Locked out of Family Sharing for 364 days

I have the same situation with adding my wife to our family account. I was just tinkering with configutpration trying to get everything working, and got locked out for a year! I get why the restriction is in place--to keep people from hopping from family to family and downloading paid content--but there needs to be some grace given on initial setup of a new service! This was one of the features I was most looking forward to in iOS 8. It's not acceptable to have to wait a whole year to access it now. I hope that Apple addresses this soon, or it will be a public relations boondoggle on the order of the initial Maps rollout. I will call later this morning to see if they've addresses the problem or, more likely, to add my name to the growing number of unhappy customers to maybe motivate them to publish a fix. Meanwhile, if they don't fin a solution in the very near future, I will create a new Apple ID for my wife after copying her purchases to my account via Home Sharing (assuming that's still supported) and use that for a year after copying her purchases to my account via Home Sharing (assuming that's still supported). What a hassle.

TJBUSMC1973 wrote:

Then give feedback at www.apple.com/feedback. It's not going to take a year to fix it. Give some time for Apple to work on a solution. What some of you people fail to realize is that the initial public release of any software is still a beta, even if it's not officially called that. iOS 8 was tested extensively by Apple & developers, but there is no way that they can test on the same scale as a global release. There are always glitches that only get discovered after a public release of software. Even with 100,000 people testing software, once that gets into the hands of 100 times as many people, there's going to be new things that the testing team didn't find. It happens in all software. The only difference for an end user is whether or not they run into that particular issue. If it gets by the testing team, then it's obviously not a problem that affects a large percentage of people.

It slipped through the testing. It's been identified in the public release. And it's going to be addressed, just like the release day iOS 7 issues (and iOS 6, and iOS 5, etc.) were addressed.

It's not testing problem. It is bad initial design to implement such restriction.

2 fdsafdsafdsa....

Man, c'mon, stop whining. The only way to make them fix it is to contact on each issue, so they see how many people are affected. If we just stop, as you suggest, they will definitely do nothing with the problem.

I was trying to change organizer from my wife to me, while doing so, I got locked out.

It was still same 2 account - not different account, but they still counted as hopping to different account.

Obviously this feature was not considered with real life situation.

I'm also locked out. apple needs to fix this fast, they must unlock all the accounts and let people sort out these bugs with out being locked out, at least for the near future. Please let everyone know if Apple starts unlocking this.

I think you missed the point not just changing carriers but unfortunately changing Platforms, this is the level of sloppiness I expect from Microsoft. Not apple. Some new features are looking attractive in the other platforms, I have up until this release preferred my iPhone. It may not stay that way. Until now apples customer retention has been it's greatest strength with issues like we have seen over this latest release. Some that have been with the iPhone from the beginning are considering a move.

I've got the same trouble - same two accounts - trying to get them set up properly - couldn't work out how to share stuff so tried setting up again, but changing the host - then cut off for 1 year with no prior warning.

I've been with Apple for many years - but have never, ever been so angry with one of their products - this was the feature I was most looking forward to.

Hope they sort it soon.

Same problem. I understand that Apple and the developers do not want people jumping from family to family depending on what app/music/movie they wish to access at any given time. To that end, a two family per year limit might be a reasonable restriction. But that's not the issue here. Most people got locked out simply trying to join/re-join ONE family. For example, my wife got locked out for the year simply trying to join my "Family." When it didn't work the first time (thanks to other IOS 8 software glitches -- a whole other story) we deleted her and reinvited her. Now she has to wait a year simply because she tried to join ONE family multiple times? What purpose does that serve?

My hope is that with so many people having this issue, Apple will offer a quick fix...

It does appear that Apple has set up WARROOM trolling Twitter for reports on issues with FamilyShare.

https://twitter.com/cdespinosa or on Twitter @cdespinosa So maybe there is some hope for a solution to this issue soon.

I have also been locked out for 364 days... Was trying to ensure my wife's calendar shows our family entries but, instead, I got this totally unexpected message after removing her and adding her back twice.

I have to admit I feel a bit better that this seems to be an issue with many people, though... 😊 It should hopefully drive the message home at Apple: disabling family sharing for people who are trying to make something work –that should be working in the first place– is counterproductive. I normally buy lots of movies, apps and songs from the Apple Store but I will now stop until this gets fixed.

Hopefully, Apple will listen.

I am having the same issue. Set up family sharing with my wife with me as the originator, would not work. So I removed her, and followed the instructions again. Still no luck with family sharing working. So I removed her again and when trying to add the third time, blam, locked out for 364 days. This was one of my most anticipated features of iOS 8 and the fact that I can't use it, for no fault of my own, is ridiculous. I am a huge supporter of Apple products, everything that can be Apple in my home, is Apple, but this is very disappointing. Currently waiting to connect in a chat, but the "2 minute" wait time has already exceeded 10. Come on Apple...

Just spoke to Apple Support (9PM CST) and they aid its a known issue that they're working on. The thing that didn't make sense to me was that she said it would get fixed in a software update (i.e. 8.0.1). This doesn't seem like a software issue as much as just needed to unlock our accounts, but what do I know?

I'm going to get on record as well as I bought an album today for the sole purpose of sharing it with my girlfriend and didn't get it set up the right way and locked HER out for a year.

This is such a bad way to be introduced to a new feature of iOS 8. I'm agreeing with everyone as a warning would have been great OR better instruction on how to get other people added. Had I sent her an invitation vs. putting in her iTunes account info, I have a feeling it would have worked correctly the first time vs. locking her out.

Oh well, here's hoping Apple gets on the ball and gets this figured out ASAP.

I've received another call from Apple Care today, concerning the issue.

After they verified my identity I was told that Engineering department requires my permission to grant full access to my account, including my iCloud.

As far as I understood they'll set new temporary password for my apple ID and be able to see all the data on my account, except credit card.

It's was unacceptable to me, so I refused (don't want them to see all my Safari saved passwords, any photos etc).

This one is pretty ridiculous solution, I can't imagine having them full access to hundreds account of people with similar problem who don't want to wait another year to access family sharing.

This is not only a gross user experience error on Apple's part, but it relates to people close to you, for whom you care.

There's going to be a lot of emotional responses to this situation (http://ro.ess.li/ios8_family_sharing_lockout/)

Let's hope Apple releases some kind of fix, at least for Apple Support or ApleCare - fast.

Same problem here with my mother.

Since the "My purchases" button was showing only me as family member (and only in the iPad), I thought I did something wrong so I deleted and re-invited her. Now she's blocked out both the Apple ID she uses for iCloud and the Apple ID she uses with iCloud.

I will have to include my Visa in her account to buy her the same application I was hoping to share. And of course, no shared Calendar...

Hope there is a fix soon.

Going to an Apple Store today to tell them.