Family Sharing when having different accounts for purchasing and iCloud

BBecause then any purchases she had made on that account were available to me.

Similar situation: I have one Apple ID for purchases that I share with my wife. We each have separate Apple IDs for iCloud services.

I am thinking that we use the shared purchase Apple ID as the organizer and invite our iCloud Apple IDs. The only issue seems to be that you must first log into the purchases/organizer ID on an iOS device, to start the invitations. I'm going to try this if I can find time today.

You use the same credit card for family sharing:

read here http://www.apple.com/ios/whats-new/family-sharing/

Yes. Ditto for me. I have had an Apple ID since 2004 (pre-@me). All my purchases are still associated with that account. My wife and I share that account to make iTunes purchases (music, movies, etc.), but also have individual @me (iCloud) accounts for mail, messages, iCloud files, etc. I thought that with Family Sharing I would be able to finally rid myself of having to manage that old Apple ID just for purchases, but not so. If anyone figures out how to do this I would love to know. Why is it so difficult for Apple to just allow transferring purchases to another account or "merge" accounts.

I was actually thinking of doing exactly what jd2020 suggested, but then realized I would have to tie e an iOS device to that old account, which I don't want to do.

It seems that they are so innovative in certain areas to blaze forward and abandon old outdated ideas, but in others they remain so stubborn....this being one.

Any update from those trying inviting the icloud accounts from the main purchase account?

I'm in the same situation as the rest of you.

Gents, you seem to be reading too much into this. I don't see any need to stay logged in to the organizing account.

Earlier today I signed out of iCloud on my iPad mini, then signed into iCloud with my iTunes purchase Apple ID (which then converts that account into an iCloud account, if it wasn't already). Then I activated Family Sharing and invited my primary iCloud email address and my wife's email. Then I signed out and re-connected to my primary iCloud account. Seems to be all set.

In fact, I am now logged into the store with the "purchasing" Apple ID, which is how I used to do it before. You enter the "purchasing" account password to confirm the connection, I believe. This is how I operated before -- both of us logged into the various Apple Stores with the purchasing account. Now you don't have to re-log in to that account account when purchasing, I suspect.

Maybe I'm missing something?

I was in fact missing something. I was still logged into the stores using my "purchase" ID. When I tried to make a purchase I was prompted for the "purchase" ID not my iCloud (Family Share) ID. So, I logged out of the Stores tab and signed in with the iCloud ID. Then you're prompted to verify your purchase info. Initially "None" was checked on a list of credit card types. I thought that's what it should be. Then click done.

When I tried to make a purchase I was sent to Identity Verification (because of 2 factor authentication). After getting the code I was returned to enter payment (credit card) info. So all this was for nothing. Definitely not working. I found that when you check Settings at www.iCloud.com it tells me about Family Sharing, but says "To manage Family Sharing go to Settings on your iOS device or System Preferences on your Mac." -- Ugh!

My understanding is that adult accounts require no approval, so this procedure should have worked, no? Now I'm probably going back to just using the other account for Store purchasing -- both of us logged into the various Apple Stores with the purchasing account.

This is from another website, it seems to suggest that you can use your iCloud email for the family sharing organiser but assign your iTunes buying id to it (like you probably used ios7 with two different usernames, then add family members, hopefully this does work like this otherwise i am in the same boat as the rest of you wondering why Apple won't merge ids!

1. To start the process, you need to go to Settings > iCloud, then tap Set Up Family Sharing...
2. At the next screen, tap Get Started.
3. To continue with the logged in iTunes account, tap continue, or tap theUse a different ID text at the bottom of the screen to change your account.
4. The next screen confirms the details of family sharing, and the screen after that confirms your payment details. Press Continue both times.
5. You can then choose to share your location with a family member. Tap either Share your location, or Not now, depending on your preferences.
6. Next, tap Add family member.
7. Now, enter the family member's email address, and tap Next. Confirm your iTunes ID and tap Continue. This will send an invitation for your family member to join.

Ok teach me to believe stuff I read on the Internet!! But I did get it to work.

So how in effect it is not working much differently to the old way under ios7 that worried me when iTunes Match was going to use "icloud" and not my existing Apple ID. But as we all found out we could use our @me.com or @icloud.com address for all they syncing stuff and then further down there was an option for your iTunes store account where most of us used our old iTunes Store account.

So after reading this thread and many similar articles on new family sharing I thought we may have the same issue, but it seems we are ok.

How I did it:

1) Set up Family Sharing,

2) when asked for AppleID enter my @me.com address and password

3) click next, it asks what AppleID to use for Store purchases for the family, here I entered my old store id which is so old is actually just a username.

4) confirm payment card

This seems to have worked, my purchases through AppStore are still made through my old id and all family purchases will be made through that id too.

But as far as my family are concerned @me.com addy is the organiser.

I have yet to set up family members but I trust Apple that it will work they haven't let me down yet (apart from the mucking around with Photostream that they seem to have done).

Also you can check in your settings whether it is set up correctly, go to Family Sharing via icloud settings, click on your name as organiser, it should show what AppleID your family purchases are made through, mine shows my normal AppStore ID, when I get home I'll upload some screenshots (once edited out my details!)

So if I get this right, what I should do is invite my "purchases" ID to Family Sharing from my usual mail/iCloud Apple ID? Is that correct?

I hope/wonder whether I can undo the family sharing from "purchase" Apple ID...

STOP! Be careful how you "undo" the family sharing from one account or another. I tried to do this and got "locked out" of being able to join family sharing for 364 days. I have (as many other people do) a support case opened right now to have this restriction removed.

See this thread here : Locked out of Family Sharing for 364 days

Apparently you are limited to leaving or joining a family group only twice in one year.

No JD2020 that is not what you should be doing!

Let me get some screen shots uploaded and hopefully you will see.

Ok here goes

In Settings under iCloud, click on Family Sharing

The page will look something like this:

As you can see I am the organiser and the payment method is shown below.

If you click on your name as Organiser you will see the following:

As you can hopefully see (apart from the bits I have blurred) my AppleID as Family Organiser is my @me.com address.

The Family Purchases line is my AppleID for iTunes purchases, if you click on this ID it is changeable, so for example if you have by mistake used your iCloud address but you have another iTunes account, you should change the ID under Family Purchases to your normal iTunes store ID.

Now i could do this when i initially setup the Family Sharing, once i had told it i wanted to use my @me.com address as organiser when i went to next page i could choose the Account to use for Family Purchases, at that point i entered my AppleID and password for iTunes Store purchases.

Hopefully that helps those still struggling with this.

To clarify you will be asked to use your "old" purchase details to buy apps, as this is your purchase account, the family sharing organiser address is more to help communicating across your family (photo stream, calendars etc)