Apple Music - No more sharing Apple ID

[Peepo]

I just migrated to Family Sharing from this setup. You can't see each others locations unless you opt in, and you aren't any worse off from the shared app store account setup.

Each had separate iCloud accounts. All used a single shared_app_store@address.com account for iTunes and Apps.

1. Create a new user account in System Preferences > Users & Groups
2. Log in Mac as that user.
3. Go to System Preferences > iCloud and sign in with that shared_app_store@address.com account
4. Log in to Mac as user that will have billing control - the "Organizer"
5. Go to System Preferences > iCloud > Set Up Family and enable
6. Change "Family Purchases" to the iCloud account of that user
7. Invite shared_app_store@address.com to join the family and enter the password to set up
8. Log in Mac again as the new user account created in step 1
9. Go to System Preferences > iCloud > Manage Family
10. Choose the Me user and ensure "Family Purchases" is set to the shared_app_store@address.com
11. Log out of this Mac user account. You can now delete it.
12. Log in again to Mac as user that has billing control - the "Organizer"
13. Invite the other iCloud accounts. On their device, go to Settings > iCloud > Family > Me and change their "Family Purchases" to the iCloud account of that user
14. On all devices, go to Settings > iTunes & App Store > and sign out of shared_app_store@address.com and sign in as the user's individual iCloud account

15. Open Apple Music, purchase the family plan on any device (and it's okay if you had already purchased it under the shared_app_store@address.com account)
16. All users will have individual profiles, and can play simultaneously.

Don't fear anything:
All purchased apps and music work as before and keep updating correctly
There is no downside compared to the shared_app_store@address.com approach.
Behind the scenes, that's what it's doing anyway.

I also have a more points with this, so I invite others to clarify or add their own opinions.

In-App purchases will not work or transfer from the original shared_app_store@address.com to the individual accounts.

Moving forward, purchases for each person will be tied to their account so they retain their purchases if they ever leave the family account (eg. my daughter when she gets older will retain all purchases made by her).

I think the longer I wait the more issues will have. I am going to do some house cleaning on my apps and determine exactly what may happen if I do this.

I may setup test on my iPad and change the shared account to the normal account and see what happens. From what I can tell, I should be able to revert to the original shared account if something bad happens.

The only two people sharing my account are myself and my wife (both kids have their own account and they have their open purchase history). I don't want my wife's music history messing around with mine on Apple Music.

 

[Peepo]

I tested a bit and seems that after logging in with my new ID, existing in-app purchases were there. I downloaded Overcast onto my iPad and was not able to restore purchases. As a workaround I discovered that if I logged into the original apple id then I could go into the app and restore purchases, then log back out and re-login with new id. Not sure if this will be an issue logging in/out of apple id's (thought Apple restricts this somehow) but I have done it a few times on my iPad right now with no consequences.

 

[retroneo]

And not only that, but since I am sharing with my wife's email, if we go the family share route, and then I log out as her and log in as me, I have to uninstall and re-install every app on my phone and lose my app data, OR, put in her creds for each and every update.

No, that's not correct. With Family Sharing:
You don't need to uninstall and re-install any apps.
You don't lose any app data.
After setting up, one log in is ever needed - and will update all apps including ones previously purchased by the other account.

This is the idea of family sharing.

Just to clarify here... can I think of what you are doing as:
Moving everything over to individual accounts, making one of them the organizer (eg. yourself), adding the original shared account as a family member (so all of the legacy purchases remain available to all), and finally adding the rest of the family. The shared_app_store@address.com will end up using one of the 6 family slots?
Do I understand this correctly?

That's it. If you don't want to use one of the 6 family slots you can also just attach it to one of the users "Family Purchases" instead of their iCloud account.

Has anyone been able to use the Family Plan and be able to personalize the For You section under each Family Plan user?
Is this even able to do? I mean...

