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Family members in different country.

All my family member are in different country, my account is in US store, my wife is using China account, my sister is UK account, and my parents are Taiwan account. I was plan to setup a family sharing for all my family through my credit as a gift for them.

However, after I sent family share invitation to them, they told me that system forcing them to change their apple ID country, which will effect on their contain and apps.

My parents even don't know how to change country. Why a family sharing plan could effect on their previous apps and also forcing them to change store country ?

I just want to purchase apps and apple music for them through my APPLE ID, why the things could become so difficult ?

Apple can't and should not forcing my family member to use same country account.

It's family sharing, not company sharing or school sharing. Family members are blood relations not country relations or location relations.



Please tell me how to use my credit and APPLE ID to setup CORRECT family sharing without change anyone's APPLE ID country.


Thank you.

iPhone 6s, iOS 9.3.2

Posted on Jun 10, 2016 5:10 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 4, 2017 9:21 AM

Actually the statement is more than adequate. There are many people that have family members that travel or are present at different times of the year in different countries. (There is no need to get personal with those that point out situations you may not sympathize or agree with).


The main point here is that current Apple ID policies are outdated. For example, Netflix and Amazon allow users to be present in different countries without having to open a new account. This affects not only business travelers and tourists, but also international students and personnel posted abroad.


Currently the only solution is to have multiple Apple IDs, quite a cumbersome solution.


Cheers,

Rod

22 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 4, 2017 9:21 AM in response to Kilgore-Trout

Actually the statement is more than adequate. There are many people that have family members that travel or are present at different times of the year in different countries. (There is no need to get personal with those that point out situations you may not sympathize or agree with).


The main point here is that current Apple ID policies are outdated. For example, Netflix and Amazon allow users to be present in different countries without having to open a new account. This affects not only business travelers and tourists, but also international students and personnel posted abroad.


Currently the only solution is to have multiple Apple IDs, quite a cumbersome solution.


Cheers,

Rod

Jun 10, 2017 12:07 PM in response to Morriesfromboston

"Family" has meaning outside of the stores. In particular, there is a "Family" album in Photos that is shared automatically with the family, and there are no copyright/IP issues on my photos...


I believe the right thing to do is to separate the two notions of "Family" and "copyright" laws. In particular, I'd like to have my mother (in Spain) in my "Family", and, if I have to, I'll pay for her content.


Separate, I hope that Apple can negotiate a wide ranging subscription offering with the copyright owners.

Jun 11, 2016 7:15 PM in response to Kilgore-Trout

At the bottom under Learn More:


Sharing purchased content with Family Sharing - http://support.apple.com/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.*" "* Not all content and content types are available in all countries. To share purchased content, all family members must use the same iTunes Store country or region. Music, movies, TV shows, and books can be downloaded on up to 10 devices per account, five of which can be computers. Apps can be downloaded to any devices the family member owns or controls."


Country limitations are to be expected as material is licensed differently under each country. If you buy a gun in the USA, which you can do very easily and legally, can you share it with your family in China, or the UK?

Jun 10, 2016 10:07 AM in response to Morriesfromboston

  1. The Family sharing feature is pretty much explicitly designed for parents and children living in the same household. There is nothing that prevents including multiple households, but that's isn't what Apple had in mind.
  2. There are restrictions on content, including the payment mechanism, that limits multinational accounts. Its no surprise that Family Sharing would also be restricted to that.
  3. Morriesfromboston wrote:


    This rule conflicts with the real life, even against humanity.

    It's ridiculous.

No, actually that statement is what's ridiculous. Seriously.


You can provide Apple feedback here.

Jun 28, 2017 9:20 AM in response to pelegri

I think a proper approach to this matter should be Apple to segregate the content: 3rd parties’ content should not be shared (AppStore / iTunes content), while all the rest should (iCloud, storage, pics, bookmarks etc.)

For me it’s more important to approve my kids purchases and share same storage than to share same apps, when multiple country accounts.

Jun 10, 2016 10:00 AM in response to Kilgore-Trout

I think I point out a conflict situation, since people and their family all using iOS device to link each other on this Earth, even the Apple's advertisement using this point to show how facetime work around this world.

