With Family Sharing Do You Have to Pay for the App Each Time

Sharing all of your music, movies, and more than across the range of Apple devices endemic by your family sounds similar a no-brainer. Why wouldn't everyone want this selection? Maybe because it'southward not quite as beautifully uncomplicated every bit it sounds. Jeff Carlson, co-author of The Connected Apple Dwelling: Discover the Rich Apple Ecosystem of the Mac, iPhone, iPad, and AppleTV, explains 10 of import points you need to consider before you decide to enroll your gang in Family Sharing.

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Is this a familiar situation? You lot and other members of your family each own libraries of music, videos, and apps purchased from the iTunes Shop, only at that place's no easy way to share that material amongst your collected iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other Apple devices. Or perhaps yous're ready to give a device to a child, merely you're wary of the potential for racking upwards out-of-command charges for media or in-app purchases.

Apple'southward Family unit Sharing feature finally attempts to catch up to reality: Non all of our devices be in their own little worlds. We want to be able to copy a favorite album to another family member's iPhone without jumping through a lot of hoops. We desire to maintain some control over a kid'south device, just besides requite her the freedom to explore. Family Sharing provides all that capability and more than.

Alas, the service isn't perfect. This article lists x facts y'all need to know to help you decide whether enabling the Family Sharing service is correct for your state of affairs.

1: You need iOS 8 and OS Ten Yosemite.

Family unit Sharing is a feature introduced with Apple'south latest operating systems. Although those operating systems cover a wide spectrum of hardware, yous might accept some one-time machines or devices handed downward to kids or other family members—equipment that'due south not capable of running a modern Apple Os.

iOS 8 runs on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod bear on, and OS X 10.10 Yosemite runs on Macs. That list includes plenty of devices: the iPhone 4S and afterward, iPad 2 and later (including the iPad mini), the 5th-generation iPod touch.

Yosemite can be installed on Macs that are up to eight years one-time:

• iMac (mid 2007 or newer)
• MacBook (late 2008 Aluminum, early 2009 or newer)
• MacBook Pro (mid/late 2007 or newer)
• MacBook Air (late 2008 or newer)
• Mac mini (early 2009 or newer)
• Mac Pro (early 2008 or newer)
• Xserve (early 2009)

The more than practical consideration is that everyone needs to exist on iOS viii or Yosemite to take advantage of Family unit Sharing; someone holding out with an before version tin't bring together the digital family unit.

2: All iTunes and App Store purchases are paid with one credit card shared past everyone.

For some people, this is a significant sticking indicate: The entire family'southward purchases come from i account. The benefit to this arroyo is centralized control over purchases (every bit I'll discuss before long).

Switching to Family unit Sharing doesn't wipe out all of the purchases that family members made previously. Purchases from iTunes really become available to anybody in the family. Withal, content you've added to iTunes from other sources (ripping your ain CDs, or buying DRM-gratuitous tracks from other sellers) aren't included, even if y'all subscribe to Apple's iTunes Match service.

3: One person is designated as the Family Organizer, who sets up everything.

Although it sounds similar a throwback to a 1950s patriarchal attitude, Family unit Sharing requires one person to be the Family Organizer, providing a unmarried point of contact associated with the credit card on file. That person also manages parental restrictions and sets everyone else upward with the service.

4: You can create an Apple ID for a kid.

Family Sharing requires each member to have an individual Apple ID, which in the past has been tricky when information technology came to children. Now, you tin create a specific ID for a child under age 13. This choice unlocks one of the best Family Sharing features: Enquire to Buy. When a child wants to buy something from the iTunes Shop or the App Store, the Family unit Organizer (or other members of the family that the Organizer allows) must approve the sale showtime. The confirmation arrives well-nigh instantly to your Mac and iOS devices, letting you determine right away if the buy should be processed (come across Figure 1).

Figure 1 A child tin asking to buy an app (left), which must be canonical by the Family unit Organizer (right, Os 10 notification shown).

It's non obvious how to create an Apple ID for a kid, yet. For instance, when you create a new family member in the iCloud settings on an iOS device, await for the small text at the bottom of the Family screen that reads, "Desire to add together a child who doesn't accept an business relationship? Create an Apple tree ID for a child."

5: With some trickery, y'all tin alter a regular Apple ID to a child ID.

