Cannot start family sharing: Apple id is already used for shared purchases

I am having this exact same issue. it is telling me that my email is part of XX Family, however I don't have a device that can access the XX Family account. Even more strange is that the XX Family is my wife's first and last name. I checked all of our devices (we have 6 in our household) and none of them lead to a solution.

Can anyone help?

Thanks for your post! It came just after I spent an hour with Apple trying to solve this issue. Even they couldn't figure out what was happening and my issue went up to a more senior support person. It was exactly what you said. Another account was still connected to the Family Share, even though when iTunes looked into it, it said that there was only 1 member - my original account. I logged into the other account and stopped family sharing. Now all is fixed. My question to them was why did this happen. I was the original creator of this family and should always have access to it. If I choose to stop Family Sharing, then as the creator of the family it should stop it for all or I should be given the option to allow another to take over the Family. I should never be stuck in limbo like that.

At least, I know what the issue was. The frustration is over! 🙂

My fiancé bought the Apple Music thing the family plan. He added me to his sharing account but it will let me download music after I accepted his invitation but it will not play bc it says I already have an account. How do I fix this issue?

Hello Detroitscooter,

I read your post, and it sounds as though you're having issues with Family Sharing. I have linked to an article that may assist you:

Family Sharing and Apple IDs for kids

Thank you for contributing to Apple Support Communities.

Cheers,
BobbyD

Did you ever figure this one out...having the same problem and can't seem to find a fix. Is this because I authorized other computers to use my iTunes library?

DDid you every figure this out?

I know it's been a while since this last post, but I'm still having the same issue. Has anyone figured it out?

I FIGURED THIS ONE OUT!!! What happened was initially I had set up a Family Sharing account under my wife's old iCloud login (old email address) . I had set her up as the administrator of the account. We used MY credit card info to handle any purchases made.

Some time later we decided to share MY iCloud account rather than having separate accounts (thus, same email for iCloud login). While switching her out of her old iCloud login over to sharing my login, it never crossed my mind that I had used her old iCloud login to set up Family Sharing. Since her old iCloud login was set up as the administrator of the account, all I had to do was sign into iCloud with her old email address and password that she had used before. Once logged in, I went to Family Sharing and chose an option to stop Family Sharing. As soon as I did that, I re-logged in with the new shared iCloud account and was able to immediately set up Family Sharing. Phew!!!

Hope this helps

Same issue here, I checked my old iCloud account, my iTunes account.

It tells me I'm member of a Family, but I have no way to access it... The weirdest part is that I can see Family Sharing enabled in my iTunes ID, but I have no way to access it, delete it, manage it.

In fact, it's like there is a "Ghost" Family account with my iTunes ID linked to it. But for some reasons the link is broken...

Any idea?

Has anyone else solved this? I can't get pass the Set Up Family Sharing. I had set up Family Sharing previously and added my niece to the family. She then changed her Apple ID, so I removed the original Apple ID from the family. After that I couldn't access the family sharing options any more. I get the same message above and that I need to ask '???' to send you an invitation to join Family Sharing. Well I am the administrator of the account. I am '???' and once I removed my niece I am the only member of the family. Why can't I manage Family Sharing anymore???

Finally I managed to solve the issue.

It turned out, I had another old iCloud Account, Family Sharing was enabled on it. I simply turned it off and now I'm able to use it with my new iCloud Account.

About your issue macgirl, are you sure you didn't change something about your account?

Ask your niece to log in with her old account to check if she's connected to something about family sharing...

Regards,

Thanks for the suggestion! That is exactly what the problem was!

What I had to do was bring up icloud on my macbook, which then let it sync across my devices I guess? I was having problems showing family members, and it wouldn't let me click on Family without giving me an error that I was already in the family... then I brought up icloud on the mac (you can try on a different device if you dont have a mac) and hopefully it will work for you. I signed into my account, like I was going to change the details, but I left the details alone. Once I went back to my iphone about 5 minutes later, all the family names showed up and I could share again.

Thanks so much for your post, Lyhte! That was the exact same problem for me and I would never have thought of it by myself!