Use iCloud Family Sharing

If you live in a household where multiple family members would like to share the digital media they purchase from Apple (music, movies, TV shows, books, and apps)—and especially if your family includes children who use Apple devices—you’re the target audience for iCloud’s Family Sharing feature. (If not, there’s nothing to see in this chapter—skip ahead to Use iCloud Music Library.)

Family Sharing requires Yosemite or later, or iOS 8 or later, so I recommend using it only if all your family’s devices meet these requirements. If your family fits that profile, here’s what you’ll get for up to six family members:

  • All family members’ purchases of media from Apple are charged to the credit card of the person designated as the family organizer. (Family members who have enough credit in their own Apple ID accounts can use that credit to buy something without using the shared card.)

  • Kids (who can get special Apple IDs of their own even if they’re under 13) can request media purchases from a parent, who must approve each one individually.

  • All family members can access each others’ media, although you can hide particular items of your own that you don’t want to share.

  • A shared family photo album, calendar, and reminder list are created.

  • Family members can more easily share their locations (with Find My Friends) and locate their devices (with Find My Device).

  • A family can join Apple Music as a group for $14.99 per month instead of paying $9.99 per person per month—or $4.99 per college student.

  • If the family organizer is paying for iCloud Drive space, that storage quota can be applied to the family instead of just the organizer.

  • Starting in iOS 12, parents can limit their kids’ screen time; see Tonya Engst’s article Parents Rejoice! iOS 12 Provides More Helpful Parental Controls at Simply Mac.

I won’t pretend Family Sharing is perfect—for example, in-app purchases can’t be shared, and I’m also annoyed that Family Sharing offers no way to share data like contacts, bookmarks, and passwords within a family—but it’s definitely helpful for what it does.

Enable Family Sharing

You can enable Family Sharing on either a Mac or an iOS device. Once it’s enabled on one of your devices, it’s enabled on all of them. I’ll explain the steps on a Mac here; if you use an iOS device, the process is similar except you go to Settings > Your Name to start. Do this:

  1. On a Mac, go to System Preferences > iCloud.

  2. Click Set Up Family.

  3. Click through several informational screens, confirming that you really want to do this, that the Apple ID shown is the one you want to use as the family organizer, that you want to share your purchases (or not), that you agree to the terms and conditions, and that you understand purchases will be charged to the credit card associated with your Apple ID.

  4. Choose whether you want to share your location with family members, and click Continue.

  5. On the Family Members pane of the dialog that appears, click Add Family Member to add one or more family members:

    • For adults (and children with existing Apple IDs): Select “Enter a family member’s name, email address or Game Center nickname,” enter the name or address, click Continue, and follow the prompts. Each invited family member must either enter their password on your computer or follow the steps in an email invitation they receive to join the family account.

    • For children without Apple IDs: Select “Create an Apple ID for a child who doesn’t have an account,” click Continue, and then follow the prompts. (See the sidebar Your Child’s Password, ahead, for important advice on choosing a password.) You’ll have to select an Apple ID (that is, a string of your choice followed by @icloud.com) for your child; this will also become the child’s email address. If the Apple ID you specify is unavailable, a message appears below the field, in red, to tell you so.

    To add another member, click the plus button and repeat this process.

  6. When you’re done, click Done.

To add or remove people later, go to System Preferences > iCloud and click Manage Family. You can then change family members or adjust their details (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Manage payment method and family members in this dialog within the iCloud preference pane.
Figure 6: Manage payment method and family members in this dialog within the iCloud preference pane.

Configure Apps and Services

In most cases, the setup process I just described will be all you need to do, but you may want to add or adjust certain settings after the fact. To do this, go to System Preferences > iCloud > Manage Family > My Apps & Services, and select a category on the left:

  • Purchase Sharing: Enable or disable purchase sharing within the family generally or for your own purchases specifically, change which iCloud account is used for sharing, or change your payment method.

  • Apple Music: View or modify an Apple Music family membership. Depending on the specifics of your situation, you may only be able to see the name of the person sharing an Apple Music family membership with you, or you may be able to click Change Plan to switch to an individual or college student plan.

  • iCloud Storage: Change your storage plan, or enable or disable sharing that plan with your family (see Share Storage Space).

  • Location Sharing: Select which family members, if any, can see your location.

Click Done when you’re finished making changes.

Share Calendar and Reminders

Each participating family member automatically has a Family calendar added to Calendar (on macOS and iOS, and in the Calendar web app) and a Family reminder list added to Reminders. So, any events or reminders you assign to Family will appear for all family members.

But what if you already had a shared family calendar (whether or not it was called “Family”)? That calendar will still exist alongside the new one. If you want to switch over to the new Family calendar without losing all the events in your old family calendar, do this:

  1. In Calendar on a Mac, click the Calendars button on the toolbar to see the sidebar and select your old family calendar.

