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Jambalaya

macrumors 6502a
Jun 21, 2013
714
151
UK
This is what many do now. The new Family Sharing is better (according to these reports). I'm not sure you understand the issue. My kids will love this, in that it would allow them to put their own card on their account, but we can still pay once for apps amongst the family
I understand that kids will like the shared credit card (which they can do already if you put your card on their iTunes account and with Family Sharing that's what you are doing). My point is that Family Sharing FindMyPhone will allow parents to snoop on their kids and the kids are going to work that out in a nano-second. By the way my kids are 20, 23 and 25.
 

newagemac

macrumors 68020
Mar 31, 2010
2,091
23
I'll quote that for you: "Home Sharing enables you to stream or transfer music, movies, TV shows, apps, and more among up to five authorized computers in your household. To do so, you will need to turn on Home Sharing on each compute using the same Apple ID."

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3819


Exactly. Now go do it. And set up Home Sharing using your Apple ID (or one you just create) on your wife, daughter, son, etc. computer. And watch in amazement as you click on "Store" in iTunes and see that your wife, son, daughter,etc. are STILL logged into iTunes using THEIR OWN Apple ID. Then look back in Home Sharing and see they still have the TOTALLY DIFFERENT Apple ID in Home Sharing.

The Home Sharing setup and the Apple ID for purchases are entirely different things. The Home Sharing setup is just something on top of whatever Apple ID you are already logged onto. It's like a master Apple ID with everyone having their own sub Apple ID. And it's main purpose is exactly as you pointed out in Apple's documents. To enable you to stream or transfer music, movies, TV shows, apps, and more among up to five authorized computers in your household.

Read the bolded parts directly above 100 times until it finally sinks in for you. TRANSFER APPS AMONG UP TO FIVE AUTHORIZED COMPUTERS IN YOUR HOUSEHOLD. That's Home Sharing. This new Family Sharing is expanding upon that but your idea of what the current Home Sharing is, simply isn't the case.
 

Ronlap

macrumors 6502
Sep 7, 2007
269
202
San Francisco Bay Area
What's the big deal?

If you follow MacInTouch, you will know that a lot of people are doing this already by creating a "common" Apple ID that is shared across all of the family's devices and is used only for iTunes purchases, calendars, etc. Apple is just formalizing the process.
 

CAWjr

macrumors 6502
Jan 19, 2010
488
59
Atlanta, GA
I was excited about a lot of things in the keynote, but Family Sharing is probably at the very top of the list. My home is a 2 parent, 2 kid family. We have 2 active iPhones, 2 iPads, 3 passive iPhones (essentially an iTouch), and an iTouch. All of these are on a single Apple ID account for the purpose of app sharing.

One big thing that a lot of people are overlooking is how much stuff is tied to your Apple ID. It's not just music & apps. It's iMessage, Find my iPhone, Keychain, Safari, iBooks, iCloud, etc, etc, etc. Because we are on a single account, there is a TON of bleed over between my phone and my wife's phone and my daughter's iTouch, and our iPads. You can deactivate some of it (my wife's iMessages used to show up on my iPad until we deauthorized it), but other features you can't. Giving everyone their own Apple ID will solve this and give everyone the privacy & autonomy that we all want. Using Family Share to be able to only have to buy a book or song or app once & put it on all our phones/devices is the feature we have been waiting for.

This is so much more than just content sharing. This is giving everyone their own customizable Apple ecosystem experience.
 

tasset

macrumors 6502a
May 22, 2007
572
200
I understand that kids will like the shared credit card (which they can do already if you put your card on their iTunes account and with Family Sharing that's what you are doing). My point is that Family Sharing FindMyPhone will allow parents to snoop on their kids and the kids are going to work that out in a nano-second. By the way my kids are 20, 23 and 25.

Sorry to see you missed the window with your kids being in their 20's. :)
Mine are about to enter their teenage years. Between this and the goodies that will come with Homekit, it will make one of Stalin's gulags look like a vacation. The Find My Friends app is not an option, nor will Family Sharing and whatever comes that improves upon that.
 

newagemac

macrumors 68020
Mar 31, 2010
2,091
23
If you follow MacInTouch, you will know that a lot of people are doing this already by creating a "common" Apple ID that is shared across all of the family's devices and is used only for iTunes purchases, calendars, etc. Apple is just formalizing the process.