Absolutely. You need to follow step 13 and 14 of my post above to do this:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-music-no-more-sharing-apple-id.1896272/#post-21529566

Yeah agree it's a royal pain. I went they the re downloading all apps process when family sharing first came out. Then I switched back to the old shared id method and had to do it all over again lol. Family sharing sucks imo as compared to the shared login. Wish Apple music could use iCloud logins and not necessarily be tied to the App Store login

No way. There's no need to redownload apps ever if you follow the instructions i posted above - even when moving from a shared account.
Family sharing works just like the shared id (it still is downloading purchases with the shared id behind the scenes). You just have one Apple ID to remember, and updates are always correctly applied (which was a problem before).

There's no need to redownload apps with family sharing. In fact shared apps are technically downloaded with the original purchaser account on the other devices (Just try downloading one in iTunes and choose Get info)

This is how I understand it as well. The only problem with this is that all apps don't support family sharing and I believe none of them support in app purchases between family members.

All of the apps in the app store should support Family sharing by now - the contract was changed in June 2014, and the old non-family sharing iTunes Connect contracts should have all expired by now. Many developers however accepted the new terms and conditions for their pre-Jun 2014 apps immediately, so there were many available from day one.

It is true that in-app purchase isn't shared however.

 

[bwfc0907]

I just migrated to Family Sharing from this setup. You can't see each others locations unless you opt in, and you aren't any worse off from the shared app store account setup.

Each had separate iCloud accounts. All used a single shared_app_store@address.com account for iTunes and Apps.

1. Create a new user account in System Preferences > Users & Groups
2. Log in Mac as that user.
3. Go to System Preferences > iCloud and sign in with that shared_app_store@address.com account
4. Log in to Mac as user that will have billing control - the "Organizer"
5. Go to System Preferences > iCloud > Set Up Family and enable
6. Change "Family Purchases" to the iCloud account of that user
7. Invite shared_app_store@address.com to join the family and enter the password to set up
8. Log in Mac again as the new user account created in step 1
9. Go to System Preferences > iCloud > Manage Family
10. Choose the Me user and ensure "Family Purchases" is set to the shared_app_store@address.com
11. Log out of this Mac user account. You can now delete it.
12. Log in again to Mac as user that has billing control - the "Organizer"
13. Invite the other iCloud accounts. On their device, go to Settings > iCloud > Family > Me and change their "Family Purchases" to the iCloud account of that user
14. On all devices, go to Settings > iTunes & App Store > and sign out of shared_app_store@address.com and sign in as the user's individual iCloud account

15. Open Apple Music, purchase the family plan on any device (and it's okay if you had already purchased it under the shared_app_store@address.com account)
16. All users will have individual profiles, and can play simultaneously.

Alternatively you can attach the shared_app_store@address.com account to one of the iCloud accounts in the "Family Purchases" section, if you need to save a slot (family sharing is limited to six accounts)


Don't fear anything:
All purchased apps and music work as before and keep updating correctly
There is no downside compared to the shared_app_store@address.com approach.
Behind the scenes, that's what it's doing anyway.

I have 4 family members in my group. I am the organiser. All purchases come off my credit card for all family members.

I'm confused why apple music is sharing playlists & my music regardless of which of the 4 family members adds it.

Where have I gone wrong on the instructions you gave?

Will the instructions you give not stop us sharing newly downloaded app & movie purchases?

 

[auero]

Retroneo's directions do work. I had a problem with my purchases not showing up in the app store even though I knew I set it up correctly multiple times.

Turns up you need to log out of iTunes on your computers for it to refresh for some reason. I don't know why, but someone on the Apple forums suggested it and suddenly it started to work.

I didn't have to redownload any apps and updating works fine.

 

[netnothing]

Really wish Apple didn't tie this to Family Sharing. Seems they have the ability in place to detect multiple streams.....would have liked to just be able to signup for Family Apple Music and have Apple detect whether you go over the 6 streams at once.

-Kevin

 

[netnothing]

I just migrated to Family Sharing from this setup. You can't see each others locations unless you opt in, and you aren't any worse off from the shared app store account setup.

Each had separate iCloud accounts. All used a single shared_app_store@address.com account for iTunes and Apps.

