family sharing is not working

Hey all!

FIrst, I think it's clear there is more than one cause of this error, so sorry if this does not work for you, but here is a suggestion which I don't think has appeared in this thread and worked for me! If you have tried everything else, give this a go:

- Go to Settings>iCloud>Family

- Click on the name of the user of the iPad/iPhone with trouble (the user with"(me)" at the end)

- Make sure that the account name under "family purchases" is the same as the AppleID for that family member. If it is not click on the account name, in blue, and log on with the family member's AppleID in the dialog box that opens.

Although that was the problem to fully get things working I then had to

- log out of the App Store and log back in again (so it realised I had made the changes above)

- download any old free app, so it correctly populated "My Purchases"

I think maybe these would have fixed themselves, in time, but the two steps above forced a refresh and got things working immediately.

Somehow the iPad I had with trouble with was logged on to iCloud with the right AppleID, but that AppleID was set to share purchases from a different AppleID (in fact mine), probably because iCloud was previously logged in with that AppleID before Family Sharing was released. I have no idea why Family Sharing gives you the option to share apps from a different account to the user logged into iCloud. All it seems to do is break the App Store completely.

I was left with 2 apps that would not update, but that was because they were not enabled for family sharing. Luckily, they were both free apps and I was able to uninstall and reinstall to get them working.

One last thing: When "updating all" the App Store seems to work its way down the list. If any one fails, it stops. So if you have tried ANY of the ideas in this thread it is worth checking that the top app in your update list is not disabled from family sharing (shown under "information" on the apps page in the App Store) or it may prevent all the other apps from automatically updating. If it is try uninstalling and reinstalling or manually updating one of the other apps in the list.

Dan,

Compare the iTunes App store description for the apps that can be downloaded versus those that are giving you trouble. I'm willing to be the ones that are giving you trouble don't support family sharing. Apple botched up how the apps that don't support family sharing function. It's a big problem for users and developers and hopefully they'll address it soon.

In the mean time the only workaround that I've found is to sync each device with iTunes on a desktop. Download the problem apps to iTunes through the desktop (best to do it under the organizer's apple id) and then sync each device with the desktop iTunes. This is a pain, but it's the only current work around I'm aware of. Hope that helps.

There is currently a bug in IOS8 where once you enable Family Sharing you cannot download free apps that are not marked by the developer as Family Sharing Allowed. This currently includes apps like Starbucks, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and the Amazon Music Player. Once you enable Family sharing if you try to install one of those apps you will see the follow error message:

Redownload Unavailable with This Apple ID
This redownload is not available for this Apple ID either because it was bought by a different user or the item was refunded or cancelled.

Disabling Family sharing and removing family members does not seem to fix it. In other words, they still cannot get these free apps, even after they have reverted to NOT using Family Sharing!

Some people on message boards have suggested logging out of your AppleID and logging back in. This alone would not fix it on our IOS devices.

Here’s how to fix it:

• Go to the App Store and find the app you are trying to install. You will see the little cloud icon with the down arrow indicating you have already purchased this app (by a family member) and can install it from the cloud. Go ahead and try and you will receive the error message.
• Go to Settings->iTunes & App Store. Tap on your Apple ID. Tap Sign Out.
• Go BACK to the App Store where you are trying to download the app. The little cloud with the down arrow icon should now change to FREE. Tap FREE and tap INSTALL.
• Log back in to your AppleID when prompted.
• Your app should download and install.
  NOTE: if you want to install another one of the problematic apps you must go through the whole process again for each app (Sign Out, try to install, and sign in only when prompted)

Hope this helps. =)

I came to this forum thread with a similar issue, in my case my Family members were unable to UPDATE Apps downloaded prior to iOS 8, when we were all sharing a single Apple ID in the iTunes/App stores (I did not get as far as redownloads). Now, each member has their own Apple ID, Family Sharing is setup, and Updates not permitted even for Apps which allow Family Sharing. The error was: "Update not available for this Apple ID either because it was bought by a different user or the item was refunded or cancelled".

I tried every solution suggested in this forum thread.
I called Apple Support; Level 1 could not help, Level 2 could not help, a ticket was opened with Engineering.

Then I found the problem and fixed it.

These instructions are for the Family member iOS device, not the Organizer:

1. Go to: Settings -> iCloud
2. Touch Name/ID at top to ensure iCloud Login is correct
3. Back in iCloud settings, touch Family
4. In list of Family members, select your name
5. Under "FAMILY PURCHASES", your Apple ID should be listed (not the Organizers)
6. If not, touch the blue (incorrect) Apple ID
7. Enter your own Apple ID and password
8. Touch blue "Confirm Account" link
9. Select "OK" on Change Account Warning
10. Exit back out to Settings
11. Try your Updates/Downloads in the App Store again

The key step here is #5 and I believe the text description of the input field is misleading.

