Convert existing Apple ID to Child Apple ID

Thats simply not true. You can add an account to a family share and make it ask to purchase if the birthday on that account in under 18. You can also add an account to family share with an adult birthday, change the birthday to under 18 and set it to ask to purchase. I know because I've done both. In both cases the birthday has to be over 13.

What you can't do is set a birthday to under 13 unless you create a child account through family share. That 13 to 18 range is the magical sweet spot.

If you can turn on ask to buy for the 13-18 range, that's news to me and I can't test that anymore. So if that works, I stand corrected.

That however doesn't allow you to "convert" an account to a child account, which is an account where the child is under 13. So that is in fact still true.

I clearly explained in my post that: 1) I was not able to convert a regular account to a child account, 2) I was able to find an adequate option by changing the birthdate as long as the age was at least 13, and 3) the accounts then worked with Ask to Buy.

You are correct that an adult account cannot be converted to a child account, but that doesn't mean this thread should be closed. Not everyone wants to create a new Apple ID, especially once a number of purchases have been made.

Closing the thread isn't the same as deleting it. This thread has gotten too big to be useful and has been answered several times over. Closing leaves it for reference, but disallows new comments. Often, one of the correct answers will be highlighted on the first page making the thread still useful.

Hi bryans83,

If a child’s birthday on their Apple ID account had previously been entered incorrectly when setting up Family Sharing, you can now change that birthdate by following the information in the article below.

Update the birth date associated with your Apple ID - Apple Support

Take care,

Alex H.

it doesn't matter about the age it just matters if they can get apps without needing to ask you just go to settings then iCloud then family then press your kids name there will be a switch that says ask to buy turn it off

I was able to log into my childs Apple ID account and change the birthdate. It asked me to convert it to a child ID which I then approved.

I just fixed this and thought I'd share what I learned. I have an account for each chlid that I setup 2 years ago. One let me change the birthdate to a 7 year old, confirmed the change to child and it worked great. The other account gave the error 'you can not change the birthdate at this time'. Turns out the difference is the first account was already confirmed to the family share group (showed as an adult). The second account was invited but not confirmed.

so make sure you add the childs account to family share and confirm it before attempting to change their birthdate.

Unfortunately, if the original age was under 13, you can not change it:

Be sure to enter your correct birthdate. After you change it to any age below 13, you can't edit it. Learn more about Apple IDs for children.

...when setting up one of my kids accounts on my iPhone, the Year scrolled up as I hit 'Done' so now my 8 yr old is '2'. Not really a problem for now, but it certainly will be as she gets older. 😟

You CAN now. You just log into the account you want to change to a child's account and set the birthdate. It will then ask if you want to send an email to the family organiser to approve this. Click Yes then retrieve the email and click on the link to approve. It will then ask you to log in with your apple id as family organiser. Once you have, it will very if your card CVV code, the 3 digit number on the back (unless it is an amex then its the 4 on the front).

Now this is the CATCH and where I was going wrong. This will NOT work unless you have a CREDIT card on file. If you use a debit card, it will simply then do nothing and give you no option to approve. So you will need to change your debit card to be a credit card number then the whole process works. Then you can change your payment method back to your DEBIT card.

NIGHTMARE!

I have FINALLY figured out how this works and it wasn't through the help of Apple support!!!

You just log into the account you want to change to a child's account and set the birthdate. It will then ask if you want to send an email to the family organiser to approve this. Click Yes then retrieve the email and click on the link to approve. It will then ask you to log in with your apple id as family organiser. Once you have, it will verify your card CVV code, the 3 digit number on the back (unless it is an amex then its the 4 on the front).

Now this is the CATCH and where I was going wrong. This will NOT work unless you have a CREDIT card on file. If you use a debit card, it will simply then do nothing and give you no option to approve. So you will need to change your payment details to be a credit card number then the whole process works. Then once you have approved, you can change your payment method back to your DEBIT card.

NIGHTMARE!

Hi,

I can confirm what Heatherbrae writes about converting an adult account to a child account.

After contacting the Swedish Apple Support I was told that I need to use a CREDIT card which has a credit limit of atleast 50.000SEK (about 6.000USD). The DEBIT card I'm using and have been using for the last 6+ years will not work. Really wierd policy I think, especially in Sweden where I believe it's more common to use a DEBIT card.

Apple, either update the knowledge base article with the proper requirements or iTunes should show an error message that the card can not be used.

Thank you! This absolutely worked!

You can overcome that limitation. Just follow this guide.

https://snapguide.com/guides/setup-family-sharing-without-apple-email-addresses/