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How do I create family sharing on my mac

How do i create Family sharing on my apple mac?

MacBook Pro (13-inch Early 2011)

Posted on Dec 30, 2014 7:27 AM

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2 replies

Dec 31, 2014 9:38 AM in response to alisonfromcambridgeshire

Hi alisonfromcambridgeshire,

Happy New Year! The resources below will explain how to use the new Family Sharing feature. Click on the links for complete details. I've highlighted the key points below for you:


Family Sharing is the new feature introduced in iOS 8 that allows up to six people in your family to share iTunes, iBooks and App Store purchases. Family Sharing requires each member to have their own Apple ID signed in to iCloud and iTunes. iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite are required to set up or join a Family Sharing group and are recommended for full functionality.

Apple - iCloud - Family Sharing
http://www.apple.com/icloud/family-sharing/


To get started, one adult in your household — the organizer — invites up to five additional family members and agrees to pay for any iTunes, iBooks, and App Store purchases they initiate while part of the family group. Once family members join, the features of Family Sharing are set up on everyone’s devices automatically.


Once you’ve set up Family Sharing, all the songs, albums, movies, TV shows, books, and apps ever purchased by family members are immediately available to everyone else in the group. And, of course, so are new purchases. The content appears automatically in the Purchased tab in iTunes, iBooks, or the App Store for each family member. Just select the family member whose collection you’d like to browse, then download or play the content you choose. Other family members can access your collection in the same way. If you want to keep some purchases private, you can choose to hide individual items.


All new iTunes, iBooks, and App Store purchases initiated by family members will be billed to the organizer’s account. But the organizer can still call the shots. Just turn on Ask to Buy for children in the family. When a child initiates a purchase, an alert is sent to the organizer, who can review the download and approve or decline it right from the organizer’s device. This applies to both purchases and free downloads.

Start or join a family group using Family Sharing - Apple Support
http://support.apple.com/en-is/HT201088

Set up Family Sharing

Use these steps in iOS 8:

  1. Go to Settings > iCloud.
  2. Tap Set Up Family Sharing, then tap Get Started.
  3. Confirm that you want to be the family organizer and that you're signed in with your personal Apple ID.
  4. Follow the onscreen instructions.

Use these steps in OS X Yosemite:

  1. Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click iCloud.
  2. Click Set Up Family.
  3. Follow the onscreen instructions.

After you set up Family Sharing, you can invite your family members to join.

Invite people to join your family

Use these steps in iOS 8:

  1. Go to Settings > iCloud > Family > Add Family Member.
  2. Enter your family member's name or email address.
  3. Follow the onscreen instructions. After you send the invitation, you can check its status under the person's name in Settings > iCloud > Family.

Use these steps in OS X Yosemite:

  1. Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click iCloud.
  2. Click Manage Family.
  3. Click +, then follow the onscreen instructions.

Join a family group

You can accept or decline an invitation to join a family from you iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac. If the invitation is sent to your email address, you can also respond right from your email. To accept an invitation in iOS 8, go to Settings > iCloud > Invitations. In OS X Yosemite, choose Apple menu > System Preferences > iCloud > Manage Family. Then follow the onscreen instructions.

Here's what you'll be asked to do when you join:

Sharing purchased content with Family Sharing - Apple Support
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201085

With Family Sharing, family members get immediate access to each others’ music, movies, TV shows, books, and apps, and can download them to their own devices any time they like.*



Share your purchases

When you join a family, you'll be asked to confirm the Apple ID that you regularly use for making iTunes, iBooks, and App Store purchases. Purchases from this account will be shared with your family members.

Use these steps to confirm the Apple ID you will use to share purchases.

iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 8

  1. Go to Settings > iCloud > Family, then tap your name.
  2. Under Family Purchases, review your account information.
  3. If you need to confirm the Apple ID that you want to share content from, enter your password. If you prefer to share purchases from a different account, you can enter a different Apple ID and password.
  4. Make sure that "Share my purchases" is on.

Mac with OS X Yosemite

  1. Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click iCloud.
  2. Click Manage Family.
  3. Click your name and review your account information next to Family Purchases.
  4. Make sure that "Share my purchases" is selected.

Download content from family members

After you join a family, you can view and download items from each family member’s purchase history, and enjoy them on your own devices. Music, movies, TV shows, and books can be downloaded to up to 10 of your devices, five of which can be computers. Apps can be downloaded to any devices that you own or control.

Use these steps to view and download your family member's content.

iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 8

  1. Open the store app that you want to download content from, and go to the purchased page:
    • App Store: Tap Updates > Purchased.
    • iTunes Store: Tap More > Purchased.
    • iBooks: Tap Purchased.
  2. Tap the family member's name to see their content. Learn what to do if you don’t see any content or can’t tap your family member.
  3. To download an item, tap the cloud icon next to it.

Mac with OS X Yosemite

  1. Open the iTunes, iBooks, or Mac App Store and go to the Purchased page.
  2. Select a family member's name to view their content.
  3. Download or play the items that you want.

Apple TV with software 7.0 or later

On your Apple TV, select Movies > Purchased > Family Sharing, then select your family member to see their content. You can access shared movies and TV shows on Apple TV, but not music.







Which purchased content can I share using Family Sharing - Apple Support


If you turned on Share My Purchases, you can share most content that's also available in iTunes in the Cloud. You can share Music, Movies, and TV shows from the iTunes Store. You can also share Books that you downloaded from the iBooks Store, and apps from the App Store. The availability of each content type depends on your country.

There are a few things that you can't share:

  • Songs added to iTunes Match from outside the iTunes Store
  • In-App Purchases
  • Items that are no longer available on the iTunes Store
  • Items that were hidden
  • Apps that aren't shareable

If you're on an Apple TV, you can't access shared music.

See if you can share an app

Use these steps to see if you can share an app before or after you get it.

App Store in iOS 8


  • Go to the app's description page. Scroll down to the Information section. If you can share it, you'll see Yes next to Family Sharing.
    User uploaded fileUser uploaded file
  • Go to Updates > Purchased > My Purchases. If you can't share an app, you'll see Not Shareable next to its name.


Enjoy!

- Judy


Jan 3, 2015 11:29 AM in response to judysings

I've thought trying this many times. But easy/ personal control of downloads and deletions seems to be an extinct idea.

Years ago, when we as a family started enjoying apps, browsing books (which you had to download to see if you'd like them.... we shared 1 id. This gave me parental control, actual FaceTime w/ my kids to say 'please, can i get this app? and this is how you shared apps. Still on 1 id, still gives me parental control, but iCloud has become an enemy of mine, simply because we, you, me have LIMITED control of all things iCloud. On/Off. (any ideas would be wonderful!).

I keep thinking we should be getting a 'Purchases' tab in iCloud.com so we can delete or have a drop down of shared devices for quick access to the 'hide feature' for each purchase made for that id.

'Oops, I accidentally deleted my favorite downloaded song, app, book, show...' handy. What about the simple idea of iCloud/ Purchases/ Delete... didn't like that app, book, show, podcast ..... DELETE, never thinking of it again, because once you download it's ALWAYS in your purchases. Anyone tried to sort or scroll through their purchases lately? page after page after page....

Books... With the EXHAUSTING idea that 'Hiding' is the only option from the accidental 'iCloud icon re-download'... iTunes purchases no longer shows the category Books? How/ where do you mark as hide? WHERE in the apple orchard are Books/ Controls?

If there are any ideas, please be specific for OS X and iOS.

Thanks!


How do I create family sharing on my mac

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