Q: Family Sharing when having different accounts for purchasing and iCloud

Hello people think we have a bit of confusion over what Family Sharing is, and how it is supposed to work, there are a lot of people here who have current workarounds and we all expect it to work differently. What we need to understand is how it actually works. From my setup so far it works as advertised.

SO I am main organiser, I created the Family and added my icloud account as organiser, and then my Purchase account as my longstanding account.

I also shared all my purchased content after first hiding all purchases (in iTunes) that were rubbish or I dont one want others to see.

Then I invited my wife to the family. She accepted and during setup when asked for purchase account used her itunes store account (which happened to be same as her icloud addy.

she then shared her content.

in the App Store or iTunes store I can see all her purchase and she can see mine.

any future purchases she makes will be charged to my iTunes account. We can both download them.

AS an adult it appears that I have no control over her spending so an element of trust is required.

If family member is a child I can set up ask to buy control, I don't know what happens if they didn't have an iTunes account before.

WHy did your wife have to enter her uptillthat moment - paying ID?

anyway, is there a way to use main account for multiple accounts backups?

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

Yes, I can confirm the following as well:

- Set up Family Sharing with your "newer" iCloud account

- Then set up the "old" iTunes Account for sharing what you have bought.

The same can even be done for the spouse (two Apple IDs)

somehow when I setup my wife's device I was able to set her purchasing Apple ID to mine. (Which is what we had setup previously under AppStore/iTunes.) She 's still logged in with her own AppleId for iCloud. When I tried to do this on my kids devices i got a prompt stating my AppleId was already used for another member in the family.

This sure is confusing.  I have a similar situation I'm trying to figure out.

I have my own apple ID that's been used as the itunes account on a couple of different devices previously.  I purchased Plex on my apple ID well before family sharing existed. 

My wife set up a family share using her apple ID and invited me and my kids and we all accepted and show up on her phone in the family share. 

After reading through this thread, on her phone, I changed the purchasing account for the family share to my apple ID.

On the my wife's and kids' phones, who are all now logged into itunes with their own apple IDs that are all in the family share, Plex shows up as a $4.99 purchase.

How can they download Plex for free?

Also, my account has a gift card credit balance.  If it's the purchasing account under icloud on the organizers device, will future purchases come out of that balance?

Ok this is the problem.  Apple wants every family member to have there own iCloud account that is linked to the family account so the purchases run thru the organizers account.  But as I have seen with this process is that two different systems are not working together as planned.  I have one Apple ID setup for iTunes/App store purchasing and my iCloud account is setup as the sole account for all my devices.  One account where all the purchases happen and all other users that are signed into that iTunes/App store account have access to all the content in the library.  After setting up Family share and having to have iCloud accounts for every family member just for this service is not worth the headache when those member won't use those iCloud accounts anyway.  So the only way I see this happening is to have a serup as followed:

1. Have an Apple ID for your iTunes/App Store accounts

2. Have an iCloud account that is different for the organizier

3. Setup the iTunes/App Store account on all devices

4. Each member of the family setups a new iCloud account per device

5. Setup the organizier account with the iCloud account

6. Send invitations to each family member to join

7. All purchases will be linked to one iTunes/App Store account and all members will have access to that content.

Hope that helps as content in iTunes can not be interchanged from account to account.

FYI - Apple ID's are for shopping and iCloud accounts are for cloud services.

 

FYI - Apple ID's are for shopping and iCloud accounts are for cloud services.

??..

Except when when you have multiple Apple ID's that were used for purchases And want to centralize everything...including iCloud services...under one ID to eliminate having to continually log in and out to update or simply keep track of things.  No kids to worry about or other family members in this case - just me.

I Can't be really sure of what's been explained, as smokefortyaday's .png images won't show up on my iPad Air.   But in my case, I have an ancient Apple ID email address that was used for important purchases - and it was bought out by Yahoo years ago, semi phased out, and finally (as of last week) it's at the point where I cannot receive emails, log into it or use it at all; a second "me" ID later assigned by Apple and made the iCloud address; and a gmail address I use for literally everything.   3 ID's, one of which is dead but still locked into expensive Apple purchases; one I don't want but apparently am required to have that's now locked as my iCloud ID/address; and one I use for everything, including App Store purchases, that I can't change to my iCloud ID BECAUSE it's already an ID.

It sounds like Family Share might be a workaround to Apple's idiotic, unexplained refusal to allow even a one-time combining of Apple ID's (or elimination of redundant ones without loss of purchases), but HOW to do it seems to consist of about 20 conflicting explanations with no examples similar to my situation (which oddly is shared by a dozen or so friends who would also like ONE ID - their primary email address.).

FWIW. I have years of experience with networks, website creation and such, yet this is completely baffling.  I really feel the pain of those with little experience other than as a "user".

