family sharing is not working

+1

Tried all the items in this thread, nothing worked. Waiting for a fix please.

P.S. Also pretty disappointed that Music Match does not share from the Organizer.

I don't have much to add, except that we are experiencing the same problem. 3 accounts, 6 devices. I am the organizer, spouse and kid are the family. Apps are refusing to update or install on their devices.

This was the thing that I most wanted from iOS 8 and it is as buggy as all heck.

UPDATE:

After an hour on hold, I was able to speak to a friendly Apple Care Specialist. She was not able to resolve the issue but suspected that the problem may be that when I changed my Apple ID email address (about a year ago?) it created a problem since the older apps were purchased under that ID, not the once I currently use. I have no way to know if this is true ... but it might be since an app like Spotify was likely "purchased" under my old email address and some apps that my daughter can download are newer ones.

I told her that this is a deal breaker for Family Share since Spotify, Google Maps, and many other apps are too critical to you family members. I said I would likely turn off Family Share, and reconfigure the other devices with my Apple ID as I had done before. She asked that I not reconfigure until I have given them a chance to determine a workaround or fix by tomorrow evening. Doing so can cause other problems since you can only join two families within a given year. So leaving this "family" would effectively use up one of the uses.

I provided her the number for this thread and she asked that I not do anything until a promised callback tomorrow evening (5:15pm EST). I'll post any findings here after that.

I am having this issue and have used the same email address for my apple ID since inception. I don't think your old address is the issue. I do think they will get it resolved since so many seem to be having the problem. I think it is a "wait and see" situation for a couple of days.

anyone else having this issue also unable to delete the previously used payment method on a non-organizers account? I attempted all the things suggested in this thread with no luck. However I noticed that on my (the organizer's) device I see my payment method ( the shared one), but on my wife's device it lists both the shared payment method and a primary payment method. The primary method listed is the card she used for her own account prior to family sharing. now that she's a part of family sharing she cannot access the Payment options menu when she views her Apple ID account. So since she can't delete her old primay method of payment I don't even know if the shared account is getting billed.

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

I am having the same issue. Logging out and logging back into both iCloud and iTunes on all devices didn't help. Buying a free app from all devices didn't help. I have never changed my Apple ID email address. The Apple ID is 5+ years old.

I am having the issue on both my kids' accounts which were created today (child accounts using Family Share part of IOS 8). This is across 8 devices (ipads and iphones). Also note that for both my kids' accounts, they had previously been using my main Apple ID (organizer ID) prior to logging into their own child Apple IDs.

To get around the issue, I have temporarily changed their iTunes accounts to use my primary Apple ID. I left their iCloud/iMessage/Facetime on the new Family Share child accounts. They are able to download/update apps again. Will wait to hear that this problem is fixed before moving their iTunes back to their new child Apple IDs.

Unfortunately that's not an option for me since the other family share accounts are children's accounts. You cannot remove them / orphan them.

Someone on a separate thread suggested this solution and it worked for me after several hours of frustration.

Go to settings -> iTunes and App stores -> Apps [Toggle on]

Hope this helps.

You're a genius! 🙂 That worked!!

So I went to my kids' ipads/iphones, set their iTunes to use their new child accounts. Also enabled "Automatic Downloads' for Apps. And everything now works as it should.

Apple didn't do a good explaining that Family Share requires Automatic App Downloads to be enabled.

Thanks Valaid!

Awesome! That worked! Thank you VERY much!!

Thank you, that worked for me too..

So apple needs too make the error msg more accurate, and I'm not sure forcing automatic downloads to be enabled,in order to use family *purchased* apps,

is all that user friendly.

Very simple to share,

just go to ITUNES bottom right "more" button then click "purchased". your family members should appear there. :-)

Carlos, the issue is not with finding apps purchased by family members.

It is with the App Store not allowing new IDs to download FREE apps that other family members previously "purchased."

Even when going to the list of a Family Members purchased apps, it still says "Redownload Unavailable with This Apple ID."

And to add to the above conversation: I've beem at this since Friday trying to get my husband's 6 Plus stocked with necessary apps. It's been a nightmare. I I honestly wish we'd never turned Family Share on.

We have tried every idea or fix listed on this thread.

Just tries to automatic apps download fix that worked for others and maybe I'm doing it wrong but still no dice.

Noticing a LOT of iOS 8 bugs and thinking they pushed it out way too early.

More family share issues here, though slightly different, I think?

We have family sharing enabled on 2 iPads and 3 iPhones. It works in iTunes, but in App Store, our daughter can't even see her own purchases. She gets the message "this iTunes account is set up to use family sharing with a different iTunes account than ___________."

If we turn iCloud off then she is able to see the purchases again. We've tried logging out, rebooting, logging in, etc. several times.

Her payment method and my payment method still show up in the iTunes store, but we can't delete hers.