setting it up an error occurred, and the screen went blank. Now I tried to join his family sharing again, and my phone keeps telling me I can't because accounts can only join families twice a year.
I Don't really want to wait 364 days from now, is there a way in which I can reset my accoint so I can join family sharing again?
Apple support doesn't have a solution for me yet!
KInd regards

This morning I looked at my family sharing account again an IT WORKS NOW! Think Apple has done a reset to my account, though I'm not exactly sure why! So I hope it works for you guys as well!

My daughter purchased a movie that I approved (Family Sharing) however, it is not showing up in my iTunes account so that we all may watch it on TV?

My daughter purchased a movie that I approved (Family Sharing), however, it is not showing up in my iTunes account so that we all may watch it on TV?

As you connect your ipod to iTunes, an option in the upper right of the screen will appear. When you click this, it will show the different menu for your ipod.

Family Sharing - Combining Accounts

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