That was never an optimal way because that meant you couldn't use the feature that allows you to automatically download purchases to your devices unless you wanted everyone else's purchases showing up on your device. Also it meant iTunes in the Cloud would put everyone else's stuff on your computer automatically and the nice feature in iTunes allowing you to hide certain purchases from showing would not be able to be used. And then there's iTunes Match and other issues that come from sharing the same Apple ID for purchases. I believe iBooks even synced bookmarks using the iTunes Apple ID.


The former Home Sharing way and this new Family Sharing way gives you much more control and allows you to take advantage of the features meant for syncing downloads across your own devices.
 
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JAT

macrumors 603
Dec 31, 2001
6,473
124
Mpls, MN
I understand that kids will like the shared credit card (which they can do already if you put your card on their iTunes account and with Family Sharing that's what you are doing). My point is that Family Sharing FindMyPhone will allow parents to snoop on their kids and the kids are going to work that out in a nano-second. By the way my kids are 20, 23 and 25.

Ah. Well, that's a different topic. But, go ahead and kick them out of the iTunes account at that age! ;)

Also, it is probably a different setup for FMI vs Store or Music prefs, just like now. You wouldn't necessarily have to use FMI.
 

powers74

macrumors 68000
Aug 18, 2008
1,861
16
At the bend in the river
I feel like I don't get what's going on.. I have a Mac and 4 iProds in the family and all the music, apps, calendars, contacts and whatever else we want is all already synced across it all. What am I missing?:confused:

EDIT: Went to the IOS 8 page... I get it now - you can combine separate AppleIDs into this family sharing system. This will be handy. Untangling what I have now and setting this up will probably be a little laborious though. I guess I'll find out this fall.
 
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till213

Suspended
Jul 1, 2011
423
89
Stop trying to interpret Apple's poor explanation and actually use it and you will see what I'm talking about.

I am rather interested in what you're smoking right now! What's so damn hard about understanding that little paragraph (and I'll keep repeating):

"Home Sharing enables you to stream or transfer music, movies, TV shows, apps, and more among up to five authorized computers in your household. To do so, you will need to turn on Home Sharing on each computer using the same Apple ID."

And **** yeah, I use it exactly like that between my iMac, MacBook Pro and Apple TV!
 

mytdave

macrumors 6502a
Oct 29, 2002
620
800
why not?

"...the opt-in requirement for developers could see some declining to allow their apps to be shared amongst as many as six accounts with no extra charge."

I don't see why developers would not turn this on. It's not really much different than the way things are now. In my family we already share all apps, books, photos, etc. etc. All our iDevices are under one account - mine. I'm the one paying for everything anyway.
 

till213

Suspended
Jul 1, 2011
423
89
You are only asked to use a single Apple ID to set up Home Sharing itself which is not the same as iTunes.

Wait... did you just say... Home Sharing (a service) is not the same as... wait... iTunes (an application)?
 
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bunchofpenguins

macrumors member
Nov 4, 2013
44
0
If you're a developer that DOESN'T enable this in your app, you're just a greedy you-know-what.

Plain and simple.
 

newagemac

macrumors 68020
Mar 31, 2010
2,091
23
I am rather interested in what you're smoking right now! What's so damn hard about understanding that little paragraph (and I'll keep repeating):

"Home Sharing enables you to stream or transfer music, movies, TV shows, apps, and more among up to five authorized computers in your household. To do so, you will need to turn on Home Sharing on each computer using the same Apple ID."

And **** yeah, I use it exactly like that between my iMac, MacBook Pro and Apple TV!

You're the one claiming that you can't share apps between different people in your household with Home Sharing. And you're even saying its illegal. I don't expect you to admit you were wrong though.

----------

Wait... did you just say... Home Sharing (a service) is not the same as... wait... iTunes (an application)?

Again, you're the one who didn't understand that you can have one Apple ID for Home Sharing and still be logged into an entirely different Apple ID for purchases. I don't expect you to admit you were wrong about that either. Everyone else reading this thread can see it though, so no apologies necessary.
 
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unplugme71

macrumors 68030
May 20, 2011
2,827
754
Earth
There is no "account merge" with family sharing. Everyone has there own account that they can take with them if the leave the family share. It works pretty much like you suggested, except it is based on a credit card rather than an address.

