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Locked out of Family Sharing for 364 days

I setup Family Sharing following the directions exactly. It didn't work. So I stopped family sharing, followed the directions and still no success. So, I figured I just did something wrong during setup. So, I repeated the process. When I went to setup family sharing the 3rd time, I received the message that I can not join or create a family sharing account for 364 more days because I am limited to 2 times per year.


Now I can't use the 1 service I was excited about in iOS 8. Apple support says they have no idea how to help me.


Any suggestions?

iPhone 5s, iOS 8

Posted on Sep 17, 2014 4:30 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 17, 2014 7:40 PM

not only is it totally ridiculous, but why is there no warning about this? "Hey, I see you're about to unjoin family share, just so you know you will be blocked for an entire year because apple rocks if you do this again!"


How hard is that to have that as a warning?

149 replies

Sep 17, 2014 10:48 PM in response to BrenFischer

Just had a conversation with Apple Care Advisor.

He told me they have no info on this issue, nor do they have any solution yet.

He also told that he will look further into this and contact me when new info is available.


Two minutes later he called me back and told that they are aware of the problem, and that it is currently being investigated, but no more info.

He also mentioned something about engineering department working on it, if I understood correctly.


So if you guys have the problem, you should probably contact Apple Care via phone as well as posting it on the web. The more feedback they get, the faster solution will come up.

Sep 17, 2014 9:27 PM in response to sjthone

I am having the same issue. I am seeing this problem on the Apple support page in multiple places. Apple will be forced to come up with a fix. I Hope. The thing that annoys me the most is that there was no warning or prompt telling me that I was about to lock myself out. At the very least there should have been a warning or something. It was way to easy to lock myself out. I find the fact that it was so easy to do a big part of the problem. Only can join twice a year? Heck I do a full restore my IPad more often then that Because I am one of those really picky people that want my stuff to always be perfect. That's why I buy Apple products. Apple caters to my OCD and perfectionism. 🙂 I'm sure I'm not the only one around here. So this two times a year limit isn't going To cut it. Come on Apple. Atleast give users a way to reset it. Maybe through icloud Manager or something. if Apple is worried about people abusing this feature ok fine, then don't make it so obvious to reset. But at least make it possible to do so for people like me. And don't put a limit on it. you would be surprised how often some people do a full restore on their device. Far more frequent then twice a year. That's for sure. Especially for us developers. Remove the limit, or give us an easy way to reset it Without limits. Such a waste of a great feature.

Sep 17, 2014 10:13 PM in response to MrGizmo

Just ended chat session with support again 5 hours after initial ticket opened. They are no closer to a resolution. In fact, implied that they may not reset my account for me as if I had done something wrong. You can imagine that didn't sit well with me. The bonus, I get to do this all over again for the rest of my family who is also locked out. Can't wait!

Sep 17, 2014 10:19 PM in response to sjthone

I had the EXACT SAME THING happen to me. Set it up initially per the instructions, it didn't work. Tried it again, didn't work. Tried having my spouse as the originator, didn't work....and BAM! Locked out for 364 days. I hope they fix this. They make this feature a sales pitch, then it doesn't work and then they lock you out of it for a year? Come on!!!!!!! Please post a solution if you find one. Thanks everyone!

Locked out of Family Sharing for 364 days

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