family sharing is not working

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'm experiencing the exact same situation. Luckily it's only one app so far. Have a feeling it will be more.

I believe the error is being caused by the app not opting "IN" for family sharing. Doesn't seem to be a problem until the app in question wants to update. My example is as follows. Prior to family sharing my wife, son and I all shared an Apple ID for store purchases. This account was in my name. We've since transitioned to family sharing with three different accounts. Open Table app was originally on my devices and my wife's devices while sharing one apple ID. When we transitioned to family sharing the app stayed on all our devices and worked without a problem. Now Open Table has an update. The update went without a hitch on my devices, which is still associated with the apple ID we were all previously sharing. However, it won't updated on my wife's devices. Repeated update attempts produce the error "redownload unavailable with this apple ID." I've tried all the suggestions listed in this topic post, but none have resolved the issue.

I investigated further and it seems the reason my wife is receiving this error message is that Open Table app has opted NOT to include family sharing. Open Table is a FREE app. This brings up several basic questions that Apple should have vetted prior to release. (1) How the heck does Apple allow a FREE application not to default to family sharing? (2) Whether free or paid for why can't my wife (or other people in my family share) download this under their "own purchases" associated with their specific apple ID. There might be a paid application that opts out of family sharing but my wife and I both want it and are willing to pay twice for it. However, based on the current experience that is not possible. Seems that if an application developer opts out of family sharing that only the organizer or maybe just one person in the family share can purchase and download the app. I'm assuming anyone in the family share who subsequently tries to download the app will get the "redownload unavailable with this apple ID" even if they are willing to pay for it again.

This is a huge problem that apple needs to fix!

I had this same problem on not being able to download all the apps with family sharing. Most apps showed up in the list as being available on the cloud, some did not. When I searched these apps, it did give me the cloud icon, however would give the error when trying to download them. The commonality seems to be whether or not they are listed as available for family sharing in the detailed info of the app. The solution I was able to find was to sign in to iTunes on the computer, connect my phone, and transfer the apps that way.

It's taken hours to try to work through all the kinks, hopefully this helps all of you.

On another thread regarding a different problem with Family Sharing, people are reporting success by completely wiping their phones and starting as new, re-downloading all the apps etc. (Settings > General > Reset > Erase all Content and Settings )

This sounds pretty extreme, but I am thinking about doing it. Has anyone tried?

Family Sharing error in iPhone app store

Since I posted my rant (which I stand behind, BTW) - I discovered that if I went to my child's iPad, went to iTunes and looked at purchased content... that the "My Purchases" up in the upper right-hand corner with blue and 'clickable'. Clicking on it revealed a hidden drop-down (Yes, Apple, you have to stop hiding these features from users), that allowed me to peruse the content purchased by other people in the family. I was able to then 'see' content purchased by the account holder and download.

I can understand the rationale in retrospect of allowing people in the family to purchase their own content - even if another family member has purchased the same thing. However, when a family member is clearly a child (by their age settings) and using the credit card of an adult - wouldn't it make sense to at least ASK the adult if they want to re-purchase the content AGAIN, or if they would rather loan out the copy that they've already purchased before...?

I had this same issue this morning with Twitter (which is a free download). After trying all the back and forth on the device, signing out and back into iCloud, etc... I finally just plugged my iPhone 5S into my computer and asked iTunes to update all my apps. I did a re-sync and Twitter was back on my phone.

I did have to manually update each of my Apps in iTunes (so I had to retype my AppleID password about 22 times) but once everything was updated and the sync complete my device is working now. Seems like iTunes can help sort out the issue.

Good luck.

This is happening to me and my wife as well. Like a poster above, I was able to push apps to her phone via iTunes. However, a few of those say they need updates and I can't perform the update.

I've noticed that this seems to affect apps that her phone can't see in family sharing, but when she searches for them in the app store, they have the icon that indicates they have already been purchased. I can't say for sure that it's exclusively those apps, but it is something I've noticed.

Please fix Apple! We're iOS converts from Android, and I have been spending the past few months convincing her to come to iOS. I can use the iTunes workaround to save face, but I can't forever!!

EDIT: I neglected to mention that I've tried downloading a free app on her account that neither of us had previously. I've also signed out/signed in, etc., All the suggestions on this thread, but to no avail.

Sorry, should also have said that before doing the above I went into Settings>iCloud, tapped on my account and it prompted me to enter my password again.

The basics! Turn off, then back on saved me after HOURS of frustration. Thanks so much!

Same issue. Annoying. I was looking forward to this feature more than any other in iOS 8.

I was able to manually sync the applications from iTunes to the phone, but not via the phone only (the iCloud app store download). I get that "Update Unavailable with This Apple ID" error "because it was bought by a different user or the item was refunded or cancelled."

One of the applications I was able to install successfully via iTunes wouldn't update either, so I logged out of my spouse's account to see what would happen when I tried to update it. It just spun and spun and never updated. I restarted the phone, tried again (with her ID) and it gave the error. Logged out and into my account, and was able to update.

If the error is caused by application developers not "allowing" Family Sharing, I'm afraid most old applications which aren't being updated anymore will never work. Again, this sort of deflates the value of the "feature".

Either this is a poorly implemented feature with a lot of bugs, or Apple misled us into believing this feature was something that it isn't.

I was having the same problem with a free app that had been downloaded under my account, but I couldn't load on my wife's iPad using Family Sharing.

In my case, what worked was to log into iTunes on a Mac using her Apple account information and download the app in iTunes. When I did that, it showed up immediately on my wife's iPad (as purchased by her). Obviously this is only a solution for free apps, but it was what I needed.

Like Chris 36, I have noticed that several of the problem apps do not have family sharing enabled. However:

1. They are free apps, and before the troubles started iOS 8 would ask you wanted to download it under your own ID.

2. We have several free apps without family sharing authorized that updated properly early last week

Now, that has changed, This leads me to believe the problem is on Apple's end, since updates were working fine for a few days before the troubles started.

I cannot blame this on iOS 8.0.2, since the problem started to affect me just before applying the update.

Nope, disregard above. Worked briefly today but back to not working.

Non sharable free apps are not listed in the purchases area any more. But if they were purchased by another family member, you still cannot update or download them. When you search them in the store, they show the cloud button, not the install button.

Apple seems to be tinkering with the back end, as it was workingbriefly this morning.

Has anyone heard from Apple about this issue?

They don't respond to the forums, but someone in another thread has been working with Level 2 support on this issue, and was told by the rep that this is a big problem affecting a lot of people.

See Richel_2000's post: Family Sharing error in iPhone app store

With regard to the "Erase all content and settings" option -- does not work.

I did it on my old phone, then set it up as new. Logged into iCloud using my ID, which is also the family organizer. Unable to download free apps (ones where sharing is not enabled) if they've been downloaded by another family member. Same error - "Redownload Not Available With this AppleID".

This has been a problem for a week now, I'm going to try Apple support, I encourage others to try support as well.