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Family Sharing in ios 8?

C

caesarp

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 30, 2012
1,078
619
Please help me understand how Family Sharing is different from what my family does now.

Right now we all have our own icloud IDs, but we share the iTunes account ID.

So on my son's ipad mini, my wife's iphone and my iphone, we use the same username/password for the ITunes & App store.

For icloud, we have individual unique accounts.

Doing this, I have access to anything that my son or my wife buys/downloads via the app store or iTunes. I set restrictions on my son's device, so he can't download apps on his own or make in app purchases.

So how is Family Sharing different exactly and will I need to change how our devices are set up?
 
caesarp said:
Please help me understand how Family Sharing is different from what my family does now.

Right now we all have our own icloud IDs, but we share the iTunes account ID.

So on my son's ipad mini, my wife's iphone and my iphone, we use the same username/password for the ITunes & App store.

For icloud, we have individual unique accounts.

Doing this, I have access to anything that my son or my wife buys/downloads via the app store or iTunes. I set restrictions on my son's device, so he can't download apps on his own or make in app purchases.

So how is Family Sharing different exactly and will I need to change how our devices are set up?
Click to expand...

Do not share App Store ID's anymore

They can each log into the app store on their phones w/ their own apple IDs now. They will still have access to your purchases etc. It also creates a family reminders list, calendar, and photostream. If your son is under 13, you can make it ask a parent before anything can be purchased.
 
Stuke00 said:
Do not share App Store ID's anymore

They can each log into the app store on their phones w/ their own apple IDs now. They will still have access to your purchases etc. It also creates a family reminders list, calendar, and photostream. If your son is under 13, you can make it ask a parent before anything can be purchased.
Click to expand...

What's the point of having your own iTunes/app store ID, if you are using family sharing anyway? I still don't get how this is different than what we do now. And my son, due to restrictions enabled, can never purchase anything without us entering the password for the iTunes/app store account.

Under Family Sharing can you designate an app as "private" -- not for sharing with other family members? Cause right now, anything my wife, son or I download can be seen by others.
 
caesarp said:
What's the point of having your own iTunes/app store ID, if you are using family sharing anyway? I still don't get how this is different than what we do now. And my son, due to restrictions enabled, can never purchase anything without us entering the password for the iTunes/app store account.

Under Family Sharing can you designate an app as "private" -- not for sharing with other family members? Cause right now, anything my wife, son or I download can be seen by others.
Click to expand...

Because technically you are not supposed to be sharing that Apple ID. But people still do.

I do not know about hiding purchases. I know you can hide things from your purchased list by swiping left. Or you can choose to not share anything at all.
 
Stuke00 said:
Because technically you are not supposed to be sharing that Apple ID. But people still do.
Click to expand...

It's discouraged by Apple, but not forbidden:

Can I share my Apple ID with someone else?

You shouldn't share your Apple ID account information with other people. Each person should have their own Apple ID.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5622?viewlocale=en_US

So what is the benefit of my son having his own app/iTunes store ID? He doesn't have a credit card anyway. So either way he's tied into my ID.
 
caesarp said:
It's discouraged by Apple, but not forbidden:

Can I share my Apple ID with someone else?

You shouldn't share your Apple ID account information with other people. Each person should have their own Apple ID.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5622?viewlocale=en_US

So what is the benefit of my son having his own app/iTunes store ID? He doesn't have a credit card anyway. So either way he's tied into my ID.
Click to expand...

If you give him your password, he can download all kinds of things. With his own ID, a notification will go to your phone if he wishes to download something. You can approve/reject it. You can set other members of the family as approvers as well.

https://www.apple.com/icloud/family-sharing/ has a lot of info.

While what you are doing may work too, there are other ways of doing it that are simpler.
 
catean said:
Can you share an iCloud storage plan too ?
Click to expand...

Can, but shouldn't.

They've made more and more changes that make sharing iCould accounts unbearable.

For example, Siri and 'Find my Friends' will both only understand one "owner" of the devices per account. So if you share an account and your wife asks the phone "how do I get home" Siri will say "getting directions to [husband's] home." And if you ask Find My Friends to tell you when your wife leaves work it will tell you that YOU'VE left work once she finally does.

Those are just two small examples but they keep piling up. I used to share an iCould with my wife but it eventually became ridiculous.

So to answer the OP's question, there's nothing currently wrong with sharing a store ID. (I still do.) But given their history with iCloud sharing I'm willing to bet that Apple will make it more and more difficult to do so over time.
 
Stuke00 said:
Do not share App Store ID's anymore

They can each log into the app store on their phones w/ their own apple IDs now. They will still have access to your purchases etc. It also creates a family reminders list, calendar, and photostream. If your son is under 13, you can make it ask a parent before anything can be purchased.
Click to expand...

so the old work around (family members have own iCloud accounts, but the Applie ID for purchases is shared accross accounts) should be replaced with Family Sharing and that makes sense if it works as advertised.

i assume we simply remove the purchasing Apple ID from the other family member's device settings and leave it blank or put in their iCloud ID?
 
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