Can't add anyone to Family Sharing

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Level 1

40 points

Can't add anyone to Family Sharing

I set up Family Sharing and can get to the Manage Members page in System Preferences on my MacBook. But, when I try to add someone I get a message that says: "This operation cannot be completed at this time." That message is then replaced by one that says: "Add a payment method to enable Family Sharing."

The problem seems pretty obvious except my account has a payment method and has had the same one for at least 10 years. I have gone to iTunes and verified that my payment information is correct. I changed the payment method from PayPal to a valid credit card, went back to System Preferences on my MacBook, tried again and got the same result. So I went back and restored the PayPal information and got the same Family Sharing result.

I have tried adding members from my iPhone 6 with the same outcome.

My frustration comes from the fact that if I am supposed to indicate a payment method specifically for Family Sharing, there is no indication in the error message—or any place else I can find—as to where that might be done.

Any help would be appreciated.

BTW: This may be posted to the wrong community, but I couldn't find any other plausible place. I picked iCloud since that's were I go to set up Family Sharing.

MacBook, macOS High Sierra (10.13.4), 8 Gb Ram

Posted on May 10, 2018 1:44 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

mdm13 Author

Level 1

40 points

May 11, 2018 8:13 PM in response to chuck_3rd

Thanks for your response. I solved my problem about an hour ago and only just now saw that you had responded.

I tried one more time changing my payment method from PayPal to a credit card—in fact the same credit card I use for PayPal—and this time it solved the problem. I never found any place that says PayPal can't be used for family sharing, but I can't say it isn't in the available information somewhere. And it may not be a blanket prohibition.

What I realized is that I do not have PayPal set to automatically accept payment requests from known, trusted sources and that means I need to provide my PayPal login every time I use PayPal. And that clearly won't work for anyone else in my family who wants to charge something to my payment method if it's PayPal. I didn't test it, but I expect PayPal would be acceptable if it's set to automatically accept charges from my Apple account.

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Answer 2

chuck_3rd

Community Specialist

May 11, 2018 12:36 PM in response to mdm13

Hello, mdm13.

It's my understanding that you're unable to add anyone to Family Sharing. You've done some excellent troubleshooting steps for this issue. One step I would recommend trying is to sign out of iCloud, restart your device then sign back in. See if it lets you add members without the error. If not and you're able to add payment methods with no issues, I'd recommend reaching out to Apple Support . They have the tools needed to look further into the issue with your account.

I hope this helps.

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

Cheers!

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Answer 3

Joseph_S.

Community Specialist

May 14, 2018 12:11 PM in response to mdm13

Hello, mdm13.

We're glad that you were able to resolve the issue and thank you for sharing what you've done. Reach out to us again here in Communities if you need help with anything else. We're here for you.

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

Cheers!

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Can't add anyone to Family Sharing

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