How can you share Contacts and use Family Sharing?

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How can you share Contacts and use Family Sharing?

Still sharing 1apple ID & 1 iCloud from way back when. Kids were little, syncing was simple... turned off their device iClouds and synced apps, playlist, shows w/ iMac via usb. I loved having my contacts, bookmarks, notes synced via iCloud and it became VERY handy when kid1 got an iPhone (appointments, practices, friends #s w/ ease!) We've recently added a macbook and another iPhone to the mix, we've got music issues & iPads ringing.... so a potential overall may be due?

Now that Family Sharing is here, it's still missing features that we USE:

* Notes (grocery list, packing lists...)

* Contacts (each family member has a 'group' name, they add to their group and the family's master list is 'all contacts' for anyone to access incase of emergencies.... anyone keeping up w/ kids lately?!)

* And the ever present iCloud icon is a looming feature for anyone, any age in the shared-family to be too curious...

* CAN any of these features be added along w/ Family Sharing?

HOW do I set up a simple family sharing system w/o interfering w/ bookmarks, personal notes, FaceTime/msg crossovers :

share our purchases (apps, music from our iTunes/playlists, podcast),

share our calendar

share our contacts

share a family notes

msgs/facetime for each member

mom: iphone, ipad, imac

dad: iphone

kid1: iphone, macbook

kid2: ipad

kid3: ipad

Thanks to anyone that has this set up and will share the method to my madness. Didn't know where to post this, sorry about that.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Mar 27, 2015 1:59 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 17, 2015 7:53 AM in response to c.nett

Not with Apple, but you can set up a separate Gmail account for this e.g. <family.surname>@gmail.com.

There you add your mutual contacts, or export / import them from your computer.

Then add this gmail account to your device [Settings => Mail, Contacts Calendars] and switch on the contacts button, to make them visible in Contacts as well.

Then in [Settings => Mail, Contacts Calendars] scroll down to the contacts section and choose as Default Account for contacts that Gmail Account. That way, all new contacts will by default be created in this 'family' Gmail Account.

Your other family members should do the same.

There. You have your shared contacts account.

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