I manage a Family Share of Apple One. I invited someone, they accepted and can use TV/Music/etc. However, in Settings on all my devices I have a red badge on the Family section of iCloud telling me the invitation was sent and I can cancel or resend. I need to clear this mistaken badge. Do I just cancel and things will stay the same? I don't want the member to be kicked out. Thanks.
iMac 24″, macOS 26.6
I wouldn’t cancel the invitation if that person already appears as a member of your Family Sharing group. Apple describes Revoke Invitation as canceling a pending invitation, so I wouldn’t use it to clear the badge while the status is inconsistent.
First check Settings > Family and tap that person’s name. If they’re shown as a family member there and Apple One is working for them, the red badge sounds more like the invitation status hasn’t refreshed correctly on your devices.
Since you’re seeing the same stale invitation on all your devices, I’d leave the family membership alone rather than risk removing anything.
Yes, at this point I think contacting Apple is reasonable. Since the person appears as an active family member and can use the shared services, the invitation clearly completed on their side.
Apple says an outstanding invitation should show its status under the person’s name, with the option to resend it. Seeing that pending invitation state after they’ve already joined doesn’t match the expected behavior.
I’d avoid canceling or removing anything and have Apple check the Family Sharing status on the account. That way you’re not risking a working family membership just to clear the badge.
Thanks for reporting back. The “Cannot Complete Action — Unable to remove invitation” message is actually useful information. The family member is active and Apple One is working, while that old invitation record appears to be stuck separately.
I’d follow Apple’s request and give it the additional 48 hours. If it’s still there, I’d contact them again and ask for the case to be escalated for an account-side Family Sharing review rather than repeating device troubleshooting.
I still wouldn’t remove the family member or make any other changes to a Family Sharing setup that’s otherwise working.
And yes, your crystal ball may turn out to be right. 🙂
Update.
I decided to contact Apple via online chat. I explained the situation and sent screenshots to make sure the agent really knew what is happening.
I don't think he had a clue to be honest but then maybe he did. After a lot of pauses and "checking", he said to try clicking cancel because it won't affect the membership status. Clicking that produces a pop-up.
Cannot Complete Action
Unable to remove invitation
OK
So that was no use. The invitation won't resend or cancel. It is just stuck.
After another pause, he came back with (copy/paste):
"A pending Family Sharing invitation is shown on your device yet you're unable to remove / delete the pending invitation!
You might or might not receive an error when trying to remove / delete the pending invite!
The best option it's try waiting for about 15 days after the invite was sent, at which point the pending invite should be automatically deleted!"
(Apple agents love an exclamation mark.)
I was invited to chat again if it is still there after another 48 hours. My crystal ball, although not always reliable, says nothing will change. It has already been 16 days so the 15 he said that were needed have already passed. Still, you have to do as asked. I hope he is right but we'll see.
A quick update.
As expected, 48 hrs didn't clear it so I had a chat with Apple again. The agent had the Tech people call me. The chap did something to try and clear the problem that would take maybe 2 hrs (so I left it 4). On the iPhone and iPad, the badge was there but when tapped, it said it was invalid and cleared. Not on the iMac or mini. SO a partial success.
I had the call me and the agent went through a few things via screen share to verify the system. After a while and some on hold, he came back and said he'd started something validating and/or verifying all my iCloud data. It will take up to 2 days so at the moment, I'm assuming that's all going on and I'm waiting to see the outcome. Roll on Tuesday afternoon :D I'll get them to call me if not and report back here.
I don't know why this thread's posts are not in date/time order but there it is. I'm probably clicking the wrong Reply button 🤷‍♂️
Hi. Thanks for the reply. What you say about the Cancel option is what I thought, so why I asked. I know the invitee has watched TV+ and they do show as a Family member. However, I do need the red badge to go away. Seems I need to contact Apple and get them to tinker in my account. I just thought I'd ask first as I can't be the only person getting this manifestation.
One small thing about the order of the replies: you’re not clicking the wrong Reply button. 🙂
At the top of the thread, there’s a Sort By menu. You can choose Oldest, Newest, Rank, or Upvotes. If Rank is selected, replies won’t necessarily appear in date/time order.
Choose Oldest if you want to follow the discussion chronologically from the beginning.
So there is. I'd never noticed before as it is so small. đź‘Ť to you.
Red badge in iCloud Family settings persists after invitation accepted
