Q: Family Sharing when having different accounts for purchasing and iCloud

Hi,

Great setup summary for a potentially confusing structure for many.

Same boat as many here going into this: have been using individual iCloud accounts plus one master purchase account that has been in use for years and has a ton of purchases on it.

Questions I haven't resolved from reading elsewhere:

1) If I setup family sharing using my iCloud account as the organizer, then associate the old purchase account for purchases going forward - do all of those purchases now become associated to my iCloud account or do they stay with the purchase account?

2) What about new purchases? I understand they are associated with the person purchasing - how does this affect my account as organizer? Are all future purchases associated with my iCloud account or the purchase account? I realize for the others, purchases are associated with their iCloud accounts which I'm good with.

Overall, I think I can deal with the few disadvantages to gain the advantages of this setup (primarily driven as the only way to get the Apple Music family plan)

Thanks.

I can confirm what smokefortyaday said works. Apple Care reps advised me to organize Family Sharing the same way. As long as you have a separate account for purchases, these instructions work well. The "purchase account" continues to be somebody's Apple ID of the various Stores. Regarding your questions:

1. Purchases from the master account will always be associated with the Apple ID used to purchase them. They never migrate. Set up the Family from your "iCloud" Apple ID, then use the "purchase account" Apple ID for billing Family Purchases (Settings -> General -> iCloud -> Family -> [our iCloud Apple ID] -> Family Purchases). Then make sure you log into the iTunes Store using the "purchase account". Your wife can use her own Apple ID to sign in everywhere.

2. All future Family purchases will be billed to the "purchase account" Apple ID's credit card (unless the individual account has a credit balance).

- All past purchases from the "purchase account" are available to you in iTunes, etc (because you are logged in to the Store with that ID) and to your wife under Family Purchases.

- Your wife's purchases will be billed to the family account but belong to her Apple ID. They are available to you under Family Purchases.

Let me know if that helps!

Thanks jd2020.

I'm still not clear which account 'owns' future content purchased by the organizer with the following structure. Will future purchases belong to iCloud1 or iTunes0? I understand that all purchases made on iTunes0 before turning on Family Sharing will remain with iTunes0

Organizer:

iCloud Account: iCloud1

iTunes Account: iTunes0

For the family invitees, I also understand the following to be the correct setup which would result in purchases by family members being associated with their own iCloud/iTunes accounts. Many may prefer this fragmented approach, enabling family members to build up their own ownership in content.

Organizer:

iCloud Account: iCloud1

iTunes Account: iTunes0

Family Invitee:

iCloud Account: iCloud2

iTunes Account: iCloud2

What I would like to confirm, is whether the following structure is also accepted. Would this then result in purchases by Family Invitees being associated with the master iTunes account? Effectively this would mimic what a non-Family Sharing setup has today, while adding the few additional benefits brought forth by Family Sharing - or in my case, only interested in setting up purely for Apple Music family accounts.

Organizer:

iCloud Account: iCloud1

iTunes Account: iTunes0

Family Invitee:

iCloud Account: iCloud2

iTunes Account: iTunes0

Will soon get this all straight so I can make the right decision on proceeding with this - shouldn't be so complicated (or perhaps I'm just making it this way)

Cheers.

The Apple ID that "owns" any content is the one that is signed in not the device where it is purchased, even though it may be billed to another account through Family Sharing. So "iTunes 0" and "iCloud 2" in the first example above.

As I understand it, you don't gain any Family Sharing advantage in the proposed setup. If both people use "iTunes 0" as their Store login, you'd already be billing all content to the same account. Family Sharing lets you keep libraries and purchases separate, but gives you access to the purchases of the other Family members. Since you have only two people, you already have that if you both use "iTunes 0,"

The advantage for is is that my wife's books and music don't appear in my library and vice versa (we have different tastes!). But we can still share the things we both want. In my situation, I have iTunes Match and Apple Music on the "iTunes 0" account, which just I use. Meanwhile, my wife can buy books and music on "iCloud 2" that won't show up in my iCloud Libraries.

I think the only disadvantage to having Apple Music subscription on your joint "iTunes 0" account as you describe is that you'll share the same group of Favorite songs, playlists, last played song, and Apple Music will reflect a combination of both of your tastes in music, rather than just one. Whether that's worth +$5/month is up to you! 

Let me know if I missed anything.

I am in the exact same situation:

• I have a purchaser account that I have been using for years
• I created an iCloud account to separate my contents from the rest of the family

And here is the problem: I have an Apple Music family subscription. Everyone in the family can share the music, except my own iCloud account! To share music, I have to log in to Apple Music using the purchaser account.

Is it possible to allow the iCloud account to share the music too?

I'm not sure what you mean "share music." Apple Music allows access to all of Apple's music catalog, not sharing of personal libraries or purchases.

It should be possible to use Apple Music when logged into your iCloud Apple ID, if the Apple ID is part of your Family group. Where are you logging into Apple Music? Apple Music is tied to the ID you're using in the iTunes Store. There could be a limitation that the "purchaser" account must be logged in on some device. Not sure about that.

Did you forget to invite that account to be part of the Family, by chance? Barring that, I'd contact Apple Support, since it's a product you're paying for.

Thanks jd2020, this helps. Note there's actually 4 in my household (2 kids), though all points still apply. Good point re: using the purchase account for iTunes resulting in shared favorites, playlists etc. in Apple Music.

In the end, I don't think fragmenting ownership is a bad thing - the pros appear to outweigh the cons. Only caveat may be with iTunes Match, as I recall there may be some issues, though I haven't decided whether I'll bother on that anyhow. All of my music appears to be in Apple Music anyhow.