What if you've previously created a regular Apple ID for a child? Yous would have had to change the child'south birthdate to make the ID, and the account wouldn't be eligible for the Ask to Buy feature because the business relationship holder (the child) would be likewise old. Well, there's a workaround.

In a web browser, go to appleid.apple.com and sign in using the child's Apple ID. Click the Password and Security choice and modify the birthdate to January one, 2001. Apple's arrangement at present thinks yous accept a teenager! You can then view the business relationship in your iCloud settings equally the Family Organizer and plow on the Ask to Purchase feature.

6: Media bought past another family member isn't streamed.

I'll admit this fact stumped me at start. I causeless that Family unit Sharing would piece of work like iTunes Match, in that I could simply stream anything from a shared library whenever I wanted. Instead, the media sharing mechanism requires that you lot download tracks, videos, or apps that you want to use. In truth, this requirement is only slightly inconvenient, merely the interface for getting other media isn't obvious. I'll demonstrate by sharing a song:

1. On an iOS device, open the iTunes Shop and navigate to the Purchased screen. It's separated into My Purchases and Family Purchases.
2. Tap the name of the person whose device has the music y'all desire to download, and then tap Music to view that person'southward library.

3. Navigate to the song or anthology you want to download and tap the iCloud Download push button to start transferring information technology (come across Figure two).

   

   Effigy 2 Downloading music purchased by another family member.

7. Media tin exist hidden from other family members.

Non everything needs to be shared. Perhaps you've bought music or eBooks y'all don't desire to share with other people. Follow these steps to hide something from Family Sharing:

1. In iTunes on a Mac or PC, or iBooks on a Mac if you're working with eBooks, view your purchased items.
2. Position the mouse pointer over the item you desire to hibernate, and click the X that appears in the upper-left corner.

3. When asked to ostend that you lot want to hide the particular, click OK (see Effigy 3). The hidden item won't appear in the lists of purchased items on other devices.

   

   Effigy 3 Hide an item that you lot don't want others to download via Family Sharing.

You lot can unhide items by going to your account settings in iTunes or iBooks and clicking the Manage push that appears side by side to Hidden Purchases.

8. You can play media via Family Sharing on the Apple TV.

The Apple TV is nevertheless a satellite device amongst the Apple tree milky way, but it's tied into Family Sharing. With the Apple TV signed into the Apple ID of 1 of the family members, you can watch or listen to anything purchased past that person.

Note: This arrangement doesn't extend to rentals, which are restricted in many ways. For case, a rented movie on the Apple Telly tin can exist watched only on the Apple tree Tv set. Renting a movie through iTunes on a figurer can be streamed to an Apple tree Television receiver on the same network by using AirPlay. Only if yous want to watch that same rental on an iPad or iPhone, you must connect the device to iTunes and transfer the file, later which information technology exists only on the device (and you need an Internet connexion so iTunes can verify the transfer with the Apple mothership). If yous hire a movie on an iOS device, y'all can watch it on the Apple TV via AirPlay, or on the device itself.

9. You tin can share a group of photos amid all family unit members.

One thing about people definitely want to share with family unit members is digital photos. Family Sharing lets the Family Organizer create a single shared photo album that's attainable by every family unit fellow member. Information technology's just a group pool, but easy to admission (found in the Photos app nether Shared). Tapping the plus (+) button lets any family member add images from their photo library (see Figure 4).

Effigy four The shared Family album includes photos from several family members.

10. You can continue track of group schedules and reminders.

I've mostly focused on sharing media, but another central aspect of Family Sharing is the ability to share of import information with everyone. When you set up up Family unit Sharing, a new Family agenda is created and added to anybody's accounts. Any event yous put into the Family calendar appears on everyone else'south devices (see Effigy 5). The aforementioned is truthful for reminders you lot add together to the Family category in the Reminders app. (Now y'all can't claim ignorance about important appointments yous miss.)

Figure 5 The yellow events are office of the shared Family unit calendar.

Family unit Circumvolve

The Family unit Sharing feature requires you to commit to its infrastructure, with its single source of payment and limitations on what tin can exist shared, but for many people this structure makes working with multiple devices easier in the long run.

In an upcoming commodity I'll bear upon other key features: locating family members, or finding family devices that are lost or perhaps stolen.

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Source: https://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=2320215