1. Create a new user account in System Preferences > Users & Groups
2. Log in Mac as that user.
3. Go to System Preferences > iCloud and sign in with that shared_app_store@address.com account
4. Log in to Mac as user that will have billing control - the "Organizer"
5. Go to System Preferences > iCloud > Set Up Family and enable
6. Change "Family Purchases" to the iCloud account of that user
7. Invite shared_app_store@address.com to join the family and enter the password to set up
8. Log in Mac again as the new user account created in step 1
9. Go to System Preferences > iCloud > Manage Family
10. Choose the Me user and ensure "Family Purchases" is set to the shared_app_store@address.com
11. Log out of this Mac user account. You can now delete it.
12. Log in again to Mac as user that has billing control - the "Organizer"
13. Invite the other iCloud accounts. On their device, go to Settings > iCloud > Family > Me and change their "Family Purchases" to the iCloud account of that user
14. On all devices, go to Settings > iTunes & App Store > and sign out of shared_app_store@address.com and sign in as the user's individual iCloud account

15. Open Apple Music, purchase the family plan on any device (and it's okay if you had already purchased it under the shared_app_store@address.com account)
16. All users will have individual profiles, and can play simultaneously.

Alternatively you can attach the shared_app_store@address.com account to one of the iCloud accounts in the "Family Purchases" section, if you need to save a slot (family sharing is limited to six accounts)


Don't fear anything:
All purchased apps and music work as before and keep updating correctly
There is no downside compared to the shared_app_store@address.com approach.
Behind the scenes, that's what it's doing anyway.

Would I have to go through all this for the following:

My account (me@address.com) is used on my phone for both iTunes/Apps and iCloud
On my wife's phone she uses me@address.com for iTunes/Apps and wife@address.com for iCloud
Both kids iPods use me@address.com for iTunes/Apps and kid1 and kid2@address.com for iCloud

What would happen if I just started Family Sharing and added their addresses from iCloud? I'd have to logout and re-login for the App Store on all their devices correct? And would they lose everything? Seems as if if you situation you had a separate address for all purchases......so every device had 2 accounts setup. For me, all my devices only have the 1 address.....everyone else's have 2.

-Kevin

 

[bwfc0907]

Retroneo's directions do work. I had a problem with my purchases not showing up in the app store even though I knew I set it up correctly multiple times.

Turns up you need to log out of iTunes on your computers for it to refresh for some reason. I don't know why, but someone on the Apple forums suggested it and suddenly it started to work.

I didn't have to redownload any apps and updating works fine.

I'm completely confused.
-I am the organiser & I add a credit card for family sharing. My iCloud account and iTunes use the same email address which has the same credit card allocated to it as family sharing.
-I add my wife as a family member. She has her own iCloud account but family purchases are my email address, even if I try to change that it gives me a 90 day warning that I will lose everything purchased under my email address. Her iTunes also uses my email address and therefore my credit card details.

Where have I gone wrong?

 

[jamesarm97]

Here is my scenario. Tell me what I am doing wrong.

I have been running with the Family Sharing enabled for one of my sons (Alex the younger). That works ok, I have to approve his purchases and he doesn't care about my music. My older son and wife wanted access to my iTunes Match so we all use the same iTunes store login but all have unique cloud id's. Here is the breakdown:

Me: icloud: me@me.com itunes store: main@me.com Music plan id: main@me.com
wife: iCloud: wife@me.com itunes store: main@me.com
son1: iCloud: son1@me.com itunes store: main@me.com
son2: iCloud: son2@me.com itunes store: son2@me.com (family sharing setup)

I changed my wife last night and added her to the family sharing list. I signed her our of iTunes store and added her iCloud / family sharing id as the iTunes store id (wife@me.com). So now she is setup as a Family sharing member and has no access to the iTunes Match music ;( (i really wish they would change that).

I went to the new Music app on her phone and it asks if I want to subscribe to the new Apple Music. I am already subscribed on my phone (me@me.com) as the main Family Sharing plan holder and she is under that plan and her id is the one on the phones iTunes account so I don't know why it is asking. How is it supposed to know I am signed up as a family sharing Music plan and should it be asking. If I click subscribe it wants to do the whole free trial and wants a credit card # because her id doesn't have one on file (because it should be using mine on the family plan).?

