unable to update apps ios 8 family sharing

I spent some time with technical support on this one too. For me ALL apps that would not download were not supported for family sharing (Which I was very disappointed to see was a developer option).

For paid apps there is no work around.

For free apps this work around worked for me: logout of iCloud, log out of iTunes app store, turn off iTunes app store in background. Relogin in app store and do not go to purchase history, then search of apps you want to download, then install, then login in iCloud again.

I didn't try logging out of iTunes app store only...that may work.

Tech support did mention they would pass all this on to Engineering and that it was very likely there would be an update coming to address this as he agreed this was a flaw in the programming.

I trouble shot this a bit more. You don't have to log out of iCloud, only the app store.

1. Log out of app store.

2. Go to free app you want to download and click download.

3. Enter apple id login/password.

Notes:

As long as you don't click on purchase history of people in your family you will be able to download previously downloaded apps.

Do NOT purchase paid apps unless you intent to pay for them...you WILL get billed.

+1 for not being able to update applications. One app (Pintrest) was not family sharing enabled. I deleted that app restarted phone, logged out and in. No luck upgrades will still not trigger.

I have managed to get this to work. I had to do the following in order:

1. remove the person from my family list

2. re-add that person

3. Turn off, then on their phone.

4. Buy something on their app store (free) on their phone which required my acceptance on my phone.

5. When that free app had been installed, everything was miraculously able to be installed from the shared purchased option in the app store.

Clearly this is still a bit glitchy and irritating to use. But when it works it is good.

David,

Not sure that is entirely the answer because you only have 2 chances to join a family group in a year.

From step 1 and 2 you have used all of your family plan choices and there is nowhere to go from here other than sitting on the phone talking to tech support to reset your opportunities to join a family plan.

Just take that under advisement before attempting this. If you are on your second opportunity already you will not be able to rejoin until the counter is reset by Apple.

I suppose it was lucky it worked this time, then! I think they may have been a bit mean with this counter. Especially if it is the same username rejoining...

I had this also, and tracked it down to the following (along with a solution)

1. After installing Ios8 I had enabled family sharing for my kids iPad, changing what was a second existing iPad using my app ID to one of his own under a family sharing (child) arrangement. The effect of this change was that all apps on his device became 'shared' from my owner Apple id (as organiser of the share) at the time I enable the child device under family sharing.
2. on my kids iPad, without realising it, one of these shared apps was NOT enabled by the publisher for family sharing. This remained invisible until...
3. The application was updated by the publisher ... NOW the update software of the App Store checked the family sharing status, realising the app was not available for family sharing, and voila! ... There is your OP's message coming up during the App Store update attempt.
4. SOLUTION: For me, the app was free, and there was no unrecoverable data to worry about, so to solve the problem I just deleted the app from the child iPad, and then did a 'purchase / request / download ' from the same iPad. Now Apple sees it as his, not shared from me. Problem solved. this solution is sub-optimal if you have data attached to the app that you don't want to delete, or if you don't want to pay twice... but it IS up to the publisher - and they may NEVER allow family sharing - you would have to pay twice if you want such an app on multiple devices anyway...

Now to Apple - who does trawl this forum looking for answers - for you I would suggest you verify all apps installed on a device that is entering family sharing arrangements to ensure ALL currently installed apps are enabled for family sharing. If they are NOT, you need to warn and delete or back out of the setup. I suppose you could also offer to download said apps during family setup (at possible additional cost) but I suspect there would be complications around purchased data and the Apple ID that it belonged to ... But whatever works...

hope this helps someone...

TSE

So, I haven't tried this with paid apps, but it seems like for free apps, Apple wants individuals to "purchase" the app on their own account, not on another account in Family Sharing (though I've only tested this for a user with parent/guardian status). I started with the workaround someone else posted, where I logged out of my husband's individual's AppStore account on his phone and logged in with my account (which is the main Apple ID for Family Sharing). Then I logged out of my account and back into my husband's account (I don't know if this step was actually necessary, but I'm listing it anyway, just in case it is).