So the kids and spouse all get charged to one account? That's absurd. It should also be against the terms of each and every card issuer/bank.
 

crazy dave

macrumors 65816
Sep 9, 2010
1,258
931
Not a single thing of what you just said about Home Sharing is true. Have you even tried it? I can grab any app my wife has purchased through her own Apple ID. And there isn't a single thing in that support link he posted saying you can't do that. You seem to be going off of what you are assuming or your interpretation of the support article, I am going off what I am doing with Home Sharing right now.

I have used Home sharing and I am simply repeating the Apple support document. Reading your other posts, I think you're confusing Home Sharing and computer/device authorization which is even older than Home Sharing.

I can authorize up to 5 computers/devices to play my DRM-protected material. That means, yes I can say, authorize a family member's computer to play my movies, copy the file over to them, and they can stay signed into their iTunes account and play my movie on that machine. As long as they don't delete it, they'll have it and be able to play it. If they do delete it, they lose it unless I give it to them again. Same with apps (as you yourself pointed out). That's simply device authorization, not Home Sharing. Home sharing lets you stream music, movies, and apps from one device to a secondary device (up to 5) and also makes it convenient for copying music from one family member's computer to another's.

Family sharing is different from both. 6 different Apple IDs sharing the same credit card can now all download and play apps, movies, and music purchased from any of those Apple IDs, each on their own set of devices anywhere they happen to be. Far more powerful and flexible than what we had before.
 

newagemac

macrumors 68020
Mar 31, 2010
2,091
23
We have already tried to explain to you that YES you can do that with Home Sharing. You can TRANSFER APPS. I repeat you can TRANSFER APPS with other anyone else Home Sharing with you and you are logged into iTunes with your own Apple ID and they are logged into iTunes with their own Apple ID. Then you walk out of the door 1000 miles away and open that app up and USE IT. I'm doing it right now.

You keep saying you can't do that but you can and Apple's terms explicitly state that you can TRANSFER APPS with other computers (up to 5) authorized with Home Sharing.

Why don't you try it yourself instead of arguing against something you clearly do not understand.
 
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zephonic

macrumors 65816
Feb 7, 2011
1,310
709
greater L.A. area
Yes. I'm doing it right now. You can grab anyone's apps in iTunes on your Home Share. And you only have to be on the same wifi network to access their apps. Once you have the apps they are YOURS and you can use them whenever and wherever you want.

The only issue is that you need their password to update the apps to new versions. But for movies, tv shows, and everything else that don't have updates its just like you purchased them yourself except you can't delete them and still have them show up using the iTunes in the Cloud feature.

OK, I am trying this and indeed my wife's iTunes library now shows up on my devices. Apps? No. How do you do that?

edit: never mind. found it.
 

crazy dave

macrumors 65816
Sep 9, 2010
1,258
931
We have already tried to explain to you that YES you can do that with Home Sharing. You can TRANSFER APPS. I repeat you can TRANSFER APPS with other anyone else Home Sharing with you and you are logged into iTunes with your own Apple ID and they are logged into iTunes with their own Apple ID. Then you walk out of the door 1000 miles away and open that app up and USE IT. I'm doing it right now.

You keep saying you can't do that but you can and Apple's terms explicitly state that you can TRANSFER APPS with other computers (up to 5) authorized with Home Sharing.

Why don't you try it yourself instead of arguing against something you clearly do not understand.

Please read my post above yours. This is not Home Sharing. You're describing device authorization. Home sharing is a streaming and ftp process for up to 5 computers/devices on the same network.

However, storing and playing someone else's purchases - regardless of how you transferred the file - requires device authorization (up to 5 devices), which you probably have. But as you stated, you cannot upgrade apps and if you delete apps or movies, etc ... you can't simply re-download from iTunes. However, if you keep them you can play them (unless the iTunes account holder deactivates your device/computer). This is different from Home Sharing.

Family sharing changes the paradigm. 6 different IDs on one credit card can now share purchases between accounts. Thus a movie, music, app, becomes yours. If you are on a laptop on one side of the country and your wife purchases an app on an iPhone on the other side of the country, you can now download that app from iTunes and it is yours.
 

newagemac

macrumors 68020
Mar 31, 2010
2,091
23
OK, I am trying this and indeed my wife's iTunes library now shows up on my devices. Apps? No. How do you do that?

edit: never mind. found it.

