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Level 1

7 points

Family sharing - Stream movies to idevice instead of downloading?

HI!

i Just set up Family Sharing.

All good in apps, but have this annoying thing with movies:

in the past, with my kid's ipad, I used to have my own iTunes account on it so, when going to the Video app, all my movies purchases where ready to stream directly to the device.

Now with Family Sharing, on my kid's iPad, no movies are available for streaming. I (he) need(s) to go to purchased items on iTunes app, choose my profile, then select movies and yes, he's able to DOWNLOAD it to tjhe ipad, but not stream it.

The fact is that this is less comfortable than the previous situation, as he's not able to directly stream them, which is a pity...

I do have eitherway an iTunes 'server' with the old Home Sharing setup, and yes, he's able to get them from the 'shared' tab of the Videos app, but he was already able to do so in the past.

Also, home sharing only works at home, as it needs to get the media from the iTunes library which has Home Sharing enabled, so it's useless (as it was) outside home.

Now, the new Family Sharing is intersting, but I'm annoyed I read on Apple's website that, upon getting to any other member's itunes items, the rest would be able to DOWNLOAD OR PLAY the items.

(See here;

Family Sharing

Either taht info was wrong, or there's something wrong in my case, or the feature is not working for some other reason.

Any ideas?

Posted on Sep 20, 2014 3:04 PM

Best reply

toshkent

Level 1

4 points

Posted on May 17, 2017 4:57 PM

It is May of 2017! C'mon Apple allow streaming items in the family library. I like how Google implemented family sharing: all the purchased movies are under one hood ---> no need to go to purchased items and select family members.

Do something similar. Why I have to switch back and forth family members in order to see their purchases: everything should be in neatly one place.

Lastly, why I cannot stream the purchased movies of the family member. The only available option is to download the whole **** movie.

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24 replies

RKUMD

Level 1

0 points

Feb 22, 2015 9:56 AM in response to commandcom

I Agree with this. With the apple devices becoming more in sync, I felt obligated to get the kids their own IDs.

Losing the ability to stream from my library is at real downer.

Help Apple?

Feb 23, 2015 2:43 PM in response to commandcom

Home sharing is also no solution because you can't share other family member's purchases through home sharing. They do not show up as streamable options. It's a travesty that Apple sells 16GB iOS devices (5+GB taken up by OS and base apps), charges 2-5x for additional flash storage, won't allow flash upgrades and then won't allow streaming family share purchases.

Super frustrating.

Brett929

Level 1

0 points

May 24, 2015 8:51 PM in response to commandcom

You can stream shared movies on Apple TV. You would think you could do the same thing on an iOS device. Hopefully they add it soon.

Dec 10, 2015 7:26 PM in response to commandcom

Yes! I am now experiencing this same stupid problem myself. I was frustrated setting up my daughters new iPad mini's for Christmas this year when I couldn't access my videos (movies) from the cloud on the video app. Works just fine on our old iPad. But now I realize that setting up family sharing for my kids that they won't be able to watch (stream) the movies I have paid for and associated with my iTunes account. Really Apple? I waited years before converting to Apple.....mostly because pc's usually cause me more issues and Apple products seem to work and have less problems. But the more experience I have with syncing, sharing, Apple ID's and such the more frustrated I get with this company. I used to think their products and programming were simple and just worked, however I am starting to believe that may not be the case. They also like to charge premium prices for a lot less (memory and such). And for heavens sake put a USB port in the thing!! I guess I drank the Apple cool aid......Maybe I shouldn't have.....