Next is the somewhat confusing part, but it worked, at least for me. Once I logged back into my husband's AppStore account, I went back to the actual AppStore app. I opened the "Updates" tab and selected "Purchases" and then selected my name. Then I selected "Not on This Phone" to get a list of apps he doesn't have, but I've purchased. I selected an app that says "Free" and then selected "Install App" and it showed the install dialogue (the "stop" symbol showing the download progress). Here's where it gets weird: after the install dialogue finished, instead of saying "Open" it still said "Free" next to the app, as if I never downloaded it. However, when I went to his home screen, the app was sitting right there. When I tried to open the app, I got an error message that said "This app is no longer shared with you. To use it, you must buy it from the App Store." From there, it gave me the option to "View in App Store" or "Cancel." I selected "View in App Store" and I was taken to the app's page in the store. The app still had the "Free" button, which I selected and then selected "Install." From here, once the install dialogue box completed, the app said "Open" and I was able to open the app.

Not a fun workaround because you have to download each app twice essentially, but at least it's something that I've found to consistently work. I will have to go through and find a paid app, as well as one with in-app purchases, and see if I can get a workaround. I hope this helps.

The plot thickens. I just tried to figure out how to get a paid app to work and ran into issues pretty quickly. For starters, the app is listed under my purchases, but the button says "Free" instead of "$1.99." I selected "Free" and then "Install App" and had the same issue as above: it downloaded, still showed "Free" instead of "Open" in the list, but was definitely on the home screen. Opening the app from the home screen brought up the same error message as above, but this time when selected the "View in App Store" option, it took me to the app's page in the store and finally showed the price button, "$1.99."

So, apparently no matter what I do, it won't let me share apps with my husband. (I should note that this particular app shows that Family Sharing is available, so that's not the issue.)

This is very frustrating. With the addition of Family Sharing we re-did our whole apple system. My wife and I used to share my apple ID so that we could have a shared calendar and contacts, but we created new ones to participate in Family Sharing and have more iCloud space. Now my wife can't update half of her apps. My expectation was that Family Sharing would function better than this!

Yes, for me this solution worked too (logging out and in again for the not family sharing eligible apps). not for the first time, but the second time when I made sure that there is enough time in between. and by the way: I had to re-login only once, then deleting and reinstalling worked for all apps (e.g. Pinterest, Xing, Twitter). All my apps are now updated again:)

I have the solution!

Ok, so I had the same problem than you.

My girlfriend and I were sharing my apple account for the appstore until iOS 8.

She had an iCloud account that she used for her personal services like Calendars, Reminders, etc.

With the release of iOS 8, we changed her iPad in a way that there was only her account connected on it and using the family sharing.

But we rapidly saw that she couldn't update her apps. I successfully downloaded a free app but there was no way that she updated apps that had been downloaded when we were on the same account and she also could't access to my purchases.

The solution I found was going to the family sharing preference pane and touch the section with our names.

Here, I selected my girlfriend's account who was just an user (when I'm an organizer). And I put it as a parent/tutor.

I restarted the device.

After that, I did a verification... The problem wasn't solved yet. But I then went on my girlfriend's iPad on the same section and discovered that she had to validate her account. I set up her Apple ID and restarted our two iPads. So, with the device of the user that has the problem, just go in the family sharing preference pane, touch his account and fill-up the blanks with his Apple ID/Password.

When they were on, I went on the App Store on her iPad and checked the purchase section. MIRACLE, she could access to my purchases!

I, then tried to update an app but it failed. However, the error message was different, it told me that we needed to have a payment option.

So I went on App Store/Account/Payment Informations (maybe the translation isn't exact) and just filled my credit card informations once again and saved

Restarting our iPads.

Going to the Update section of the App Store and trying to update one... SUCCESS!!!

This just worked for us. Thanks!