Did I do something wrong or miss something? I haven't tried son2 yet since it was late last night but he is the only person that was already setup under the iCloud family sharing before the 8.4 release.

 

[SmittS]

Retroneo's directions do work. I had a problem with my purchases not showing up in the app store even though I knew I set it up correctly multiple times.

Turns up you need to log out of iTunes on your computers for it to refresh for some reason. I don't know why, but someone on the Apple forums suggested it and suddenly it started to work.

I didn't have to redownload any apps and updating works fine.

I log out and back into app store on my devices. Sometimes purchased apps show up. Sometimes they don't. Very frustrating. Think everything else is working though.

 

[bwfc0907]

I log out and back into app store on my devices. Sometimes purchased apps show up. Sometimes they don't. Very frustrating. Think everything else is working though.

Having the same problem

 

[Arran]

My wife and I share an iTunes account. No home sharing, no family sharing, no iTunes Match.

And thank heavens, because reading the posts here makes my head spin. We'll stick with ripping CDs, thank you.

And so what if we see each other's music? We live together!

 

[bgro]

My wife and I share an iTunes account. No home sharing, no family sharing, no iTunes Match.

And thank heavens, because reading the posts here makes my head spin. We'll stick with ripping CDs, thank you.

And so what if we see each other's music? We live together!

Lol this is the boat I'm in as well. I'm pretty tech savvy but Apple makes this crap overly complicated for the average person. they did the same crap with iCloud Photo Library/Photostream. Trying to explain that to my mom and dad is a nightmare.

At any rate I think i'm going to try the Family Share route again. Me and wifey share music now but we have completely different tastes and it makes no sense to share a "For You" section. Plus I'm sick of Whiteny Houston coming on right after Pantera when I have my current library on shuffle. I'd just rather split out our current 10k library into hers and mine and go the Family Share route even tho it's more expensive.

 

[Goalieed]

I wish Apple would separate the audio account from the app account, and most of these issues would be resolved.

 

[Peepo]

Something weird. On my old shared iTunes account I disabled renewal and iTunes Match and apple music trial so I don't forget. When I setup my regular account on my iPhone and iPad, and got sharing working, I then signed up for free trial again from my new organizer account. It didn't look the same and appears to going to start billing me for it. The previous trial I had on another showed expiry in September now this one is July

 

[Peepo]

Lol this is the boat I'm in as well. I'm pretty tech savvy but Apple makes this crap overly complicated for the average person. they did the same crap with iCloud Photo Library/Photostream. Trying to explain that to my mom and dad is a nightmare.

At any rate I think i'm going to try the Family Share route again. Me and wifey share music now but we have completely different tastes and it makes no sense to share a "For You" section. Plus I'm sick of Whiteny Houston coming on right after Pantera when I have my current library on shuffle. I'd just rather split out our current 10k library into hers and mine and go the Family Share route even tho it's more expensive.

Yes I am in same boat. With Apple music it syncs all your music and playlists across all iOS devices which are logged into that account. Now is a good time to enable sharing to prevent issues from happening.

 

[hockeyamd]

No luck here stuck with This iTunes account is not set up to use Family Sharing

 

[retroneo]

In-App purchases will not work or transfer from the original shared_app_store@address.com to the individual accounts.

They will keep working if already on the devices.

But future in-app purchases will not automatically be available for free on the individual accounts. To do this you will have to (on each individual device):
1. Temporarily switch Settings > iTunes & App Store Account to shared_app_store@address.com account.
2. Download the in-app purchase for free
3. Go to Settings > iTunes & App Store Account and switch back to the users iCloud account.

Moving forward, purchases for each person will be tied to their account so they retain their purchases if they ever leave the family account (eg. my daughter when she gets older will retain all purchases made by her).

That's correct. When she joins another family, your daughter takes brings her purchases to the new family (even though you may have been charged). It will keep working, but will require switching to the original purchaser account to download updates. If your daughter doesn't look like she's going to have four kids, think about joining her family sharing - and things will work as before - seamlessly. If she only has two kids, both you and your wife can join your daughter's family after she moves out.

