Apple'south Family Sharing is a fashion to make your apps, movies, subscriptions, and more bachelor to all the people in your family. You can also employ it to control the screen time or content restrictions for your children's devices. What's more, it tin even allow yous go along an heart on the location of all your loved ones.

Nosotros've written this guide to explain everything you demand to know about setting up and using Apple's Family Sharing service. Let's take a expect at how it works.

What Is Family Sharing?

Family Sharing lets you connect up to six dissimilar Apple ID accounts together. These accounts course your Family unit Sharing group, which yous can utilize to save money past sharing various Apple purchases and services, including:

  • Apps, movies, Tv shows, songs, and books
  • Apple Music family plan subscriptions
  • Apple Arcade, Apple News+, and Apple TV channel subscriptions
  • iCloud storage

Since everybody has their own account, you don't demand to share your countersign with other people. You can also access content in your Family Sharing grouping from any device you use with your Apple tree ID: iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Television, or fifty-fifty a Windows PC.

Music, Movies, Books, and Apps on iPhone shared with Family Sharing
Prototype Credit: Apple tree

Alongside shared purchases and services, Family Sharing automatically creates a shared reminders list, shared agenda, and shared photo album for you all to employ. With permission, you lot tin even use Family sharing to see the location of everyone in your group, as well as all their Apple tree devices.

Finally, with Family Sharing, parents or guardians tin manage the Screen Time or Content & Privacy Restrictions for any children under 18 in the group. With Inquire to Buy turned on, they tin can too approve or deny App Shop and iTunes purchases their kids want to make.

Unfortunately, non everything is available to share with Family unit Sharing. Before purchasing an app, scroll down to the Information section in the App Store to bank check that it supports Family Sharing.

Notably, you also tin can't share in-app purchases or subscriptions for non-Apple services.

App Store showing Family Sharing support in Information section

How to Ready Up Family Sharing

Whoever creates the Family Sharing group becomes the Family unit Organizer. This person chooses who is and isn't immune in the group, and likewise chooses which services or purchases yous share with Family unit Sharing.

If the Family Organizer chooses to share App Store and iTunes purchases, they must also agree to pay for new purchases that anyone in the Family Sharing grouping makes.

It's easy to set up Family Sharing from an iPhone or Mac, provided it's running at least iOS 8 or OS X Yosemite, respectively.

Ready Up Family Sharing on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod bear on

  1. Go to Settings and tap [Your Proper noun] at the top of the screen. If y'all don't run across your name, choose to Sign in to your [device] using your Apple ID account.
  2. Tap Set up Family Sharing, then cull Get Started and choose the starting time feature you lot want to use with Family Sharing. You may need to add a payment method to your Apple ID account if you don't already have 1.
  3. Follow the onscreen prompts to complete the setup and Invite Family unit Members, which you can do using iMessage or by asking them to sign in on your device.
  4. After creating your grouping, the Family unit Sharing settings appear beneath your name. You lot can also tap Add Family Member to add more people to your family.

Set Upward Family Sharing on a Mac

  1. Open the Apple menu and get to System Preferences > Family unit Sharing.
  2. You should run across instructions to Ready Family Sharing; click Next and follow the onscreen prompts to complete the setup. You lot may need to add together a payment method to your Apple ID account if you don't already accept one.
  3. Once the setup is complete, click Add Family Member and enter the name, e-mail address, or Game Center nickname of the kickoff family member you want to add.
  4. Use the sidebar in Organisation Preferences to edit the various Family Sharing settings. Get to Family to add more than people to your Family Sharing group.
Mac Family Sharing System Preferences

Prepare a Child'due south Account in Family Sharing

Children under 13 cannot create their own Apple ID accounts. Even so, with Family Sharing, the Family Organizer tin create a child'southward account for them. Apple limits the apps and media based on your child'south age and automatically turns on Enquire to Buy. This means they can't download or purchase anything without permission, even if it's free.