Good luck!!

A SOLUTION:

I had a similar issue where my purchases on my iPhone would not work on my wife's iPad. Family sharing was enabled on both and I was the organizer. I did everything right, but still could not get it to work. She could access the shared app page in the app store and see all the apps i had purchased and available to her to download for free, but when it finished downloading, it would show an error message " This is no longer shared with you" followed by ' you have to purchase it from the app store' i'm paraphrasing but it was what the error message read when it popped up.

I called apple support, they could not figure it out, moved up to tier 1 support, they looked at it, couldn't figure it out, called me back later with a solution that worked and I hope it does for some of you as well.

It is a simple fix; go under settings, iCloud, Family, then select the account on each individual device and toggle the 'share my purchases' button OFF, wait 10 seconds, then turn back to ON again. do the same on your other devices and it should work.

good luck.

I had this issue after setting up family sharing on my wifes iPad, there were 5 apps I simply couldn't update, kept getting the "redownload unavailable with this apple ID" message, tried logging in and out and everything else on this thread. I've only ever had one Apple ID and email which I've had since 2003. Going into the purchases section and switching to my account I found that none of these apps were listed.

Turned out all these missing apps either didn't allow family sharing or only allowed family sharing for purchases made after a certain date. e.g.. Afterlight's family sharing was "Yes for purchases after 25th June 2014", it was the same with the other apps. You can see which apps allow family sharing in the information part of each apps store page.

This is a developer decision, I can understand it for older apps that might no longer be being updated but not sure why the developers of active apps, especially kids apps, have chosen to do this, its just a rort. One thing I do know I'm not buying these apps twice, I don't care how long ago I bought them. This is a total fail for family sharing in my opinion, might as well go back to my previous method of using my account for the App store on all devices.

I've been having this same issue. On the family member's phone, go to Settings / ITunes & App Store. Then click on the AppleID row at the top, sign out, and then sign back in. I had to do this twice on my wife's phone to allow her to download free apps that I've downloaded in the past.

As soon as I did that, the button within the App Store for the app I tried to download (on Dropbox, for instance) changed from the download-from-cloud button to "+Free" button. I had to do this again an hour or so later, but hopefully that can help in the meantime while Apple sorts out the issue.

So, I was playing around with two of our family iPhone 5S.

Let me know if this works for you as well:

The organizer, it appears, should go to Settings > iCloud > Family > [YOUR NAME: ORGANIZER]. Turn "Share My Purchases" off then turn them back on. DO NOT tap "Stop Family Sharing".

My husband is the organizer, so we "refreshed" his Family Sharing. I, too, followed these steps just make sure my iCloud was refreshed. I'm pretty sure the organizer's iCloud is the one that made a difference. I checked on a third iPhone (5C), which belongs to my mother, and our apps purchased were visible to her.

Hope this helps anyone! I'm hoping we do not keep having this issue.

I took this issue up with Apple support, and just got eh following info from them:

.. some customers are also having the same issue and currently, Apple is working toward a resolution for the issue you have reported.

So at least someone is working on it.

Also they gave me this workaround:

sign out of your iCloud account, iTunes & App Stores, close iTunes & App Stores from background processes, sign back into iCloud and iTunes, and then reopen App Store. Now apps that are not sharable are appropriately showing as Free and they're able to download and apps that have been purchased by other Apple ID are showing a price, but when attempting to purchase, recognize that it is available as previous purchase from family member's shared account.

This is working for me, as long as I do not access the "purchased" category. As soon as I go in there, the original problem comes back.

I know everyone has suggested their own resolutions to the headache that is Family Sharing, so here's what worked for me.

I finally resolved this by...

• Signing out of iTunes & App Store under Settings on my wife's iPhone, and do not sign back in.
• Delete the offending apps that aren't updating.
• Search for the app within the App Store.
• Now that you're signed out of iTunes, you'll get the "Free" button (or the cost) instead of the "Cloud" button, so it treats it as a new download instead of an existing one.
• Click Free > Install, and it will prompt you to log in with your Apple ID.
• Entering the new Apple ID now should allow it to download.

Using my wife's new Apple ID worked from this point for some reason. So I had to delete and re-download a few apps, but doing it this way at least allowed me to do so.

I signed out and back in from iCloud on the problem device and everything started working. Hope it helps.

I removed my wife from family sharing and re-added her. It's working fine now. 🙂

signing out and back in on the device having this issue worked for me too..thanks

I solved this problem by logging out of the App Store specifically...

At the bottom of the 'Featured' tab click your apple id name... sign out and then back in... It worked for me!

Solution:

Settings>ITunes & App Store>Apple ID: (ckick here and log out and back in)

Now download app and it will work.