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How to Set Up Family Sharing in iPhone and Use It

Elsa Updated on Sep 14, 2024 Filed to: iOS Parental

Want to share subscriptions or other content with your family members or manage your child's device in a faster way? Apple Family Sharing offers a seamless solution for families. Interested?

If yes, this article will explore Apple Family Sharing deeply and explain how do you set up Family Sharing in iPhone. Let's get started, and you're about to enter the delightful world of Family Sharing.

Overview of Apple Family Sharing

Wondering what does Family Sharing do? Being work with iOS 8 or later and mac OS X Yosemite, Apple Family Sharing is an enlightening feature that allows you and up to five people to enjoy any of the following:

Share purchases on iTunes, Apple Books, and the App Store;
Share subscriptions to Apple services include Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple News+, Apple Fitness+, Apple Arcade, and the Apple One bundle;
Share Apple Card purchases and payments;
Use the same iCloud+ storage plan;
Locate one another's Apple devices in iCloud;
Manage the screen time, content, and purchases of the child's device;

Aside from the above, Family Sharing creates a shared reminders list, calendar, and photo album for all group members to access.

Pros

Shared purchases, subscriptions, and iCloud plan.
Easily manage child's Apple devices.
Real-time location tracking for family members.
Collaborative events management.

Cons

Limited to Apple ecosystem.
Hard to hide purchases from the family organizer.
Users can only switch to a different family group twice a year.

How to Set Up Family Sharing on iPhone

After knowing what Family Sharing does, now follow these steps to learn how to set up Family Sharing on iPhone.

What You'll Need to Set up Family Sharing:

The device of all family members must be running iOS 8 or later or OS X Yosemite or later.
You have to know the Apple ID of all family members.
Make sure you and the members are not in another's Family group.

Step 1. Set Up a Family Group

Whoever creates the Family group will be the family organizer or administrator, with the primary authority to add, delete, and edit choices for family members. Here's how to create:

1. Open the Settings app and tap your name at the top.

2. Go to "Family Sharing."

3. You'll then be brought to a Family Sharing introductory page. Hit "Continue."

Step 2. Invite Family Members to Join

Then, you'll be given two options to invite members of your family:

If you hit "Invite Others," Apple will ask you to send your Family Sharing invitation to family members via email, Message, AirDrop, or other apps.
If you select the "Create Child Account" option, iPhone will walk you through the whole process, from creating to setting up the parental controls.

Step 3. Accept the Family Sharing Invitation

That is it! Once your family members view your invitation and agree to join the Family group, they will be added to Family Sharing and can instantly enjoy the benefits.

Tips to Use iPhone Family Sharing

After enabling Family Sharing on your iPhone, you'll see specific features and services available for usage in Family Sharing. Let's review these services and learn how to take advantage of them:

1Use Family Sharing to Share Purchases

Everyone in the same family group can see and download the music, movies, TV shows, books, and applications other members have purchased.

Prerequisite:

The family organizer must enable Family Purchase Sharing. (Go to Settings > Family below the Apple ID > Purchase Sharing and follow the onscreen instructions to finish.)

Step 1.Now, go to App Store and tap on your profile in the top right.
Step 2.Select "Purchased," and you'll get family purchases that are shared with you.
Step 3.Choose one member to open his or her purchased app list. If there is any app you are interested in, you can directly download it on your device at no cost.

2Use Family Sharing to Track Apple Devices

Family members can keep track of each other's Apple devices using Find My or iCloud, such as iPhone, iPad, Mac, AirPods, AirTags, etc. This function may assist each other in locating the lost gadgets.

Prerequisite:

The Find My feature must be enabled on every member's device.
The location services are not turned off on every member's device.
The member has allowed Family Location Sharing. (Open Settings > Family > Location Sharing > Turn on.)

Step 1.After then, open Find My or icloud.com/find/.
Step 2.Locate the "Devices" tab and all devices of your family members display.
Step 3.By tapping one, you can see the real-time location.