Ok Now drag an app from your wife to your iDevice. Then sync to your device, turn off wifi, walk out of the house or whatever and open the app. Then report back and tell this guy he has no idea what he's talking about. Anyone else can repeat this and prove him wrong. You can transfer apps with Home Sharing from somebody else's purchases and they will be properly authorized to be used on YOUR OWN device. EVERY. SINGLE. APP.
 

zephonic

macrumors 65816
Feb 7, 2011
1,310
709
greater L.A. area
I can't seem to drag apps/songs from my wife's shared library to my iPad...

edit:
OK, so you drag the app from the homeshared folder to the app folder on iTunes/Mac, and then drag it onto the iPad.
 
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mrtravel123

macrumors regular
Aug 9, 2007
198
2
OK, so for some of us this is still mildly confusing. Well, maybe it's just ME.

Feel free to be frustrated with me - I'll understand.

Can we take an example? Examples seem to always help people understand things in REAL LIFE.

Mom
Dad
Son
Daughter

Imagine - All 4 currently have different Apple IDs and different billing methods.

So, then imagine that Apple's new sharing feature is activated and everyone decides to use mom's credit card. There are now 4 distinct IDs + 1 master ID, which I assume is mom's original ID.

My questions, and some are simply basic to ENSURE I'm understanding it.

1. All prior purchased songs (by any of the 4) become instantly available to everyone else (anywhere, anytime)?
2. Son buys a new song, everyone gets access... but Mom gets the bill.
3. Son get gift card from grandma for $20. It gets credited to his ID only?
4. Does mom have to approve every individual purchase? Or, can mom set some sort of automated limit? (What level of financial control does she have?)
5. What if each person has 3 devices? That's 4 people x 3 devices... which is 12 devices total. So, one purchased song can essentially be on 12 devices?


So... Daughter grows up and moves out. She gets her own credit card and is essentially no longer associated with the master ID.

1. Does the daughter forfeit all access to everything others purchased with mom's master ID / credit card?
2. What happens to all of the music the daughter "purchased"... but got billed to her mom's credit card while they were under mom's master ID? (Does the daughter keep anything?)
3. Does everyone else forfeit all access to everything the daughter previously purchased (prior to her being on the master ID or during).


There are simply multiple scenarios in families as it relates to 2 people getting married, kids maturing, kids going away to college, a house full of devices, individual gift cards, varying levels of supervision, a married couple getting divorced (when some purchases were with original / old IDs... and then some with the master ID... and then moving back to entirely individual), etc.

Thanks. As I essentially mentioned, it's rather difficult to grasp a new concept / idea / feature when it's not "real" yet, not in front of you, etc.
 

newagemac

macrumors 68020
Mar 31, 2010
2,091
23
Please read my post above yours. This is not Home Sharing. You're describing device authorization. Home sharing is a streaming and ftp process (for music) for up to 5 computers on the same network.

However, storing and playing someone else's purchases requires device authorization, which you probably have. But as you stated, you cannot upgrade apps and if you delete apps or movies, etc ... you can't simply re-download from iTunes.

Family sharing changes the paradigm. 6 different IDs on one credit card can now share purchases between accounts. Thus a movie, music, app, becomes yours. If you are on a laptop on one side of the country and your wife purchases an app on an iPhone on the other side of the country, you can now download that app from iTunes and it is yours.

I understand perfectly what device authorization is. However, Home Sharing authorization is a different thing that actually authorizes you to use apps from somebody else's Apple ID purchases as long as you are linked through Home Sharing. Yes streaming is one of the features but app transfer complete with authorization rights is another feature of Home Sharing that doesn't come with regular device authorization. You can't use app purchases with regular device authorization without being signed into the same Apple ID that it was purchased with. Which is why so many people used the method of signing in with the same Apple ID in their family (but different iCloud accounts). However Home Sharing allows you to be signed into DIFFERENT Apple IDs for purchases and still be able to use other people's apps. It's an entirely different authorization for benefits above and beyond the regular device authorization.

Family Sharing just takes Home Sharing further by automating the setup process and streamlining it. Obviously Home Sharing was too complicated for people to understand seeing how most people STILL don't understand its benefits other than allowing for streaming music.
 

crazy dave

macrumors 65816
Sep 9, 2010
1,258
931
OK, so for some of us this is still mildly confusing. Well, maybe it's just ME.

Feel free to be frustrated with me - I'll understand.

Can we take an example? Examples seem to always help people understand things in REAL LIFE.

