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"This app is no longer shared with you" message in Family Sharing

My daughter installed Minecraft PE through Family Sharing. When she tries to open it, she gets a warning message "This app is no longer shared with you. To use it, you must buy it from the App Store."


When she views it in the app store, it tells her she can download it for free because a family member has already purchased it. So she downloads it, and the cycle continues.


Any idea how to exit this loop?

iPhone 4S, iOS 8

Posted on Sep 18, 2014 4:19 PM

Reply
115 replies

Sep 28, 2014 6:32 PM in response to Peter Kovacs

Following up on Peter's post I experimented and now have limited success. With thanks to Peter, here is what I did:


1) Deleted the offending apps

2) Power off the device

3) Power up the device

4) Sign out of iTunes & the App Store

5) Power off the device

6) Power on the device

7) Sign in to iTunes & the App Store

8) Install the apps via my shared purchases (not from the App store page)


In my case, all the problem apps were Apple's (hmm). Some were free, some not. When I installed the first paid app I was asked to authorize the purchase, even though I had set sharing up (with my wife) to not require that. I went a couple screens into that until it asked if I really wanted to charge my card and then said no. Low and behold, the app installed anyway.


I said I had limited success because I was able to fix the issue on my wife's iPad, but not on her iPhone. On her iPhone I couldn't get Find My iPhone or Find My Friends to not display the no longer shared message.


HTH

Sep 29, 2014 2:26 PM in response to Fort Fun

OK Apple ... this is a huge deal! I hope somebody is listening, because I have a full blown mutiny on my hands at my house because people can't use their apps and are losing their app data. I convinced the crew to upgrade to iOS 8, and they are ready to throw me overboard. Please tell me this is known and understood bug and a fix is on the way!

Sep 30, 2014 2:26 AM in response to wroden

I had this same issue, I read somewhere else that restoring solved it and it worked for me.

Because I had apps with different apple ids on a same device, namely my sister's and mine, I deleted all the apps that were not mine. Then restored and now works. There is no need to go to purchased and go to the other person in your family sharing settings, you can simply find the app and when you press buy it says that another family member already bought it and that you can download it for free. This are the steps I followed.


  1. Delete all apps that are not associated with your apple id that you have in your device. It's easier doing this from itunes, in the get info menu of each app you can see which apple id it is associated with. This are usually the apps that give some trouble after updating to ios 8.
  2. Sync and back up your device with itunes. Make sure all the apps you deleted are not there after the sync.
  3. Restore the device to factory settings and then restore the backup.
  4. After that download all the apps you deleted but make sure you are logged in with your apple id in the app store.


Everything worked for me.

Sep 30, 2014 7:24 PM in response to wroden

Worked with a higher level tech at Apple and this is what we determined.


The apps that we couldn't update on my son and wife's phones (I am the manager and previous purchaser) were all apps where family sharing is not enabled (mostly free apps like Waze and Yelp).


I had previously tried to delete them on these phones and redownload but kept getting an error message that it couldn't redownload as the phone didn't have the right AppleID. The download link was not "install" but rather the cloud with arrow symbol.


The tech and I puzzled with that as it lasted through a phone restart. Finally, I logged out on my wife and son's phones from their AppleID and then relogged in using their AppleID and, voila, those non sharing apps that I had deleted were now able to be redownloaded using their AppleID with the "install" button.


Other apps that did allow Family Sharing seem to now be updating in situ today (they hadn't been a few days ago) with no real drama. Maybe they have been working on the back end.

Oct 9, 2014 7:45 AM in response to wroden

This is a huge pain!!! It makes me wonder what kind of testing the've done on these new features. If they knew there were issues with Apps that didn't agree to the terms, then design around that instead of giving me some vague error and making me crazy. This is not good. So far iOS8 has been a huge disappointment. There video app is giving me issues too, no sound until you shut down, start up phone. Ughhhhhhh

Oct 10, 2014 1:15 AM in response to BigMacAttack123

Hello, same thing here. I bought an iPhone 6 and give my daughter my old 4S (she already had my old 3). But since, with family share, she's unable to use the shared app. We try everything, : switch on and off, reset her phone, etc. Nothing work, even for free apps like snpachat, etc. It's very disappointing for her… and for me to… don't know what to do…

Oct 10, 2014 6:54 PM in response to wroden

My wife and I had been sharing my apple ID on two iPhones, 2 iPads, and 6 Macs. Just got new iPhone 6's and discovered the "feature" that when either phone receives a call is on wi-fi, both phones ring. After calling Verizon I found that this is now a "thing" so I went down the path of setting up a separate apple ID for my wife. That led me to this predicament. The "clean sweep" method described in this thread appears to have worked. I signed out of iTunes on her Mac and then signed in with her new ID. I did the same thing on her phone. Then I synced the phone to iTunes and used iTunes to get rid of all the apps that had been purchased under my apple ID, both from the phone and from iTunes. Then I reset her phone and did a restore. Now it appears that I am able to download apps from the app store on her phone that are in my account. Music isn't showing up yet, but we're getting there.

Oct 12, 2014 3:55 PM in response to wroden

This is not an ideal solution as it also requires a computer, but it worked for me.

  • delete the app from your iPhone/iPad
  • download the app on your Mac/PC via the iTunes store
  • in iTunes, click the iDevice, click Apps
  • find the app and click install and apply in the bottom right to sync


Note: not sure if this works if you have auto-download turned on

"This app is no longer shared with you" message in Family Sharing

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