sbrown02
Level 1 (1 points)

Q: Why can my children lock and erase other family member Apple devices from their Apple ID?

I recently setup iCloud Family Sharing for our home of 5 people.  My personal and unique Apple ID is the controlling parent ID.  Others in the family are my wife and 3 children (1 over 18 and 2 under 18).  Today I logged into iCloud from one of my kids Apple ID and noticed that it allows him to see everyone elses device location and also gives him the authority to turn on Lost Mode (which locks the device) and to Erase each device.  I then logged out and logged into another childs Apple ID and it was the same thing.  They could each see everyone's devices including my personal Mac Book Pro, both the iPads my wife and I use and the family iMac.

 

Essentially that means my kids each have the ability to erase or turn on lost mode for anyone elses device which is kinda scary.  Now, perhaps you are thinking that I somehow messed up and put my kids Apple ID as the Organizer for iCloud family share but I can assure you I did not.  When I go into iCloud to see the hierarchy it clearly shows my Apple ID as the Organizer and the others are simply shown as family members and are not authorized to approve purchases.  I also do not have my kids Apple ID setup on my personal Macbook Pro or my personal iPad as an account so there's no connection that way.

 

That said, I also wondered if my kids could really do anything to my personal devices or if it would ask them for my password or lock code before doing anything, so I tried it by logging into my son's iCloud account using his Apple ID.  I located my personal iPad and then told it to turn on Lost mode.  And sure enough it locked my iPad from my son's iCloud account.

 

So is this how it's supposed to work or is something wrong with iCloud rights for device management?  It seems totally wrong that my other family members have such control over other family member devices.

 

Thanks

Posted on Jan 18, 2015 5:23 PM

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sbrown02

Q: Why can my children lock and erase other family member Apple devices from their Apple ID?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by joe_7399,

    joe_7399 joe_7399 Jan 20, 2015 7:39 AM in response to sbrown02
    Community Specialists
    Jan 20, 2015 7:39 AM in response to sbrown02

    Hello sbrown02,

     

    Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!

     

    I understand that you would like to know why the people in your Family Sharing group have access to your location and that ability to put a device in Lost Mode. Lost Mode is a function available with location sharing and can be toggled off or on. Please reference the attached article for more information.

     

    Family Sharing and location - Apple Support

     

    Use location sharing with Find My iPhone

    If you join family sharing and choose to share your location with family members, they can locate and secure a missing device for you.

    If you enabled Find My iPhone on your missing device, a family member can:

    • See the location and status of your device
    • Play a sound on your missing device to help you find it
    • Put your device in Lost Mode to help you find it


    If you don't share your location with family members, they will be able to see that your devices are online or offline and play a sound to help you locate your missing device. They won't have access to any location information about your devices.

     

    Best regards,

    Joe

  • by sbrown02,

    sbrown02 sbrown02 Jan 20, 2015 8:31 AM in response to joe_7399
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Jan 20, 2015 8:31 AM in response to joe_7399

    Joe_7399,

     

    Thanks for the reply.  The sharing of device location within a family isn't what concerns me.  It's the fact that my kids can Erase (wipe clean) every other family members devices or designate them as Lost which effectively locks the device so it can't be used.  Basically my kids have the ability to erase me and my wife's iPads, my Macbook Pro and our iMac.  Is this really how this family share is supposed to work? 

     

    Seems more logical to me that the owner/user of the device is the only one who should be able to erase or designate a devices as lost or stolen.  So I'm okay if my kids can erase their own iPhone, and as the parent/owner I should have that ability as well.  But my kids shouldn't be able to erase mine or my wifes devices.

     

    So sharing location information isn't the real concern here.

     

    Thanks

  • by joe_7399,

    joe_7399 joe_7399 Jan 21, 2015 9:31 AM in response to sbrown02
    Community Specialists
    Jan 21, 2015 9:31 AM in response to sbrown02

    Hi sbrown02,

     

     

     

    Thank you for using the Apple Support Community. Due to the nature of your issue or question you may find more information by using another one of Apple's support resources - https://getsupport.apple.com/GetproductgroupList.action.

     

    Have a great day,

    Joe

  • by tluck,

    tluck tluck Oct 13, 2015 1:43 PM in response to joe_7399
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 13, 2015 1:43 PM in response to joe_7399

    I just found out about this too. unbelievably ridiculous hole. i logged into my daughter's icloud account and saw that she could wipe out my phone. luckily she hasn't found out about icloud.com. really makes family sharing useless... since i dont want my kids to have access to my devices.