Family Share Question

[Rat-Boy]

So, our current configuration is this. ITunes is tied to my wife's apple ID.

On my phone, I am signed in as her for iTunes and App Store.

If she turns on family share, and I sign out and then sign in with MY ID, do I have to remove and re-add all the apps I have on the phone currently that I downloaded under her ID?

 

[CosmoPilot]

All apps, music, movies, books, etc. will be available to you. Basically, anything purchased on that iTunes account will be available to everyone in the family sharing group.

Once family sharing is activated, all purchases made from that point forward will be available to everyone in the share group, but to find the purchased content, you have to go to "Purchases" and then select the member of the group, then browse their purchased content. From there, you'll be able to download anything someone else purchased in the group for free.

The downside to family sharing, is you will not be able to "stream" music like you can now. For instance, once family sharing is turned on and your wife purchases a song...it will not automatically show up in your Music app for streaming. In order for you to play that song, you'll need to go to Purchases, then select your wife's name (it will show up automatically if your using family sharing), and then download the song to your iDevice. With Apple Music coming online, this will minimize the pain (assuming you subscribe to the $14.99 plan), because you'll be able to stream the entire iTunes catalog without worrying about what was purchased or not.

All apps, books, movies, etc. will behave the same way as music. You'll need to browse the other person's purchases in order to download it to your device.

Hope this helps.

 

[ladytonya]

I have never set up Family Sharing because I didn't want to intermingle my apps and my husband's apps. If we were to set it up, would everything on each of our phones remain as they are? Basically right now we have two Apple ID's and two separate phones, he does as he wishes with his and syncs to his desktop and I back mine up to iCloud and occasionally do full backups on my MacBook Pro. So, if I turn on Family Sharing will he have to be signed in under my account to access Music or will the two Apple ID's be somehow linked to each other? These questions are why I've never enabled Family Sharing, it always confused me as to what would happen on our individual devices.

 

[bittyme]

I have never set up Family Sharing because I didn't want to intermingle my apps and my husband's apps. If we were to set it up, would everything on each of our phones remain as they are? Basically right now we have two Apple ID's and two separate phones, he does as he wishes with his and syncs to his desktop and I back mine up to iCloud and occasionally do full backups on my MacBook Pro. So, if I turn on Family Sharing will he have to be signed in under my account to access Music or will the two Apple ID's be somehow linked to each other? These questions are why I've never enabled Family Sharing, it always confused me as to what would happen on our individual devices.

Your account will totally be separated, everything will be as they are. Except that:
1. You'll set one person as the organizer, and whenever anybody under the family sharing purchase something, it will be billed to the organizer.
2. Any purchase anyone has made, it will also be available to download for free from another member. For example your husband purchased a game, when you search for that game on your phone, it will show that it's already purchased and can be downloaded for free. It won't automatically download it to your phone.

Hope that clears it up.

 

[ladytonya]

Thanks, yes, that helps! So from a music standpoint, everything we each download will be accessible to the other but not automatically loaded? And when we're using the Music app my history and channels will still be mine? It is starting to sound like I am going to be turning on Family Sharing unless hubby updates and absolutely hates it. He is a Spotify user now and spends hours setting up playlists. I'm hoping maybe it's the same or even easier than Spotify so he'll want to switch, I'd rather spend $14.99 for both of us than $9.99 to Apple and $9.99 to Spotify! LOL!

 

[Rat-Boy]

All apps, music, movies, books, etc. will be available to you. Basically, anything purchased on that iTunes account will be available to everyone in the family sharing group.

Once family sharing is activated, all purchases made from that point forward will be available to everyone in the share group, but to find the purchased content, you have to go to "Purchases" and then select the member of the group, then browse their purchased content. From there, you'll be able to download anything someone else purchased in the group for free.

The downside to family sharing, is you will not be able to "stream" music like you can now. For instance, once family sharing is turned on and your wife purchases a song...it will not automatically show up in your Music app for streaming. In order for you to play that song, you'll need to go to Purchases, then select your wife's name (it will show up automatically if your using family sharing), and then download the song to your iDevice. With Apple Music coming online, this will minimize the pain (assuming you subscribe to the $14.99 plan), because you'll be able to stream the entire iTunes catalog without worrying about what was purchased or not.

All apps, books, movies, etc. will behave the same way as music. You'll need to browse the other person's purchases in order to download it to your device.

Hope this helps.

This all helps, but doesn't answer the question.

Right now, I am logged in as HER on my app store so we could share the apps.

If we turn on family sharing, and I log her out, and log me in, the question is, what happens to all my apps on my phone? But I think I found the answer. All the apps are DRM'ed to her ID that are on my phone now, so I will have to nuke and re-download all the apps in order for updates to work seemlessly.

 

[Rat-Boy]

Thanks, yes, that helps! So from a music standpoint, everything we each download will be accessible to the other but not automatically loaded? And when we're using the Music app my history and channels will still be mine? It is starting to sound like I am going to be turning on Family Sharing unless hubby updates and absolutely hates it. He is a Spotify user now and spends hours setting up playlists. I'm hoping maybe it's the same or even easier than Spotify so he'll want to switch, I'd rather spend $14.99 for both of us than $9.99 to Apple and $9.99 to Spotify! LOL!

Me and my wife are in very similiar boat. No family sharing turned on, and we both use Spotify premium for music.

