iCloud storage keeps kicking out family members

Almost every month, iCloud 2TB being shared with family kicks out my family members, leaving them with “storage is full notices please buy a storage solution”. It is extremely frustrating to see and fix. And has happened numerous times. Requiring us to reset the family relationship and to add family back to the shared storage. This really needs to stop happening because we are not always in the same place. Please fix this issue of kicking family members off of iCloud.

iPhone 12 Pro Max, iOS 16

Posted on May 12, 2023 1:16 PM

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30 replies

Sep 10, 2023 9:42 AM in response to Baylor81

Same here as everyone else with a twist:


  • My wife has a non iCloud.om email address but she is definitely not a heavy user of the services
  • My sister never had the issue, not even once.
  • My brother is the same, getting kicked out.
  • I noticed that my wife's iPhone was showing iCloud+ as she joined in, then seconds later, she was downgraded to regular iCloud (no Private relay etc...) while my sister has iCloud+.


It is very frustrating, especially for a paid service coming from Apple. I hope they fix it one day, it has been over a year in my case and I had to get my wife out and back in the family 5 or 6 times (when she gets fed up with the notification or worse, when Numbers won't let her open a spreadsheet saved on iCloud!)

Sep 11, 2023 7:45 AM in response to Yotsuya974

Have been battling this for a very long time as well. No fix after spending hours on the phone with support and multiple "elevations" nothing. Just removed my son from the Family and then tried to re-add him. It says he can't join or start a family for 340 days. I uttered the words, I doubt Android has these problems. I am actually considering a change vs paying for another data plan.

Sep 11, 2023 10:25 AM in response to jpzla

The 340 days embargo is madness. It looks like the system has suspicions or something!


I tried using our Macs instead of our iPhones, air dropping the invite. I might try accepting with a VPN set on some other countries, who knows it might be country specific...


I noticed another thing:


My sister is the 2nd person who entered the family. The 3rd and 4th person are getting kicked out. I am far from reaching the storage limit (about 80gb off).

When I enter a 3rd person, it will show iCloud+ for a while (possibly 24 hours), I can see us 3 in the Family storage break down. Then the 3rd person will be shown the 200Gb I pay for but without the iCloud+ features and that person will disappear from the Family storage breakdown. It is now only a matter of time before she gets the iCloud storage full message.

It seems the 3rd person's "instance" in the database is supposed to be synched but somehow it becomes orphaned and gets out of synch eventually.

I can't believe this issue is not widespread enough to draw enough attention at Apple.


I got used to iCloud so much over the years, it would annoy me to try and find another solution.

Oct 1, 2023 10:15 AM in response to Andrew98350

Same issue with us as well. In my case, I am not the family organizer but the person who does hold the plan is actually Apple Certified and extremely literate with technology on both a hardware and development aspect, and he STILL cannot figure out why this keeps happening. I’m just giving background because I know the first assumption is always user error, but we have tried everything that seems relevant and it’s only been a bandaid.

Oct 1, 2023 10:23 AM in response to Andrew98350

Completely agree. I'm not tech illiterate either/ It's a problem Apple simply has not tackled. I work for a certain tech giant and I am reliably informed it just hasn't been a priority. This needs to be seen as Apple's connective tissue when it comes to making life simpler - not stressful... after all - there is a price point on this failed delivery and folk will eventually vote with their feet.

Oct 1, 2023 8:20 PM in response to Apachegolfer14

Even the organizer who pays for it?! With how common this issue is, I’m surprised Apple either hasn’t tried fixing it or haven’t gotten a class action lawsuit against the Company. This is ridiculous! Now my mom is having issues and even gave her a notification saying she can’t join the family again for a year. Honestly, I feel that Apple is screwing people over. The Family Sharing feels more like a scam now. The fact that you’re paying for the service but not receiving it. Doesn’t that count as fraud!

Oct 1, 2023 9:09 PM in response to Pikagirl1527

Everyone in my family is on either a @mac.com or @icoud.com accounts. So what hurts is when my son gets booted he can no longer send/receive e-mail, and this is the only e-mail he has. Even though I said he couldn't join the family for 340 days, I was able to invite him back. I share 11 subscriptions with my family. He had access to all 11 for about 3 days, that's the average since I've tracked this happening a dozen times now. Then it says he has access to 10 subscriptions and iCloud+ is not one of them. However, on his storage menu it still shows he has access to the 2TB, but at the bottom of that screen it suggests to subscribe to iCloud+. This has been a long run. He's been able to access the data since my September 11th post. I'm predicting it will boot him out again on October 11th. On my iPhone under Settings/Family/(Son)/Subscriptions it says he has access all 11 subscriptions.

iCloud storage keeps kicking out family members

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