The only two people sharing my account are myself and my wife (both kids have their own account and they have their open purchase history). I don't want my wife's music history messing around with mine on Apple Music.

This is how you set it up:
1. Put your account as organiser and primary iCloud account
2. invite your wife and kids iCloud accounts to the family
3. ensure your iCloud "Family Purchases" setting is set to the iTunes account that your wife shares
4. ensure each kids iCloud "Family Purchases" setting is set to their own iTunes account they have always been using
5. ensure your Wife's iCloud "Family Purchases" is set to her own iCloud account.
6. ensure ALL of your users are signed in to iTunes on Mac under their own iCloud account.
7. ensure ALL of your users are signed in to Settings > iTunes & App Store under their own iCloud account.
8. buy a family account of Apple Music

Advantages:
1. Each user keeps their own purchase history, viewable as separate lists by all (unless you choose hide item)
2. Separate Apple Music profiles and playlists
3. Kids can still pay for stuff themselves by using gift cards on their account
4. Central billing if no gift card balance on purchaser account
5. All apps on devices keep working (including in-app purchases)


It's a no-brainer to use it. It's just the most ridiculously complicated thing to set up.
Almost as bad as what happens when you change your Apple ID password!

 

[retroneo]

No luck here stuck with This iTunes account is not set up to use Family Sharing

For the troublesome account:

1. Verify that the accounts are all set to the same country's iTunes store.
(Settings > iTunes & App Store > press the user's Apple ID in blue > View Apple ID > Country/Region)

2. Then purchase a free item in the App Store (you can set payment method to none)

 

[erikbailey]

I just migrated to Family Sharing from this setup. You can't see each others locations unless you opt in, and you aren't any worse off from the shared app store account setup.

Each had separate iCloud accounts. All used a single shared_app_store@address.com account for iTunes and Apps.

1. Create a new user account in System Preferences > Users & Groups
2. Log in Mac as that user.
3. Go to System Preferences > iCloud and sign in with that shared_app_store@address.com account
4. Log in to Mac as user that will have billing control - the "Organizer"
5. Go to System Preferences > iCloud > Set Up Family and enable
6. Change "Family Purchases" to the iCloud account of that user
7. Invite shared_app_store@address.com to join the family and enter the password to set up
8. Log in Mac again as the new user account created in step 1
9. Go to System Preferences > iCloud > Manage Family
10. Choose the Me user and ensure "Family Purchases" is set to the shared_app_store@address.com
11. Log out of this Mac user account. You can now delete it.
12. Log in again to Mac as user that has billing control - the "Organizer"
13. Invite the other iCloud accounts. On their device, go to Settings > iCloud > Family > Me and change their "Family Purchases" to the iCloud account of that user
14. On all devices, go to Settings > iTunes & App Store > and sign out of shared_app_store@address.com and sign in as the user's individual iCloud account

15. Open Apple Music, purchase the family plan on any device (and it's okay if you had already purchased it under the shared_app_store@address.com account)
16. All users will have individual profiles, and can play simultaneously.

Alternatively you can attach the shared_app_store@address.com account to one of the iCloud accounts in the "Family Purchases" section, if you need to save a slot (family sharing is limited to six accounts)


Don't fear anything:
All purchased apps and music work as before and keep updating correctly
There is no downside compared to the shared_app_store@address.com approach.
Behind the scenes, that's what it's doing anyway.

These are great instructions. I had pretty much already gone down this road, but seeing them written out was very helpful. My issue is that I am not seeing my Playlists for my own music library. The master iTunes (on my iMac) has them just fine, but they are gone from the iOS devices. iTunes is always running on the iMac, and is connected as the shared_app_store account. I've tried closing iTunes, signing in/out of iCloud on the iOS devices, etc. I can't get anything with playlists to sync (iMac using shared account, a different Mac using an individual account, or iOS using an individual account). Everything seems just to be local to that device. After years of successfully using iTunes Match to sync playlists, this is a major step backwards... Any thoughts? --Erik

 

[Ludatyk]

These are great instructions. I had pretty much already gone down this road, but seeing them written out was very helpful. My issue is that I am not seeing my Playlists for my own music library. The master iTunes (on my iMac) has them just fine, but they are gone from the iOS devices. iTunes is always running on the iMac, and is connected as the shared_app_store account. I've tried closing iTunes, signing in/out of iCloud on the iOS devices, etc. I can't get anything with playlists to sync (iMac using shared account, a different Mac using an individual account, or iOS using an individual account). Everything seems just to be local to that device. After years of successfully using iTunes Match to sync playlists, this is a major step backwards... Any thoughts? --Erik

I originally had iTunes Match... And I used shared AppleID among family devices. Now I'm only the one using the shared AppleID, but the other Family Users under my account use their own iCloud account for Apple Music.

