iOS 8 Tips & Set Up: Family Sharing

26/09/14 07:33 Filed in: Technology

One of the difficulties encountered with using iOS devices in a family is the issue of having everyone have their own iCloud accounts but then being able to share all of your purchases made on the App Store. For years I did a work around where my kids had their own iCloud accounts for their back ups and used a separate Apple ID for purchases so we could share our apps and consolidate them in one place. My wife and I wanted to share calendars and contacts so we shared an iCloud account to make that possible. Now with Continuity in iOS 8 that makes that set up inconvenient because every time her phone rings it rings on all of my devices and vice versa. In this scenario, Family Sharing finally makes it easy for us to use our Apple devices as a family.
Family Sharing allows you to link up to 5 iCloud accounts together in what is called a Family. This family allows each user to have his/her own iCloud accounts but links them together into a family where they have a shared family calendar, a shared family photo share, shared iTunes account to allow for shared apps, and certain restrictions that allows the primary account holder to approve an iTunes purchase and allows for the set up of accounts for children under the age of 13.

In this screencast I cover how to set up family sharing. I also cover all of the settings and walk you through all of the options and each step along the way in setting up your own personal family share. Be aware that you can only set up two family shares a year so if you make a mistake and delete a family, you can only add one more. If you added someone by mistake it is better to delete that person and keep the family share instead of deleting the family completely. Also be aware that children under the age of 13 that are added cannot be deleted and only transferred to another family share.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment here or on my Youtube Channel.

Tags: IOS, IOS8