Family Sharing and Purchase Sharing.

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Family Sharing and Purchase Sharing.

My wife and I have Family Sharing and Purchase Sharing. She purchased Music using her Apple ID, not mine. Can we still share?

iMac 27″, macOS 11.2

Posted on Nov 29, 2021 11:15 AM

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Answer 1

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ed2345

Level 9

62,522 points

Nov 29, 2021 12:24 PM in response to johnnyplatter

Hi Johnny,

Sorry, I may have misinterpreted "She purchased Music" as she got an Apple Music subscription, but I guess that is not what you meant.

If you and your wife are both members of a Family Sharing group, you can go ahead and share content purchased from the iTunes Store or the App Store. There is no monthly fee for this. There are few exceptions about what is shareable. See details in here:

What types of content can I share with my family? - Apple Support

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Answer 2

ed2345

Level 9

62,522 points

Nov 29, 2021 12:05 PM in response to johnnyplatter

johnnyplatter wrote:

My wife and I have Family Sharing and Purchase Sharing. She purchased Music using her Apple ID, not mine. Can we still share?

Johnny,

You will need to sign up for an Apple Music family plan:

Get an Apple Music family subscription - Apple Support

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Answer 3

Nov 29, 2021 1:02 PM in response to ed2345

Now were are on the same page. Both MACs. Settings/Family Sharing shows both of us on both computers. Purchase Sharing shows both of us on both MACs. Each of us is using our own Apple ID.

She can't share my music and I can't share her msic. Neither of us have our music in iCloud.

What am I missing? I swear I've copied her music to my library in the past. Am I crazy? Or stupid?

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Answer 4

ed2345

Level 9

62,522 points

Nov 29, 2021 3:05 PM in response to johnnyplatter

Johnny,

Just to be clear, Family Sharing does not enable full library sharing (or visibility). It is specifically to share purchases from the iTunes Store or App Store.

Anything else in your library, such as songs ripped from CD or purchased from non-Apple download stores, does not show up in Family Sharing. But you can still share such stuff the old-fashioned way, by making a copy for the other person.

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Answer 5

Dec 1, 2021 2:48 PM in response to ed2345

After calling Apple Support, here is what I found.

You must have the iTunes Store to download Family purchases of other family members. The iTunes Store app is inside Music, but is not the same as on the iPhone iOS and it's not available as a seperate app on a MAC. However, iTunes Store is still available on an iPhone, so that's where you have to download purchases from other family members to your own playlist. Of course the downloaded iPhone songs can then be synced to the MAC's Music app in a "long way around" exercise.

This is a true PITA. It was a change that occured in Catalina in late 2019. I used to be able to do it directly and easily from my wife's MAC to my MAC.

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Answer 6

Nov 29, 2021 12:13 PM in response to ed2345

Doesn'this require a monthly Apple Music subscription? Is there a way to share only purchased music? Can't I do it without a subscription?

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Family Sharing and Purchase Sharing.

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