Apple Family Sharing
Recently, my family also switched to iPhones and entered the Apple ecosystem. I researched family sharing to allow my family to use the Apple ecosystem services I’ve been using for years for free and conveniently.
The official documentation about family sharing is vague, leading to some pitfalls. Here is a summary. Overall, family sharing is quite appealing. I recommend it to those who have purchased many Apple ecosystem services. With family sharing, others can use some excellent services without additional costs. OK, let’s start.
Family Sharing
This feature can be understood as similar to the YouTube family membership/Spotify family membership. Family-sharing services cover a variety of subscriptions:
iCloud, Apple Music, Apple TV, and other subscription services
- Generally, Apple family membership uses this method. For example, with iCloud space, the initiator cannot directly configure to limit the available size for each person. The entire space size is shared.
App Store purchased apps [excluding in-app purchases]
In-app purchases are not supported.For example, the MarginNote app itself is free to download, but Pro features are in-app purchases. Family sharing will not share Pro services; family members must purchase them separately. However, apps like Things, which require a one-time purchase, can be shared.
Please refer to the official website for more details about location information.
Family sharing is account-based, and both iPhone and Mac will be included.
About Family Invitations
Personal tests in the China region support
repeatedly inviting someone,which means you can invite someone again even after removing them. There is no limit on the number of times.The number of people is limited to
6,including the initiator.
Downloading Paid Apps for Family Members
The normal way to search in the store will still show the price. You need to go to Store - Top Right Corner Avatar - Purchased - Select the items purchased by the initiator. Only through this page can you download paid apps for free.
To download shared content, your family must use a valid payment method.
If this error appears when downloading paid apps on a family member’s phone, note that both the initiator and the family member need to have a payment method configured. My test found that this error would still occur if the initiator configured a payment method but the family member did not.
If the phone shows the payment method edit button as gray, try using a Mac device or a web method.
At the end
Currently, these are the issues I’ve found. I will continue to use/observe.