Debating if it is worth the effort to switch to Apple Music or not.

 

[gsmornot]

This all helps, but doesn't answer the question.

Right now, I am logged in as HER on my app store so we could share the apps.

If we turn on family sharing, and I log her out, and log me in, the question is, what happens to all my apps on my phone? But I think I found the answer. All the apps are DRM'ed to her ID that are on my phone now, so I will have to nuke and re-download all the apps in order for updates to work seemlessly.

You should not have to. If you login as you and stop there you might have an issue.
If you login as you, she sets up Family Sharing and invites you, you then have access to her purchases thereby removing the issue of who owns what. Via family sharing you have the same level of access to the apps you had prior only now when you buy something from the app store (free or cost) it will be associated with your ID. She will have access to it as well. All billing will go to her because she is the family host. So, most things remain just as they are today only now you would be individuals sharing as a family versus individuals acting like one person.

 

[bittyme]

Thanks, yes, that helps! So from a music standpoint, everything we each download will be accessible to the other but not automatically loaded? And when we're using the Music app my history and channels will still be mine? It is starting to sound like I am going to be turning on Family Sharing unless hubby updates and absolutely hates it. He is a Spotify user now and spends hours setting up playlists. I'm hoping maybe it's the same or even easier than Spotify so he'll want to switch, I'd rather spend $14.99 for both of us than $9.99 to Apple and $9.99 to Spotify! LOL!

Yes to all those questions.

Me and my wife are in very similiar boat. No family sharing turned on, and we both use Spotify premium for music.

Debating if it is worth the effort to switch to Apple Music or not.

Spotify has a family plan too, at $15 for 2, so if you like spotify, I don't see why you'd have to switch.

This all helps, but doesn't answer the question.

Right now, I am logged in as HER on my app store so we could share the apps.

If we turn on family sharing, and I log her out, and log me in, the question is, what happens to all my apps on my phone? But I think I found the answer. All the apps are DRM'ed to her ID that are on my phone now, so I will have to nuke and re-download all the apps in order for updates to work seemlessly.

You're correct. They all need to be redownloaded, or else when you wanna update, it would ask you to sign back into her apple id.

 

[Pagemakers]

I have a few family sharing questions..,

1. Two members of my family login to iTunes with the same ID so we already have access to the same apps. We both have another separate ID to separately share our personal data between our own devices. If I enable family sharing on the iTunes account will all of our apps remain on both devices?
2. Family sharing creates a new family calendar and photo stream. Can these be removed?
3. Can I disable find my iphone on the family sharing account for all users?
4. Can I disable location sharing on the family sharing account for all users?
5. If I turn family sharing back off because I don't like it, does everything revert back to how it was?

 

[bittyme]

I have a few family sharing questions..,

1. Two members of my family login to iTunes with the same ID so we already have access to the same apps. We both have another separate ID to separately share our personal data between our own devices. If I enable family sharing on the iTunes account will all of our apps remain on both devices?
2. Family sharing creates a new family calendar and photo stream. Can these be removed?
3. Can I disable find my iphone on the family sharing account for all users?
4. Can I disable location sharing on the family sharing account for all users?
5. If I turn family sharing back off because I don't like it, does everything revert back to how it was?

1. You mean you have a separate icloud account, but the account that you sign into the app store is the same? If so, your apps will remain the same, yes.
2. You can't exactly delete the option, but you can disable it so it doesn't show on your calendar. If you really want to "delete" it, you have to disable calendar from your icloud setting. This however, wouldn't let you sync your calendar across multiple devices.
3/4. You can disable them individually on each account, there isn't a worldwide disable setting. Not sure if that's what you're asking.
5. Yes. To add to this point, I don't see how turning this on can be a negative thing at all unless you're not the organizer and you don't want what you're purchasing showing up on the organizer's bill. That's the only downside I can think off.

 

[Pagemakers]

1. You mean you have a separate icloud account, but the account that you sign into the app store is the same? If so, your apps will remain the same, yes.
2. You can't exactly delete the option, but you can disable it so it doesn't show on your calendar. If you really want to "delete" it, you have to disable calendar from your icloud setting. This however, wouldn't let you sync your calendar across multiple devices.
3/4. You can disable them individually on each account, there isn't a worldwide disable setting. Not sure if that's what you're asking.
5. Yes. To add to this point, I don't see how turning this on can be a negative thing at all unless you're not the organizer and you don't want what you're purchasing showing up on the organizer's bill. That's the only downside I can think off.

Thank you so much. Helps a lot!

 

[Rat-Boy]

Spotify has a family plan too, at $15 for 2, so if you like spotify, I don't see why you'd have to switch.

Well, I know I don't have to.

Just wondering if:

1) Apple's is better.
2) More artists will follow Taylor Swift and pull out of Spotify.

Not only that, but I imagine having it be the native music app would help in other areas with accessories, etc. But maybe not on that one.

 

[Pagemakers]

If 2 users share the same iTunes ID they can also share in app purchases.

Is it true that in app purchases can't be shared using family sharing?

 

[Rat-Boy]

If 2 users share the same iTunes ID they can also share in app purchases.

Is it true that in app purchases can't be shared using family sharing?

That is correct.

In app purchases can not be shared unfortunately.

 

[Ludatyk]

Have any of you figured out how to personalize each Family user musical selection in the For You section.

For some reason each Family user is tied to the master account For You section.