But when doing purchasing and family sharing, you are saying that "all members of the "family" do indeed need to be in the same country and using the same country iTunes and App stores." . It's almost tricky and impossible to the real life and fact in this world.


This rule conflicts with the real life, even against humanity.

It's ridiculous.

Jun 10, 2016 10:19 AM in response to Kilgore-Trout

Well, what your are saying is part of function of family sharing, in other words I would like to call it " parents controlling".

The situation which you mentioned is about how the parents monitoring their kids when using and purchasing APPS.

However, what I asking is more likely "How can I purchasing and using family sharing for my elder parents (almost 70 years old.) and younger siblings?" .

Note: my elder parents and younger siblings are all in different country.


Thank you for helping me clarified the issue.

Jun 13, 2016 4:50 AM in response to Limnos

Limnos wrote:


At the bottom under Learn More:


Sharing purchased content with Family Sharing - http://support.apple.com/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.*" "* Not all content and content types are available in all countries. To share purchased content, all family members must use the same iTunes Store country or region. Music, movies, TV shows, and books can be downloaded on up to 10 devices per account, five of which can be computers. Apps can be downloaded to any devices the family member owns or controls."


Country limitations are to be expected as material is licensed differently under each country. If you buy a gun in the USA, which you can do very easily and legally, can you share it with your family in China, or the UK?

Thanks.

Jul 6, 2016 8:42 PM in response to Rob-Gordon

Each country has its own copyright laws and the issue stems from that. After all, Apple's interest as a multinational for-profit corporation is to make you happy so you spend as much money as possible on their products. However, I could see trying to manage each individual's purchases on a multinational basis being nearly impossible and just make a simple rule along the lines of borders.


Your wife can transfer her Apple ID to the Canadian store but she will not have access to materials purchased in other countries except for what she brings with her on her computer. It sounds to me like you need to invest in a couple of hard drives to make sure you do not need to re-download USA purchases and not worry about trying to use Apple to deal with that media. No, you won't be able to upgrade apps purchased in the USA but there's some things you just have to adjust to when you move countries. Let her embrace your health care system.


Change your iTunes Store country or region - https://support.apple.com/HT201389

Oct 4, 2017 12:01 PM in response to rodrigofromwashington

Not that I get to do any myself, but from what I gather travelling per se isn't the problem. I think in general you can carry on using your home store when you are abroad. However updating payment details when you are in a different country, or you have moved and no longer have payment methods registered in the original country are where it likely gets complicated. Either way the fact remains that the terms of the store are what they are. Use Feedback - iTunes - Apple to suggest changes to them.


tt2

Jan 1, 2018 8:52 PM in response to OkinawaJoe

http://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/us/terms.html#SERVICE - Jan 2018 "Our Services are available for your use in your country of residence (“Home Country”)." It sounds to me like they have loosened up quite a bit on the wording there. It used to be several sentences.


Send feedback to Apple. There's nothing the people here replying to you can do and there's no indication Apple browses these forums to glean the opinions of those posting here.


Also think about it. Doesn't Apple have every reason to improve its services so people spend more money with them? Doesn't it make sense that they probably aren't doing it just to make the masses suffer by not being able to access items in other countries, that instead there are outside forces in operation? I highly suspect the licensing laws are not as simple as you make out and Apple can't sell anything unless they get an agreement from the owners. Then there's all the extra work required in international sales such as currency and customs duty. After all, if you bring back a CD with you from Japan, or order it to be sent from that country, it could potentially be subject to US duty plus any local taxes for your state. If you made an international purchase without leaving your house there's a pretty low daily duty-free limit (amount varying by country) and US customs would probably have to set up a way to monitor that, plus any other e-purchases you make from other countries. As you can see this is becoming a major task to accomplish, particularly since it would likely require the US government set up an online international purchase registration system since there isn't any actual package involved. Oh, after all that don't forget Apple is a for-profit company and revenue from international sales would have to exceed the added expenses in setting it all up.

Family members in different country.

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