So, I'd suggest you use your shared AppleID only on your own iOS devices... Since I assumed you are the Organizer on the Family Plan.

 

[Peepo]

I originally had iTunes Match... And I used shared AppleID among family devices. Now I'm only the one using the shared AppleID, but the other Family Users under my account use their own iCloud account for Apple Music.

So, I'd suggest you use your shared AppleID only on your own iOS devices... Since I assumed you are the Organizer on the Family Plan.

In my case my main iCloud account was different than my shared iTunes account. I had an old weird account using a gmail address and my regular .me account for iCloud stuff. In order to do family sharing the organizer has to have the main account I believe setup in system preferences iCloud. It is setup on Mac and integrates a lot of other iCloud features. If I used my gmail account then it wouldn't work on Mac properly for me I believe. Maybe someone else can add more input or opinions on this.

 

[erikbailey]

I originally had iTunes Match... And I used shared AppleID among family devices. Now I'm only the one using the shared AppleID, but the other Family Users under my account use their own iCloud account for Apple Music.

So, I'd suggest you use your shared AppleID only on your own iOS devices... Since I assumed you are the Organizer on the Family Plan.

Thanks... So I have no idea what I just did, but I just got my playlists to appear on my iPhone! So I now know that it is possible - you can have an iOS device share the playlist with a Mac on the same individual Apple ID (not the "organizer" one). I completely turned off my phone, disconnected and reconnected from iTunes account, and said "Merge" when it asked whether I wanted to replace or merge my content. I know that it is not just using the old version of the playlists that were on the phone prior to joining Apple Music because I created a "Test from Mac" playlist from my Mac and it now shows up on the iPhone. So I'm happy... --Erik

 

[erikbailey]

Thanks... So I have no idea what I just did, but I just got my playlists to appear on my iPhone! So I now know that it is possible - you can have an iOS device share the playlist with a Mac on the same individual Apple ID (not the "organizer" one). I completely turned off my phone, disconnected and reconnected from iTunes account, and said "Merge" when it asked whether I wanted to replace or merge my content. I know that it is not just using the old version of the playlists that were on the phone prior to joining Apple Music because I created a "Test from Mac" playlist from my Mac and it now shows up on the iPhone. So I'm happy... --Erik

An interesting tidbit that I realized only in retrospect - I had my phone connected to my Mac (which has iTunes open), but only for charging purposes. I didn't explicitly tell it to sync, but maybe that was a part of what got the playlists to get onto the phone. Whatever...

 

[pedz]

Would I have to go through all this for the following:

My account (me@address.com) is used on my phone for both iTunes/Apps and iCloud
On my wife's phone she uses me@address.com for iTunes/Apps and wife@address.com for iCloud
Both kids iPods use me@address.com for iTunes/Apps and kid1 and kid2@address.com for iCloud

What would happen if I just started Family Sharing and added their addresses from iCloud? I'd have to logout and re-login for the App Store on all their devices correct? And would they lose everything? Seems as if if you situation you had a separate address for all purchases......so every device had 2 accounts setup. For me, all my devices only have the 1 address.....everyone else's have 2.

-Kevin

Did you ever get an answer to this? I am in the same position, my apple id is my iCloud account and the shared iTunes purchase account. Hoping I can just follow the later steps and skip the first steps, curious if you or anyone else have done it successfully.

Also, we share iTunes Match and I am hoping I can have each family member download the music they want from match, then turn off match so everyone can have their own starting library for apple music, has anyone done that?

Thanks for all the helpful posts.
Peter