Family share apple watch

Just got off the phone with an apple watch technical support agent for 45 mins. Tldr; The agent believed Spotify and all of my previous purchases/freely downloaded apps (~50), under the same apple-id as set up with the apple watch, are non-standalone and not supported apps.

2 things to note about this.

1) There are specifically developed "standalone" apps and non-standalone ones ("requires iPhone"). There's no indication as to which are which until you go to download the app from your apple watch and don't see "requires iPhone". We talked about Spotify since recent articles surfaced (eg. tech crunch in November) outlining it can be used "standalone" on cellular supported watches without your phone. The agent wasn't aware of this. As an alternative, I was able to successfully download pandora and get streaming standalone from my watch. Not a great final solution but it works.

2) I'm not convinced it is true that all of my past purchases are non-standalone apps/not supported on a family share apple watch. The only way to check this is to have an account that hasn't already purchased the apps. I would assume pandora is not the only stand-alone third-party music app supported on a family shared device, but I'm unable to check since i've previously purchased (freely downloaded) all of the other major music apps.

As for the password, the agent informed me this is "for security" even though I noted the purpose of the passcode.

The 45 minute phone call was ended with the note that family sharing is only ~3months old so these things are likely just not supported yet, and that I should post on discussion.apple.com.

I'm very sad with the outcome. Given the inability to access most of the watch apps using family share, I find it hard to justify keeping the watch.

Not all features are available on a Watch setup for a family member. Spotify requires an iPhone to be able to stream. If you set the Watch up with your Family Sharing account, you wouldn't have to enter her password. You control purchases. This would be especially true if the child is under the age of 13 and you created their Apple ID in Family Sharing.

based on my discussion with support this has to do with app age limits. Spotify is listed as 12+ app and so you cannot install it if your child is under 12. There is a special process to change the birthday of your child by contacting support if you have entered the wrong date by mistake.

Spotify offers a Spotify kids version which is only available if you switch the family packet with (double the price here in Switzerland). So next I am going to pester them if I can download the spotify kids app on Apple Watch before upgrading to the costlier subscription or switch the pandora as someone did here in the thread.

That may work on wi-fi, but this support document may assist you. It has links for issues with Family Sharing setups as well as others. Set up an Apple Watch for a family member - Apple Support There is also an Apple System outage for iCloud, and it is unsure if this could be impacting your issue. You may need to contact Apple Support for further assistance.

If you followed the steps in the support document exactly to set up the device and are still experiencing problems, then you need to use the Contact Support link at the top of the page here and contact Apple Support.

Me too!!!! This is a huge disappointment from Apple. I bought two watches for both kids. I can’t add any apps. Kids can’t listen to music. Apple’s version of Microsoft ****....

There is a link there about setting up cellular, see the blue letters, they are links. While there is a listing of some things that are not supported on the family Watch setup, you would need to verify your Spotify question with Apple, which is why I recommended you contacting them.

I ended up here because I’m having the exact same issue. Went to download Spotify since it’s my daughters most used app and apparently it won’t work under Family Setup (along with other apps). Sure hope this is addressed soon. Otherwise I could’ve just bought her high end walkie talkies.

I don't have this exact question, but I ended up here researching other functions egregiously missing from the Family-Sharing-setup Apple Watch... many without prior disclosure.

In my case, the apparent impossibility of being able to use it to listen to Audiobooks... on a device for kids?!??!!

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252110029

There are age limits coded into the Audiobooks I have purchased directly from Apple. I get what you're saying, but in this instance, this has nothing to do with Spotify, or any third-party app or store.

As a general rule, over *many* years and *many* incidents, the Apple phone support people frequently have absolutely no idea what they're talking about, and I have been flat-out lied to on multiple occasions (coincidentally enough, the age change process you just mentioned was actually one of these. I was trying to do exactly what was described in a Knowledge base article, and kept running into an Error message generated by something on Apple's servers' side, and after going through their basic list of worthless things to try, and getting no luck, I was told by no less than *three* people, essentially, "oh, you can't change their ages." BUT YES I CAN, AND IT SAYS SO RIGHT HERE! It was the strangest, most disillusioning thing... and it's not the first time. And yes, I fixed it, *my own self*, after hours of adding and deleting members to the Family Sharing plan, and *weeks* of frustration. So TL;DR... statements by Apple support carry zero credibility. What a shame.)

Who's iPhone are you using the pair the iPhone to?