Level 1

61 points

"There is a problem with a family member's previous purchase"

I keep getting an error message saying "There is a problem with a family member's previous purchase. Ask the family organizer to update their billing information."

I AM the family organizer.

I recently had to get a new debit card. When I updated the debit card information - I've received this message ever since. I've gone back in and updated the information twice after to make sure it is correct and it is. Yet I continue to get the error message.

I can't purchase or update any apps and can't purchase music or movies, etc.

And it really aggravates that Apple wants me to pay to get support on how to PAY them. Argh..

Anyone know how to fix this?

Posted on Mar 28, 2015 7:53 AM

Top-ranking reply

travislawton

Level 1

6 points

Posted on Mar 30, 2015 2:14 AM

I had the same problem. My credit card was reissued by the bank due to possible identify theft of the other card. My wife then tried to make a purchase and it was declined. I'm the family organizer and tried everything I could think of to find out what the problem was. I read somewhere that you HAVE to go to iTunes on a computer and go into your info to see if you have an unpaid balance. I did this and nothing was showing.

After a bit, I thought, "even though my wife is on my apple family thing, maybe since she bought the declined item, I have to log into her iTunes. I did this, went to account info, purchase history, and sure enough, it had an outstanding balance. There was a button right there to update the payment info and upon clicking that, it had my new card info in there (which I'm assuming it grabbed from when I updated that on my account) but just needed to confirm the CVV on the back. After doing that, the balance was paid immediately, and within 10 seconds of that I hit "update all" on my phone.....and they started updating right away.

So there key here is that you have to log into iTunes using the specific account that made the purchase that didn't go through.

View in context

28 replies

Mar 28, 2015 11:25 AM in response to Debbie76

I'm having the same issue, and updating the credit card didn't help. I can't find anyway to force repayment of anything either.

Debbie76 Author

Level 1

61 points

Mar 28, 2015 2:03 PM in response to Dah•veed

Bank issued. Entered a different card and got the same message to ask the family organizer to update their billing information.

jcybill

Level 1

0 points

Apr 11, 2015 3:59 AM in response to shaynes607

Unfortunately that wouldn't work for me. I spent 70 minutes on the phone with Apple today and they sorted it for me!

Apr 16, 2015 2:35 AM in response to Debbie76

TThanks this worked had to remove my wife from the family. I guess apple doesn't like happy homes.

Debb3

Level 1

14 points

Mar 29, 2015 5:42 PM in response to Debbie76

Turning of family sharing will only clear up the problem if it is your account that has the discrepancy. In my case, I turned off family sharing and was able to update my account but as soon as I add the family back - same problem.

Like willywill2 - mine was caused by a purchase my daughter made (had to have billing to tell me this but I guess I could have done this with all the kids). We could have fixed it by adding an iTunes gift card to her account but instead, we just removed her from the family share, updated the credit card info in her account then added her back.

Now everyone's accounts are working.

Apr 4, 2015 8:48 AM in response to Debbie76

same joke here. credit card valid until 2017, cannot update anything...

Feb 25, 2017 9:43 PM in response to Debbie76

Did you ever get a solution to this? I can't even download free apps. I have 4 people on my family sharing and i dont know how to check for outstanding purchases. Nothing shows up in the App Store or in their icloud accounts under settings.

Mar 22, 2017 1:08 PM in response to Debbie76

All u did was update ur card? Tried doing that. Still getting error message.

yluke19

Level 1

4 points

Nov 8, 2017 11:32 AM in response to Debbie76

I can’t download any g

sake899

Level 1

5 points

Mar 31, 2015 12:15 PM in response to Rob__T

In my case, I was unable to pay for the previous purchases for my wife's account since the credit card on file had already been closed. Apple asks for the three digit code on the existing (closed) credit card but provides no way of replacing the credit card entirely -- at least, without temporarily disabling Family Sharing.

Mar 30, 2016 2:27 PM in response to Debbie76

Everything @Rob__T said was correct, with the exception that it is also possible that the billing error may be tied to a family member's iTunes account and not the actual organizer's iTunes account. You will have to login to each of your Family Member's iTunes accounts that are linked to your Family Sharing to find which has the actual billing alert where your payment information is listed requesting that the billing information be updated.

Dah•veed

Level 9

66,487 points

Mar 28, 2015 12:25 PM in response to Debbie76

The new debit card, was this one you bought in a store or one issued by your bank and which draws from an account in the bank?

Apr 18, 2015 5:40 PM in response to travislawton

That was the problem. It must have to do with an outstanding balance on any of the id's on the family sharing.

Thanks.

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"There is a problem with a family member's previous purchase"