  2. Choose File > Export > Export, enter a name and choose a destination, and click Export.

  3. Choose File > Import, select the calendar you just exported, and click Import.

  4. In the Add Event dialog that appears, choose your new Family calendar. Click OK.

  5. After Calendar imports the events into your Family calendar, you’ll have two copies of each one—one each on the old and new family calendars. Skim these to make sure all your events are indeed present on the new calendar.

  6. Select your old family calendar, choose Edit > Delete, and click Delete to confirm.

The new family calendar will be used for family events from now on.

Share Family Photos

Family Sharing creates a new shared photo album called Family on all the family’s devices. Add photos to this album just like any other album, and they’re available to all family members. For more information on shared photo albums, refer to Share Photos, Videos, and Albums.

Use Find My Noun

Family Sharing makes it easier for family members to use Find My Friends and Find My Device (see Find My Nouns):

  • Find My Friends: Turning on Family Sharing automatically adds all family members to each others’ Find My Friends app, so you can find out where each family member is (or, to be more accurate, where each person’s primary iOS device is).

  • Find My Device: On any or all of the family’s Macs and iOS devices, family members can enable Find My Device (Find My Mac, Find My iPhone, etc.) in System Preferences > iCloud (Mac) or in Settings > Your Name > iCloud (iOS).

    Once that’s done, when you open the Find My iPhone app for iOS, or the Find My iPhone web app on the iCloud website, your personal devices appear at the top of the All Devices list (under a My Devices heading), followed by headings for each family member’s devices.

Share Media

Once Family Sharing is set up, media purchased from Apple by any family member is available to the other family members, and new purchases are charged to the organizer’s credit card. This is similar to how you can re-download your own media.

To see and download another family member’s purchases:

  • Mac apps: In the App Store app on your Mac, click Purchased and then choose a family member’s name from the Purchased pop-up menu at the top.

  • iOS apps: In the iOS App Store app, tap Updates. Then tap your picture at the top of the screen, followed by Purchased, and tap a family member’s name.

  • Books: In Books (or iBooks) for Mac, go to Store > Store Home and click the Purchased link. Then choose a family member’s name from the pop-up menu next to Purchased at the top.

    In Books for iOS 12 or later, tap Reading Now, and then tap your picture in the upper-right corner. Then tap a family member’s name. In iBooks for iOS 11 and earlier, go to Purchased and tap a family member’s name.

  • Music, TV shows, and movies: In iTunes for Mac, choose Account > Family Purchases, and choose a family member’s name from the pop-up menu next to Purchased at the top.

    On an iOS device, open the iTunes Store app and then go to More > Purchased (iPhone) or Purchased > My Purchases (iPad) and tap a family member’s name.

    On an Apple TV, go to Movies > Purchased > Family Sharing or TV Shows > Purchased > Family Sharing and select a family member’s name (see Use iCloud on an Apple TV for more information).

Use Ask to Buy

If your family includes children, you may want to use Family Sharing’s Ask to Buy feature. Follow these steps:

  1. Go to System Preferences > iCloud > Manage Family (Mac) or Settings > Your Name > iCloud > Family Sharing (iOS), select a family member, and turn on Ask to Buy (it’s on by default for new children’s accounts).

  2. To designate another adult as a parent or guardian who can approve purchases, go to System Preferences > iCloud > Manage Family, select that person, and select Parent/Guardian.

  3. On each child’s device, log in with the child’s Apple ID in both iCloud (System Preferences or Settings) and each media app (iTunes, App Store, iBooks).

  4. On each adult’s device, log in with the adult’s Apple ID in all the same places.

Thereafter, after the child clicks or taps the Buy or Install button in any of Apple’s apps where media can be downloaded and enters their password (see Your Child’s Password), an Ask Permission alert appears. When the child clicks or taps the Ask button in that alert, parents get a notification that they can approve or decline.

Share Storage Space

Starting with 10.13 High Sierra and iOS 11, iCloud users who purchase extra storage at the 200 GB level or above can share that storage space with members of their iCloud Family Sharing group.

To share space as the family organizer:

  • Mac: Go to System Preferences > iCloud > Manage Family > My Apps & Services > iCloud Storage and click Start Sharing. Then click Done.

  • iOS: Go to Settings > Your Name > Family Sharing > iCloud Storage and tap Share Storage Plan. (If you have another family member who’s already paying for storage, you can optionally tap Send Invitation to invite them to switch to your plan.)

Other family members on the free 5 GB storage tier can immediately use the shared space, while family members with their own paid plans can choose to use the shared space or to continue paying on their own. If they choose to use your shared space, they can either follow the instructions they receive by email (if you invited them using iOS), or on a Mac running High Sierra or later, go to System Preferences > iCloud > Manage Family > My Apps & Services and click Use Family Storage.

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