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Family Sharing

With Family sharing you have the options to begin a new family group and invite people to join, or you can join another family group thats already set up.

The Family Sharing feature lets a number of six family members to share apps, movies, TV shows, music, podcasts, books, and subscriptions such as iCloud+, and then some, and you don’t need to share your Apple ID‘s to do it. With family sharing you can set up a child’s Apple ID and set permissions for them remotely using the Screen Time feature, where you can deny or approve downloads and spending from a parent’s device with the Ask to Buy feature. You can also set up Apple Cash for a child or teen, or set up their Apple Watch if they have a paired or standalone watch.

Start a Family Group

One adult person in the family who will be the family organizer can set up Family Sharing for the rest of the family or group from their iPhone (you can also set it up with an iPad or Mac book). You can also set up purchase sharing so the family organizer can pay for family members’ purchases. To use the purchase sharing feature you must have a valid payment method on file that you can set up Here.

To set up a Family group:

  • Go to Settings.
  • Click on your name.
  • Then click on Family Sharing, then click Set Up Your Family.
  • Follow the prompts on the screen to set up your family and invite your family members.

Invite people to join your family

Note: As of now you can only be a part of one family at a time.

To invite family members:

  • Go to Settings.
  • Click on your name, then click on Family Sharing.
  • Then hit Add Member.
  • If your child doesn’t currently have an Apple ID, you can click Create an Account for a Child. If your child already has an Apple ID then you can click directly on Invite People. Then that person will be prompted to enter their Apple ID password on your device to accept the invitation.
  • To finish continue with the on screen prompts.
 

See if your family member accepted the invitation

After you send the invitation, you can check the invitation status by:

  • Going to Settings.
  • Click on your name.
  • Then click on Family Sharing.
  • Then select the persons name you wish to view the invitation status for. 
  • You can also click Resend Invitation if you need to resend the invitation.

Join a family group

To Accept or decline an invitation, you’ll get an invitation through either text or email then you can respond right from the invitation. If for some reason you miss the invitation, you can respond from your device Settings or System Preferences.

To do this:

  • Navigate to Settings.
  • Then click on your name.
  • Then click on Invitations.
  • Then follow the prompts on the screen to accept the invitation. When you join a family, you may be prompted to confirm your account information and you may be asked to opt-in (or out) of any features or services that were set up by the family organizer.

If you can’t accept the invitation

If you ‘re having trouble accepting the invitation, try and see if someone else in the group joined the family group with your Apple ID. Sometimes Family members will share an Apple ID (this is not recommended). And remember that you can only join one family at a time, and you can only be able to switch to a different family group once a year.

Set Up Screen Time for a Family Member (Child)

To set up Screen Time for a child follow the steps Here.

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