So is there ONE sure-fire way to take my three ID's and be able to neatly wrap them together?  One thing in IOS 8 & Yosemite that would really help me (due to medical issues) would be sending/replying to SMS text messages to my phone number using my iPad or iMac - but it seems some people not using Macs initiate those with my gmail address, yet they get to my iPhone.   If that feature is tied to iCloud, though, I won't be able to use it...or so it appears, and I've learned the hard way that experimenting is a bad idea (apparent here with some folks' examples of a 1-year lockout of an address from family sharing).

I Don't want to try it, have it NOTwork - and have to wait a year to try again, and I don't want to create a new email address and reinvent the wheel.

The multiple Apple ID issue has been a hassle for me for a long time - but now, with the recent "death" of one important email address and  Apple's introduction of several new features happening concurrently I could really use some help!

thanks-

Frequently asked questions about Apple ID

It seems you can not merge Apple ID's or transfer purchases from one ID to a new one.

Having read a lot about this recently, it's starting to make sense.

However, a few things and questions remain.

• As the organiser, will future purchases be attributed to my Purchase ID or my iCloud ID?
• How do the family Apple TVs fit into this?
• I am willing to accept the concept that if I buy something for a family member, it belongs to them. However, in some family situations, there are books/apps/music/movies that I would prefer to be attributed to my ID rather than theirs.
• Can they still add credit to their accounts to spent as they like before future purchases require authorisation? Does this work with iTunes allowance? I can't recall if free purchases require authorisation.
• The 18 age limit for restricting purchases is ridiculous. Surely 21 is a more reasonable age as more and more kids are dependent for longer?

I started my own thread, but, then I saw your response in this thread.  You lead me to believe that what I am asking is possible.  My wife and I would like to continue to use our original "shared iTunes account" while utilizing Family Sharing with the rest our family.  My wife would be the organizer with myself and the children as "invitees".  How is it working out for you?  This is what I asked in the other thread:

"My wife and I share an iTunes account but have separate iCloud accounts. Can my wife and I continue to share the same iTunes account with same login when we set up Family Sharing amongst ourselves and our children - or - does one of us now have to create our own iTunes account? The children have their own iTunes accounts."

Can anyone else confirm

As of yesterday (9/22/14), the restriction from joining Family Share until next year was apparently "reset" or removed.  I was able to successfully setup Family Sharing using smokefortyaday recommendations.

My main account was always the primary account for both purchases and my iCloud account. (Same email address)

Under my iCloud settings I'm setup as the Family Share organizer usIng the same account. (Same email for iCloud and purchases)

My wife was able to join the family group using her own AppleID/iCloud account and set my AppleID/iCloud account as her purchasing account.

In her app/iTunes Store settings she's using my AppleId/iCloud.

When I tried to do the same for my kids (they are all set as being 13 years old since their accounts were created prior to ios8. This was the only way I could get them join the family as a child) I got a promot stating that the purchasing account I entered is already used for another family member (something like that).

I am however still able to set my kids app/iTunes Store account settings to my account. This however makes a message display under itunes stating there's another iTunes purchasing account specified in the iCloud settings. (My kids AppleId since I couldn't specify mine)

i still have to try some different config options for my kids account since I don't like that my 5 year old has to enter her iTunes password every time she wants to download/purchase anything even though she has no CC info under her account and she still has to Ask Permission. (IMO There should be an option to save their password if they don't have any CC info and have to ask permission)

JohnnyG76,

It sounds like the following setup might be possible with Family Sharing although it sounded like some folks were getting the "already used" error when trying to share the same iTunes account across family members.

You can do the following without Family Sharing on 3 separate iDevices and all purchases and ownership end up on the iTunes0 account.  Can you do this under Family Sharing or will you get a message that the purchasing account is already used for the 2 invitees when you try to enter iTunes0?

Organizer/iDevice 1:

iCloud Account: iCloud1

iTunes Account: iTunes0

Adult Invitee/iDevice 2:

Cloud Account: iCloud2

iTunes Account: iTunes0

Child Invitee/iDevice 3:

Cloud Account: iCloud3

iTunes Account: iTunes0

If this is allowed then what happens when the adult or child purchase a new app?  I understand the iTunes0 account will pay for it but which Apple ID will "own" it for future downloads?  I would like the "owner" to be iTunes0 but I think it is going to end up on the iCloud2 and iCloud3 accounts with Family Sharing.

can anyone verify what happens to my iTunes library after setting up family share?

My wife and I currently have our own iCloud ID's and we share a joint ID for iTunes purchases.

1. Can both devices still sync to the same iTunes library?
2. If my wife purchases some music and we both have iTunes match, can I add that music to a playlist of mine without having to download it to my phone?