'Family Sharing' on iOS 8 is a steaming pile of yuck

[dcorban]

I have family sharing enabled. I went into App Store and downloaded "mr crab", a free app that my daughter already "purchased". When I clicked purchase, it informed me that another user had already purchased and I could download for free. It then did so, and everything works as advertised.

 

[JoEw]

It's not for the free apps family sharing is useful, it is for the paid apps, and the possibility not to have to paid for them twice. And since in app purchases are not shared... user get screwed.

While at first it seemed like this family sharing function was useful/practical for the end user, it seems Apple is only trying to put an end to the savings we were enjoying by sharing app purchases within a family.

pile of yuck indeed....

Yeah whats the point of this? Almost all apps are free but have in-app purchases for upgrades and other things.

Feels like I we are better off sharing an Apple ID for apps and using individual iCloud accounts.

 

[179202]

I'm guessing these developers have just overlooked the feature so far. I can't imagine what advantage they have to leave it disabled on a free app such as CNN and HopStop.

It would make sense for free apps to be enabled by default but I can see why Apple wouldn't go for that. Some devs could get shirty. Let's hope the devs enable it soon.

 

[jon2690]

I realize this...which is why it's absurd that several free apps still have Family Sharing disabled. They are the source of the problem for a lot of us.

My apologize, I didn't realize it was with free apps you were having trouble. Why don't you just 'buy' them again. Even if they aren't in the family sharing section, it doesn't make any difference.

 

[Geckotek]

My apologize, I didn't realize it was with free apps you were having trouble. Why don't you just 'buy' them again. Even if they aren't in the family sharing section, it doesn't make any difference.

Of course I already tried that. Same error.

 

[Cmannen]

This family sharing seems to suck big time. Just installed for all family members and getting several issues with not being able to up-date apps which as mentioned here seems to be free apps. Very annoying. And on top of this in-app purchases can't be shared?
Will evaluate but looks like I will go back to logging them in on my account in appstore instead.

Is it confirmed that in-app purchases will not be shared in family sharing?

 

[BillyRay]

Solution

I found a solution to the Family Sharing cannot redownload problem in this blog posting on SourceOpen.com:

http://sourceopen.com/2014/10/01/howto-fix-the-family-sharing-not-working-redownload-unavailable-with-this-apple-id-issue-with-ios-8/

It worked for my family.

 

[Jaq23]

SOLUTION:
1) Delete the Apps that you are having problems with (I assume you already did that)
2) SIGN OUT of your (wife's) iTunes & App Store account on the phone where see the error
3) SIGN BACK IN with the same account under Settings > iTunes & App Store

This worked for me after I started to see the same issue upon activation of Family Sharing. Odly all those (free) apps had disappeared from both of our purchase histories and could not be downloaded again. However, a sign-out & immediate sign-in on the iTunes & App-Store settings section of the troubles iPhone resolved everything

I got Whatsapp, etc first time but had issues with Dropbox. Tried multiple things with signing out of the device, of family sharing, deleting the app in the original account, but the above was the only thing that worked for me. Thank you so much.

 

[dschwartzaz]

I had same issue. Could not download even free apps that had previously purchased by other account. Deleted the app, signed out and then back in to iTunes on the phone having problems and all was fixed.

 

[baryon]

Family Sharing is a huge massive pile of ****. None of it works, it does not do any of the things advertised and no one can buy anything with my card. And why don't I get to approve anything that anyone who's over 18 buys with my card? I'm still paying for it, can't I at least approve it? WHY NOT? My dad isn't very smart with computers and I bet he's just going to buy a ton of stuff by accident and I'll have to pay for it. Also, no one can download any of the apps that I bought because it simply says that I haven't bought anything.

Not to mention the extremely unintuitive interface. So you have to go to the store, then to Purchased, then click on My Purchases on the top left (WHY?) and choose the other person's name. THEN you should see a list of apps that they bought, but instead, there is nothing.

I'm just going to buy gift cards with cash and give them to the other members of my family, it's so much easier. I don't think today's technology is advanced enough to handle something as bafflingly complicated as this.

 

[Geckotek]

Most of the apps I was previously having issues with have been updated by the dev and now have Family Sharing enabled. Seems things are getting better where my needs are concerned.

 

[Armen]

Do yourself a favor and don't turn it on or enable it. You'll regret it. The implementation is atrocious. I wonder who Apple outsourced the QA to.

I added my wife as a family member. But now she can't download any of the apps that I have already downloaded. It first says "A family member has already purchased this item. To download it again for free, select OK". When you press OK, it gives some "Redownload Unavailable with This Apple ID - This redownload is not available for this Apple ID either because it was bought by a different user or the ten was refunded or cancelled". Well no s***? Of course I have already bought it and now my wife wants to download it on to her new phone. Mind you these not not paid apps that are giving the error, but apps such as Facebook, Youtube, Hangouts and such.

Resarting the iPhone or removing her from family sharing didn't help. There is nothing I can do to download simple and basic apps like Whatsapp and Hangouts on her phone. Without these she won't use her phone. Needlessly to say, her experience with her first ever iPhone is leaving a lot to be desired. What a bunch of BS. I look so stupid now trying to get her to switch from Android to iOS because you know "everything just works so well on the iPhone and there are hardly any noticeable bugs".

#ItJustWorksNOT

I'm not sure what you did differently but I went through the same workflow as yourself and all the songs my wife has ever purchased is now available to download for FREE using my apple ID and whatever my wife purchases gets billed on my debit card (which is what I wanted).

 

[saintforlife]

I'm not sure what you did differently but I went through the same workflow as yourself and all the songs my wife has ever purchased is now available to download for FREE using my apple ID and whatever my wife purchases gets billed on my debit card (which is what I wanted).

Well, you bumped an almost month old thread. Family sharing wasn't working when iOS 8.0 first came out. Obviously Apple has fixed a lot of the issues in the past 30 days or so.