To create a child's account, open up the Family Sharing settings on your device and follow the prompts to add a new family member. Select the selection to Create a Child Business relationship. Then create an iCloud email address, a password, and security answers for your child.

Family Members with Add Family Member option in iPhone Family Sharing settings

As a Family Organizer or parent/guardian in the Family unit Sharing group, you lot can remotely corroborate or deny App Store and iTunes purchases, runway your kid's Screen Time, or edit the Content & Privacy Restrictions for your child's device.

Apple's Family Sharing Features Explained

Subsequently creating your Family Sharing group, you will see a lot of different features and services you can cull to employ with it. This many options can seem a piddling overwhelming at outset, so we've explained each Family Sharing feature below.

Family Sharing Shared Features settings on iPhone

Purchase Sharing

If you want to share apps, movies, TV shows, songs, and books in your Family Sharing grouping, you need to turn on Purchase Sharing. When doing this, the Family Organizer must concur to pay for any time to come purchases people in your Family Sharing group make.

Family members get to keep their purchases after leaving the Family Sharing grouping, even if the Family Organizer paid for that purchase originally.

To view another person'southward purchases, open the App Shop or iTunes Store app and get to the Purchases page. You should see each of your family members' names; tap 1 to view or download their purchases.

Family Purchases in App Store on iPhone

Purchase Sharing lets your family access everything you've e'er bought or downloaded, even if you did so earlier joining the Family Sharing group. If you want to hide a particular purchase from your family, swipe on that purchase and choose to Hide information technology.

iCloud Storage

Apple tree gives everybody 5GB of free storage to use with their Apple ID business relationship. Each family fellow member can decide to expand their storage for a pocket-sized monthly fee, or you can cull to share a single storage plan across your Family unit Sharing group.

iCloud storage showing Family Usage amount

To share iCloud storage with Family unit Sharing, yous either need the 200GB or the 2TB program. When a family fellow member chooses to share iCloud storage, Apple doesn't add together their free 5GB to the shared plan.

Location Sharing

With Location Sharing turned on in Family Sharing, y'all tin can use the Observe My app on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac to check where your other family members are. You tin also use Find My to locate your family members' missing Apple devices.

Each family fellow member can choose whether they want to share their location from the Family unit Sharing settings on their device.

Find My app showing family member locations with stars next to them

Yous should be careful with this setting. When Location Sharing is turned on, anyone in your Family Sharing group can use the Detect My app to mark your devices equally lost or remotely erase them.

Screen Time

Plough on Screen Time to monitor any children in your Family unit Sharing group under the age of 18. You can choose to fix App Limits, Communication Limits, Downtime, and Content & Privacy Restrictions on your children's devices.

Screen Time setting options for child's Family Sharing account

Family Sharing also gives you lot regular usage reports so you lot can keep an heart on how much your children use their devices.

Apple Music, Idiot box Channels, Apple Arcade, and Apple News+

Apple now offers a lot of different subscription services. And except for Apple Music (which requires a family plan), you tin can share whatsoever of these subscriptions with your Family unit Sharing group at no extra price.

For example, if yous subscribe to Apple Arcade, everyone else in your Family Sharing group can also admission Apple Arcade games without needing to sign upwards for their ain subscription.

To share Apple Music, y'all need to pay a picayune flake more to get a Family unit Sharing plan. It withal works out cheaper than paying individually, though.

Apple subscriptions services settings in Family Sharing on iPhone

Apple Isn't the Simply Visitor to Offer Family unit Sharing

Plenty of other companies offer sharing services like to Apple's family unit setup. At present that we've explained how to use Apple tree's Family Sharing service, information technology's worth taking a moment to learn what'due south on offering elsewhere every bit well.

That way, you lot tin be certain you lot're getting the best service for your particular needs. For instance, if you use more Google apps than Apple tree ones, y'all might take a lot more than to proceeds from setting upwards a Google Play Family unit Sharing group instead. Don't forget that many streaming services have family plans, as well.

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