Best Way for Family Setup

[robjulo]

For years we've had one iTunes account for the family. We also do music match and use Apple Music.

My daughter had gotten older and now there are conflicts as Apple Music can only be used with one device at a time.

In short, I want to be able to use more than one device at a time and it looked like the best way to do this was through family sharing at $14.99.

In practice, this seems to be a real pain. On my iPhone, I had to switch the iTunes account to my own. I then lost about 90% of the music I had because anything purchased previously is now gone. Is there a beter way to do this? Why did I lose most of my music even though we are supposed to be sharing purchases with the family plan?

Thanks for any input.

 

[M. Gustave]

I don't understand what you mean by "On my iPhone, I had to switch the iTunes account to my own."

Everyone in the family should have their own Apple ID. You are the "organizer", with the default credit card, and should be using the same id that you previously purchased the music under.

And there really is no more "iTunes Match", it's all been rolled into Apple Music.

 

[robjulo]

What I meant by having to switch the iTunes account to my own is that the "organizer" of the main account was our family email. We all have our own separate Apple IDs. The family plan doesn't simply allow you to have multiple devices with the same iTunes account listening at the same time. You have to use different accounts. There was no way that I found to simply add my Apple ID to Apple Music without losing all of the "family" music.

I see what you mean about iTunes Match essentially being rolled into Apple Music, might have wasted $24.99. However, I wonder what it would have done if I signed on to iTunes with my account and had I not joined Match. Would it have uploaded all of my prior library so that I would have access to everything in the cloud that I had before (ie things you cannot find on Apple Music).

 

[M. Gustave]

So now you have two appleid organizers with credit cards attached? Your own, and "thesmiths@blahblah.com"? Makes no sense.

All your purchased iTunes and ripped music should be backed up somewhere before you even start Apple Music, so nothing should be "lost". You might just have to reupload it, since you did something confusing.

 

[robjulo]

It is simple. We've had a family Apple ID we have used for iTunes of years. All of the iTunes purchases were made with that Apple ID. I also have my own personal Apple ID. I created a family using the family ID as the main account (with credit card) and added my personal Apple ID as part of the family.

I wanted to use my personal Apple ID for Apple Music (because you cannot listen on two devices at the same time using the same Apple ID). I.E. when my daughter would listen, I would boot her off if I tried to listen. The problem was, by using Apple music with my personal ID and not taking any additional steps, I would lose access to the music library we originally had since each Apple Music account has to have its own library in the iCloud. According to imore's guide "you can't Use your iCloud Music Library with Family Sharing: Each Apple ID (and their iCloud Music Library) is separate".

http://www.imore.com/icloud-music-library-ultimate-guide

Our library included a whole slew up songs that are NOT on iTunes, which were uploaded but not matched and I wanted those in my own iCloud library and on the family iCloud library.

The issue is fixed. I realize now I don't need iTunes Match as Apple Music now incorporates that feature. I was also able to point and used both iTunes accounts to the same library. Didn't know that was even possible. Logged into iTunes with family ID and uploaded/matched the songs. Logged out. Logged back in with personal ID and did the same thing. Now I have access with both IDs to the same library. Problem solved. Wasted $25 on match.

So now you have two appleid organizers with credit cards attached? Your own, and "thesmiths@blahblah.com"? Makes no sense.

All your purchased iTunes and ripped music should be backed up somewhere before you even start Apple Music, so nothing should be "lost". You might just have to reupload it, since you did something confusing.