Mom
Dad
Son
Daughter

Imagine - All 4 currently have different Apple IDs and different billing methods.

So, then imagine that Apple's new sharing feature is activated and everyone decides to use mom's credit card. There are now 4 distinct IDs + 1 master ID, which I assume is mom's original ID.

My questions, and some are simply basic to ENSURE I'm understanding it.

1. All prior purchased songs (by any of the 4) become instantly available to everyone else (anywhere, anytime)?
2. Son buys a new song, everyone gets access... but Mom gets the bill.
3. Son get gift card from grandma for $20. It gets credited to his ID only?
4. Does mom have to approve every individual purchase? Or, can mom set some sort of automated limit? (What level of financial control does she have?)
5. What if each person has 3 devices? That's 4 people x 3 devices... which is 12 devices total. So, one purchased song can essentially be on 12 devices?


So... Daughter grows up and moves out. She gets her own credit card and is essentially no longer associated with the master ID.

1. Does the daughter forfeit all access to everything others purchased with mom's master ID / credit card?
2. What happens to all of the music the daughter "purchased"... but got billed to her mom's credit card while they were under mom's master ID? (Does the daughter keep anything?)
3. Does everyone else forfeit all access to everything the daughter previously purchased (prior to her being on the master ID or during).


There are simply multiple scenarios in families as it relates to 2 people getting married, kids maturing, kids going away to college, a house full of devices, individual gift cards, varying levels of supervision, a married couple getting divorced (when some purchases were with original / old IDs... and then some with the master ID... and then moving back to entirely individual), etc.

Thanks. As I essentially mentioned, it's rather difficult to grasp a new concept / idea / feature when it's not "real" yet, not in front of you, etc.

So going forward all media purchased from any of the Apple IDs (not clear that there will be a master ID except that underage IDs will require permission of a parent ID) will be available in the iTunes account of everyone in the Family Share plan. This will also probably apply to previously purchased media, but maybe not. Apple stipulates in fine print that not everything is covered under the Family Share plan - what that means is unclear. Whether Apple keeps track of which account actually did the purchasing and that if a person leaves the family share by adding their own card, they then lose the right to the media previously purchased by other members of the family unit is also unclear. I don't think it has been stipulated one way or the other.
 

newagemac

macrumors 68020
Mar 31, 2010
2,091
23
I can't seem to drag apps/songs from my wife's shared library to my iPad...

@newagemac: you can drag apps/songs from a homeshared account on iTunes/Mac to an iDevice?

Yes. You can ONLY do that with Home Sharing and still be authorized to use the app.

----------

"Home Sharing enables you to stream or transfer music, movies, TV shows, apps, and more among up to five authorized computers in your household. To do so, you will need to turn on Home Sharing on each compute using the same Apple ID."

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3819

----------

"Home Sharing enables you to transfer apps among up to five authorized computers in your household. To do so, you will need to turn on Home Sharing on each computer using the same Apple ID."

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3819


It really doesn't get any much clearer than the above straight out of Apple's OWN documents.
 
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crazy dave

macrumors 65816
Sep 9, 2010
1,258
931
I understand perfectly what device authorization is. However, Home Sharing authorization is a different thing that actually authorizes you to use apps from somebody else's Apple ID purchases as long as you are linked through Home Sharing. Yes streaming is one of the features but app transfer complete with authorization rights is another feature of Home Sharing that doesn't come with regular device authorization. You can't use app purchases with regular device authorization without being signed into the same Apple ID that it was purchased with. Which is why so many people used the method of signing in with the same Apple ID in their family (but different iCloud accounts). However Home Sharing allows you to be signed into DIFFERENT Apple IDs for purchases and still be able to use other people's apps. It's an entirely different authorization for benefits above and beyond the regular device authorization.

Family Sharing just takes Home Sharing further by automating the setup process and streamlining it. Obviously Home Sharing was too complicated for people to understand seeing how most people STILL don't understand its benefits other than allowing for streaming music.

In order to sync apps between that computer and an iDevice, you had to authorize that computer for the iTunes account controlling those apps. Authorization is still required.

http://apple.stackexchange.com/ques...d-be-shared-between-multiple-itunes-libraries

(rwr's response is the most complete & correct)

(PS before you responded to my previous post, I edited it to read just "streaming and ftp process" since yes each (ftp & streaming) does work for all media in Home Sharing and I had originally written that the ftp part was just for music, which is indeed wrong.)
 
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