With Family Sharing there is no longer a need to share a single Apple ID with your family group. Family Sharing allows you to share App Store, iTunes, Music, TV purchases, Photos, and Apple subscriptions (including iCloud storage) with up to six family members.
With Apple’s Family Sharing you can set up Apple IDs for children and set permissions, approve your children’s spending and downloads–all from a parent’s device. Children must ask for permission before they are allowed to buy anything, and you’ll receive the request and have to accept or deny from your iPad or iPhone.
Family plans also help locate missing devices for all family members. Pretty awesome!
All family members including children must have their own, unique Apple ID. To create Apple IDs for minors, see this article
All Apple IDs need to be signed in to iCloud
The family organizer must have a payment method on file
iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 8 or later, or Mac with OS X Yosemite or later
If you use multiple Apple IDs on your device, sign out of all but one before joining a Family Sharing plan
How to get started with Family Sharing
Family Sharing allows you (as the family organizer) to add several family members to your account. This is currently limited to six people, and every device must have at least iOS 8 installed. Once you add everyone you can view each other’s purchases and download them just like you would from your own account.
Once it’s activated, if you turn on purchase sharing Apple charges all family purchases to the family organizer’s account, unless the individual’s Apple ID account has a credit. In that case, credits from individual accounts are used first.
You can also remove someone from Family Sharing if you change your mind later, but they will still be able to access any items that they already bought before Family Sharing was activated.
Every Apple ID added to a Family Sharing group has access to everything shared, and anything purchased afterward after you’ve deleted someone won’t be accessible.
How to set up Apple’s Family Sharing Step by Step on iPhone, iPad, iPod & Mac
The family organizer sets up Family Sharing for the group from their iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac. As the family organizer, you receive requests for all your family members’ purchases and need to agree to them (or not!)
Set up family sharing on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
Go to Settings > Apple ID
For older iOS versions, go to Settings > iCloud
Tap Set Up Family Sharing
Choose Get Started
Follow the on-screen instructions
Set up family sharing on your Mac
Go to the Apple menu > System Preferences
For macOS Mojave and below, Apple menu > System Preferences > iCloud
Choose Family Sharing
Check that you use the Apple ID you want to be the family organizer
Select Share My Purchases
Follow the onscreen instructions
How to invite your family members to join your Apple family sharing plan
You can invite anyone that uses iOS 8 and above or Mac OS X Yosemite that also has an Apple ID. You cannot invite anyone that does not have an Apple ID.
On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
Go to Settings > Apple > Family Sharing
For older iOS, go to Settings > iCloud > Family.
Tap Add Family Member
Enter your family member’s Apple ID, name, or email address
Only Family members with an Apple ID can join–remember every member needs to have their own, unique Apple ID
Apple sends an invitation to that person to join your family
For iPadOS and iOS 11+, you can also send an invitation to join your family group via iMessage
On your Mac
For macOS Catalina+
Choose Apple menu > System Preferences > Family Sharing
Click Add Family Member and enter a member
Apple sends an invitation to that person to join your family
That person can accept or decline the invitation
For macOS Mojave and below
Choose Apple menu > System Preferences > iCloud
Tap Manage Family
Press the add family member button (+) and enter a member
Apple sends an invitation to that person to join your family
That person can accept or decline the invitation
What can you do with Apple’s Family Sharing?
Family Sharing lets you connect Apple ID accounts in a variety of ways.
Family Sharing is a very convenient feature that allows you to:
Share your music, TV, movies, and music immediately
Anyone in the group can also share eligible App Store apps, Apple Book Store purchases,
You can also subscribe to a shared Apple Music Family Subscription, an Apple Arcade subscription, an Apple News+ subscription, Apple TV channels subscriptions, an Apple TV+ subscription, and an iCloud storage plan
Share photos with anyone in your Family Sharing group via a shared family photo album
Share calendars (but keep your personal ones as well)
Locate family members via share location settings with the Find My app so you’ll be able to keep track of your family and locate missing/stolen/lost devices
Use Ask to Buy and manage your child’s account with Screen Time for Family Sharing
If desired, you can hide content from your family members. When you hide content, it is not available for your family to download
And, if you don’t want to share in the family photo album, calendar, or reminders, you can unsubscribe from them on your device or on iCloud’s website.
There are some limitations, however.
With family purchase sharing, Apple limits the downloading of music, movies, TV shows, and books to 10 devices per account (with a maximum of 5 computers)
At the moment it’s only possible to create two Family Sharing groups per year, so if you start a group and then decide to delete it later you can only create one more.
Also, you need to wait at least a year before you can create another group, so with that in mind, it’s probably a better idea to delete individual members rather than delete a group unless you really don’t need it.
Lastly, it’s not possible to put purchasing limits on anyone over 18. For children under 13, Apple applies the limits automatically.
Roland Banks has been passionate about Apple for more than a decade. He started his career at British Telecom’s research division working on collaborative virtual reality environments, before becoming a video streaming specialist at 3 UK where he helped launch some of the world’s first mobile video services.
Roland moved to Asia 4 years ago, where he writes about his passion for all things Apple.
This is good info. I have slightly different problem. When I select ‘Family Sharing’ on my macbook, I get this message: “‘myappleid’ is used for shared purchases in another family. Accounts can only be part of one family at a time”. Yikes. But could that just mean my iPad is signed into my Appleid with an older AppleId password? Should I just have all 5 devices logout ?
I have been able to send an invite to my daughter, but when she clicks the link in my email to ‘get started’ it says the link is invalid. We’ve both tried signing out of our Apple ID and in again but this hasn’t made a difference
John Ronan says
This is good info. I have slightly different problem. When I select ‘Family Sharing’ on my macbook, I get this message: “‘myappleid’ is used for shared purchases in another family. Accounts can only be part of one family at a time”. Yikes. But could that just mean my iPad is signed into my Appleid with an older AppleId password? Should I just have all 5 devices logout ?
Alison says
I have been able to send an invite to my daughter, but when she clicks the link in my email to ‘get started’ it says the link is invalid. We’ve both tried signing out of our Apple ID and in again but this hasn’t made a difference
Elizabeth Jones says
Hi Alison,
On your iPhone (or another device using your (the family organizer) Apple ID), go to
Go to Settings > Apple ID > Family Sharing
Tap on your name (the Family Organizer)
Cancel the pending invitation
Once canceled, restart your device and send out the invite again to your daughter.
How to fix the “Invalid Invitation” error in Family Sharing
Let us know if these steps work for you!
Cheers,
Liz