Can’t access Apple Music through family sharing

let me share screenshots with you so it will be clear.

I have what may only be a similar problem. We bought a set of HomePod minis in our effort to get rid of Alexa. My wife bought them under her username to take advantage of the 6-month free music subscription. When I realized it's cheaper in the long run to use the Apple Music family plan that (supposedly) would allow us to share music and, I expected, use a common library I had her quit that subscription after a few days and signed us up for the shared plan instead (4 bucks a month cheaper too).

It should have been no surprise to find that actually sharing anything except the license itself can be a nightmare. In typical Apple fashion I had to cruise these help forums and search for answers since Apple is never forthcoming with setup instructions, requirements, and troubleshooting advice. Lots of fanboys have disagreed with this but those that do have never drunk another brand of koolaid. But I digress.

What I found was a slightly older article that says we can only share music that was purchased or leased from Apple. Seems to me the only reason for this is to make it more convenient to either lock your new account into giving control of each family members content over to Apple in typical Apple fashion. Since my library is local to my system and hers there is no technical reason why this should be necessary. If this is true then I will have to go through everything I have that she maybe interested in and re-upload it to her (supposedly) shared account. Thereby increasing the load on our also shared iCloud account by doubling the space necessary.

I haven't yet tried the techniques offered here to give her access to the content I am supposedly able to share but, if true, I have a lot of work to do to make several DAYS worth of music I owned before I came over to the dark side. And, yes, the longer I use it the more I come to understand that it truly can be dark over here.

So, to make a short story long, I invite someone here to tell me how wrong I am about being able to share all my music content with her...I look forward to the help that Apple should have supplied in a file full of knowledge along with the subscription.

I assume the reason she isn’t able to access the shared family Apple Music plan yet is because you stated that she signed up for an individual Apple Music plan that was offering 6 months free. Even though you had her cancel the subscription because you realized you guys could share an account and it would be $4 cheaper a month she still has the individual Apple Music plan for the six months and until that runs out she won’t be able to use the family Apple Music subscription. In order to fix this go to https://reportaproblem.apple.com & have her log in under her account. Once you’ve done that hit the id like to request a refund option & then select the individual Apple Music plan (I know she hasn’t paid for it because she canceled it during the free trial so she won’t get a refund but it’ll end the 6 month free trial allowing her to use the family Apple Music plan with you)

I assume the reason she isn’t able to access the shared family Apple Music plan yet is because you stated that she signed up for an individual Apple Music plan that was offering 6 months free. Even though you had her cancel the subscription because you realized you guys could share an account and it would be $4 cheaper a month she still has the individual Apple Music plan for the six months and until that runs out she won’t be able to use the family Apple Music subscription. In order to fix this go to https://reportaproblem.apple.com & have her log in under her account. Once you’ve done that hit the id like to request a refund option & then select the individual Apple Music plan (I know she hasn’t paid for it because she canceled it during the free trial so she won’t get a refund but it’ll end the 6 month free trial allowing her to use the family Apple Music plan with you)

Problem44 wrote:

We have Family sharing, but when my husband tries to access Apple Music, he gets a message that says that it is only authorized to play on one computer. How can this be??

That suggests you are sharing an Apple ID, which completely defeats Family Sharing. Apple IDs should never be shared, for any reason.

In Family Sharing each person should have their own Apple ID, and you won't get that error message.

I tried all of the other ideas listed above and NOTHING worked. But then I had a brainwave! I decided to delete all of my existing family members from “Family Sharing” under Settings, and then re-invite them to join. IT WORKED. XJob done!

I tried signing out and back to media and purchases on both my account and with members on my family sharing and it still didn’t work. I’m paying for a family sharing subscription but yet no one seems to be able to access it. Help!! So frustrated over here 😣

For anyone else searching this worked for me (from the p1 post)

go into Settings ----> Name/Apple Id ---> Media & Purchases and choose sign out when you click on Media & Purchases. Stay signed out for a couple minutes then sign back in. Do this on both the head of the Apple Family's device and the family member's device.

After many hours spent with Apple personel in Store and long support phone calls to try and figure out why my Family Sharing Plan wasn't working, the suggestion to log out and back in to media and purchases worked.

Thanks . Apple need to ensure their staff receive training on the ins and outs of connection issues associated with the Family Sharing facility. Also, perhaps Apple could develop detailed on-line instructions on this issue.

Do what Phil0124 says below, worked for us on our Child's device.

Mum

We have Family sharing, but when my husband tries to access Apple Music, he gets a message that says that it is only authorized to play on one computer. How can this be??

The same thing is happening to me as well

srmartin427, just wanted to say thanks for this post.

How did you resolve this ? I’m having the same issue with 1 out of the 3 family members I invited.

Finally after resetting my childs device, and trying everything under the sun, i finally had to remove him from the family and add him back again. Now everything works - and hopefully stays the same.