Is 'Family Sharing' what I need?!

[Dino F]

So I'm getting a new iPad Air 2 to replace my old iPad 2, however, I am going to keep my iPad 2 for the rest of the family to use (wife and 2 kids!).

They each already have their own iDevices (wife has an iPhone 5 and the kids have the latest iPod touches and they all have their own individual iCloud accounts although on the kids accounts, they can only buy apps if they have credit in the app store, via vouchers).

I want to wipe my iPad 2 and set it up so that anyone in the family (other than me) can use it to download apps/play games/browse the web on it, etc.

Is Apple's Family Sharing option the best way around this? Never used it before so not sure?!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Nunyabinez]

It still of course needs an Apple ID. You can simply put on the same Apple ID that was on it, or you could put a new Apple ID on it. The problem with Family Sharing is that whoever initiates the sharing pays for anything anyone does.

"To get started, one adult in your household—the family organizer—sets up Family Sharing, invites up to five additional family members, and agrees to pay for any iTunes, iBooks, and App Store purchases they initiate while part of the family group."

So, even if it has a unique Apple ID, when they buy stuff it gets charged to your Apple ID. Apps are always tied to someone's ID so even if they have individual iCloud accounts Apple still wants to assign it to an Apple ID. So, I'm not sure this is exactly the solution to what you want to do.

Family Sharing would work better if you had 5 kids each with iPods/iPhones and you didn't want to pay for Angry Birds 5 times because they all want to play it.

Also, be aware that not everything is shareable, developers have the choice of enabling it or not.

 

[Madmic23]

Just use your existing Apple ID. If anyone else in the house wants to add stuff they've purchased, sign in with their ID as well. You can use multiple Apple ID's on one device.

 

[Dino F]

It still of course needs an Apple ID. You can simply put on the same Apple ID that was on it, or you could put a new Apple ID on it. The problem with Family Sharing is that whoever initiates the sharing pays for anything anyone does.

"To get started, one adult in your household—the family organizer—sets up Family Sharing, invites up to five additional family members, and agrees to pay for any iTunes, iBooks, and App Store purchases they initiate while part of the family group."

So, even if it has a unique Apple ID, when they buy stuff it gets charged to your Apple ID. Apps are always tied to someone's ID so even if they have individual iCloud accounts Apple still wants to assign it to an Apple ID. So, I'm not sure this is exactly the solution to what you want to do.

Family Sharing would work better if you had 5 kids each with iPods/iPhones and you didn't want to pay for Angry Birds 5 times because they all want to play it.

Also, be aware that not everything is shareable, developers have the choice of enabling it or not.

Thanks for this - sounds like Family Sharing is only partly want I want to do!!

Just use your existing Apple ID. If anyone else in the house wants to add stuff they've purchased, sign in with their ID as well. You can use multiple Apple ID's on one device.

I'd rather not use my existing Apple ID as I wouldn't want my family messing about with my account and stuff although I could, I guess, set up restrictions. How can you sign in with different IDs? Surely you can only sign into the App Store with only one ID?

 

[Madmic23]

Thanks for this - sounds like Family Sharing is only partly want I want to do!!



I'd rather not use my existing Apple ID as I wouldn't want my family messing about with my account and stuff although I could, I guess, set up restrictions. How can you sign in with different IDs? Surely you can only sign into the App Store with only one ID?

When you go into the app store, go to the bottom where you are signed in. Click your account name and sign out. Then, you can sign in as another account and download whatever apps have already been purchased on that account. You can go back and forth between the accounts.

If you don't want anyone in the family messing with your account, or purchasing anything with it, just don't give them the password.

Once downloaded, the apps will work regardless of what account you are signed in with.