3Use Family Sharing to Manage Your Child's Device

If your child under 13 joined your family group, you can remotely monitor the screen time of the kid's account and configure parental control, including downtime, app limits, web and content restrictions.

It's also possible to designate another family member as a guardian so both of you can manage your child's device. Here's how you can enable Screen Time for your child.

Step 1.Go to "Screen Time" on your iPhone or iPad Settings.
Step 2.Tap on your child's name under "Family."

Step 3.This will take you into an overview of your child's screen time. Also, you'll have the following controls:
Downtime - Choose which period your child can't access their devices.
App Limits - Set time limits for specific apps or app categories.
Always Allowed - Decide which apps your child can use during downtime.
Communication Limits - Decide which contacts your child can communicate via calls, FaceTime, or Messages during downtime or allowed time.
Content & Privacy Restrictions - Manage iTunes & App Store purchases, control privacy settings, and block inappropriate content, including music, websites, apps, books, etc.
Step 4.After enabling parental controls for your child's device, set up a Screen Time passcode to prevent the restriction from being bypassed by your child.

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4Use Family Sharing to Share iCloud+ Storage

iCloud storage plan can be shared with Family Sharing members to securely store everyone's photographs, videos, and documents. Surely, everyone has their own private storage space within the shared plan.

But note that only the family organizer can share an iCloud storage plan with the rest of the family members. To share the iCloud + storage plan, the organizer should do the following:

Subscribe to an iCloud+ plan with at least 200GB of storage.
Has to turn on iCloud Family Sharing. (Head to Settings > Family > Subscriptions > iCloud > Share with family.)

After this, a notification will be automatically sent to the family members' devices to notify them and prompt them to accept the shared plan.

5Use Family Sharing to Enjoy Apple Subscriptions

If the family organizer has an Apple subscription, such as TV+, Music, News+, Card, or some third-party app subscriptions, the rest of the family members can access it using their own devices and accounts.

Therefore, to share the Apple subscriptions with other family members, the family organizer needs to navigate to the Family Sharing settings and select Subscriptions. Choose any subscribed service or subscribe to a new family plan to share with family.

As long as your family members use their accounts to log in to Apple Music or other services, the membership will be accessible.

How to Stop Family Sharing on iPhone

When no longer wish to utilize the Apple Family Sharing service, everyone can quickly turn it off. Here's how to stop family sharing on iPhone, whether you're a family member or organizer.

Step 1.Go to "Family" after tapping your Apple ID in Settings.
Step 2.Tap on your name, and you'll see "Stop Using Family Sharing."

Note: If you're an organizer who chooses to stop Family Sharing, all family members will be removed from the group at once. So you'd better transfer your child's account to another family group before removing it.

FAQs about iPhone Family Sharing

How to change the role in Apple Family Sharing?

If you are the family organize,

Step 1.Navigate to "Settings" and then "Family."
Step 2.Choose a family member's name.
Step 3.Tap "Set as Parent/Guardian."

If you need to switch the organizer role to another member, you have to disband the current family group and ask another account to set up a new one.

Why can't I add a payment method in Apple Family Sharing?

If the "Add" option is greyed off, you may belong to a Family Sharing group. In this case, only the family organizer can add and change the payment method for Family Sharing.

How do you remove a family member from Family Sharing?

Step 1.Go to "Family Sharing" settings.
Step 2.To delete a member from your family group, choose her or his name from the list of family members.
Step 3.Tap "Remove [the member's name] from Family."

Final Thoughts

Apple's Family Sharing can be the perfect option to share purchases, subscriptions and locations with families. It provides many valuable features. However, its drawbacks include a lack of cross-platform support and setup complexity for non-tech-savvy users. Thankfully, this post walks you step by step.

If you are a parent looking for more robust parental controls that cannot be easily bypassed, don't hesitate to give AirDroid Parental Control a shot.

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Elsa

Elsa has worked on a number of iOS & Android solutions, she can always find her way around almost any application. She is an accomplished, skilled and versatile writer with more than 7 years of technical article writing experience.