dwerlin

Q: Ask to Buy not preventing download on child account

Just gave our 9 year old son a brand new iPod Touch 6th Gen for Christmas, got it set up with his own Child iCloud account, and set up Family Sharing with Ask to Buy enabled by default.

 

The problem is, Ask to Buy doesn't seem to be working at all! Our son is able to download anything from the App store without restriction, it is not giving him a message to submit a purchase request, and I'm not getting anything on my iPhone as the Organizer.

 

The accounts do appear to be linked, since we each show up on each other's devices. I have disabled and re-enabled Ask to Buy on my son's account via my iPhone, he receives a notification on his iPod that Ask to Buy is enabled, but he is still able to download from the App Store without restriction.

 

I have logged both of us out of the App Store & iTunes on both devices, we are both updated to iOS 9performed a hard reset on his iPod, and nothing seems to make this work.

 

Has anyone run into this before? Any other ideas? I know I'll likely end up having to go to the Apple Store to show them what's going on, but thought I'd ask here since everything's closed today (Christmas day).

 

Thanks!

Posted on Dec 25, 2015 8:09 AM

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Q: Ask to Buy not preventing download on child account

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  • by fromsouth,

    fromsouth fromsouth Dec 25, 2015 8:13 AM in response to dwerlin
    Level 5 (4,801 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 25, 2015 8:13 AM in response to dwerlin

    You did something wrong, cause as far as I know if you really created account for 9 years old - Ask to buy can not be disabled.

     

    Family Sharing and Apple ID for your child - Apple Support

     

    Update the birth date associated with your Apple ID - Apple Support

  • by dwerlin,

    dwerlin dwerlin Dec 25, 2015 8:35 AM in response to fromsouth
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 25, 2015 8:35 AM in response to fromsouth

    I don't believe I did anything wrong, I created the Child account via the Create an Apple ID for a child link in the iCloud Family setting on my iPhone. His name shows up successfully and lists him as 9 years old.

  • by fromsouth,

    fromsouth fromsouth Dec 25, 2015 8:40 AM in response to dwerlin
    Level 5 (4,801 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 25, 2015 8:40 AM in response to dwerlin

    Then try to log both of you out of iCloud and iTunes and then see if it works. ICloud is the main management tool for that feature, so signing out of just iTunes is not enough. Try to also before you sign back in restart both devices just in case.

  • by dwerlin,

    dwerlin dwerlin Dec 25, 2015 8:48 AM in response to fromsouth
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 25, 2015 8:48 AM in response to fromsouth

    When signing out of iCloud from my iPhone, I am prompted with a choice to keep or delete my iCloud calendars, reminders, and contacts.

     

    do I want to keep or delete? If I delete, will it re-sync the data once I sign back in?

  • by dwerlin,

    dwerlin dwerlin Dec 25, 2015 9:44 AM in response to fromsouth
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 25, 2015 9:44 AM in response to fromsouth

    I decided to just go ahead and delete locally after prompted.

     

    Signed out of iCloud on both devices, hard reset, signed back in, no change. My son's iPod can still download unrestricted despite both his and my iCloud settings stating that Ask to Buy is enabled.

     

    Added my wife's iCloud account to the family sharing group as well, set her as a parent/guardian just to see if that would get things working...no dice.

     

    Will have to head to the Apple Store tomorrow to have them take a look. If they can't figure anything out I'll just have the App Store and iTunes use my apple ID and require password for every transaction. Will be a PITA...but maybe no more of a PITA than getting the Ask to Buy feature working.

  • by fromsouth,

    fromsouth fromsouth Dec 25, 2015 10:40 AM in response to dwerlin
    Level 5 (4,801 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 25, 2015 10:40 AM in response to dwerlin

    There is not really much troubleshooting beyond sign out... Are you at least getting notifications with anything? Cause Ask to buy is kind of notification, should show up in notification screen when you slide it down. Last thing that I can think of besides going to the store is to try to reset all settings on your phone, just in case you blocked something unintentionally. It will revert your personal settings to factory default, but will keep your data. You ll have to reconnect to wifi, change your wallpaper back to what you have, turn siri back on, but nothing really major. I would only do that on your phone, where logout of icloud had to be done on both.

    Settings - general- reset- line on the top - reset all settings.

    DO NOT click line number 2.

    Make sure setup appointment at the store, suspect they ll be flooded by people like you. BTW you can also call Applecare.

  • by dwerlin,

    dwerlin dwerlin Dec 25, 2015 10:47 AM in response to fromsouth
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 25, 2015 10:47 AM in response to fromsouth

    No notifications to either my nor my wife's phone. It's acting as though Ask to Buy just isn't enabled (allowing direct purchase/download despite displaying as enabled).

     

    Thanks for taking the time to chat, I don't want to reset my phone to factory default.

  • by fromsouth,

    fromsouth fromsouth Dec 25, 2015 10:52 AM in response to dwerlin
    Level 5 (4,801 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 25, 2015 10:52 AM in response to dwerlin

    Wasn't talking factory default, just the settings. Not even close to factory default, like I said all data stays.

    And as I told you before I still believe you didn't setup his account of his device (more likely) correctly. Since I have no way of checking - I am just entertaining other options.

  • by dwerlin,

    dwerlin dwerlin Dec 25, 2015 2:26 PM in response to fromsouth
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 25, 2015 2:26 PM in response to fromsouth

    Got Ask To Buy working.

     

    I ended up going in and turning Restrictions on (figured I'd force App Store purchases to prompt for password since Ask To Buy wasn't preventing downloads). As soon as I enabled password restrictions for purchases and in-app purchases, Ask To Buy immediately started working.

     

    To test, I turned off password restrictions and went back to the App Store and was able to purchase without any Ask To Buy prompts or restrictions whatsoever.

     

    So, I don't know if this is how it was supposed to work from the start, but I now have password restrictions enabled, my son needs to enter his iCloud password when he wants to download something, then I get the Ask To Buy request, then after it gets approved he enters his iCloud password again and the download begins.

  • by fromsouth,

    fromsouth fromsouth Dec 26, 2015 4:06 AM in response to dwerlin
    Level 5 (4,801 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 26, 2015 4:06 AM in response to dwerlin

    Good for you! Where did you make those changes?

  • by dwerlin,

    dwerlin dwerlin Dec 26, 2015 7:14 AM in response to fromsouth
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 26, 2015 7:14 AM in response to fromsouth

    Restrictions were enabled on my son's iPod.

  • by fromsouth,

    fromsouth fromsouth Dec 26, 2015 7:20 AM in response to dwerlin
    Level 5 (4,801 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 26, 2015 7:20 AM in response to dwerlin

    I know this is stupid so it perhaps just stupid me but,

    Is that possible that his device (ipad) is setup with yours and not his account?

  • by dwerlin,

    dwerlin dwerlin Dec 26, 2015 7:26 AM in response to fromsouth
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 26, 2015 7:26 AM in response to fromsouth

    No, his device (iPod) is set up with his account only (I quadruple-checked this while I was having difficulty originally) in iCloud, App Store, and iTunes.

  • by fromsouth,

    fromsouth fromsouth Dec 26, 2015 7:32 AM in response to dwerlin
    Level 5 (4,801 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 26, 2015 7:32 AM in response to dwerlin

    I knew you did, just still not making sense, if I were you I d still visit Apple at some point. I don't believe restrictions are involved in all of that. I can see password or passcode interference, but restrictions...  They are purely device based, where ask to buy is account based.