Family Sharing not what I hoped for

[enigma2118]

I'm sure it works for some, but what I was hoping for in Family Sharing was a bit different. First, I really wish Safari tabs where shared across all iCloud accounts in one Family Sharing plan.

Why? Well, we have a couple of iPads, call them the Family iPads. I would be nice if the tabs open on these iPads could be shared with my Macbook Pro using my iCloud account, as well as my wife's iPhone using her iCloud account, all under the same Family Sharing.

I would love the option for automatically sharing all contacts, calendar entries, reminders and, biggest of all, photos across all iCloud accounts in the same Family Sharing. Sure, there is a Family iPhoto stream, but it requires me to physically add pictures. Again, I'm sure this works in some situations, just wish the choice to auto-share was there. And yes, as I have up til now, Calendar, Reminders and Messages all allow you to enter multiple iCloud accounts. But I was hoping Family Sharing was going to be a way to centralize it all.

Biggest of all, I wish FaceTime allowed you to sign in with an iCloud account that isn't the one you use in System Preferences iCloud. This is because the iCloud account FaceTime uses determines what iPhone pairs with your Mac, allowing you to make phone calls and SMS text messages on you Mac.

Oh well, I'll do a little more juggling til I get the setup that works for me.

 

[balamw]

My plan has been to set the family iPads to the iCloud account that belongs to our family email and make that account a member of the family. That account could also be used to log into the Macs.

My wife and kids' iCloud accounts would also be added to the family.

It's going to take me a while to upgrade to Yosemite on the MBAs though. The 128GB SSDs don't leave much slack.

B

 

[hallux]

I think your expectation of family sharing could be REAL messy. Imagine EVERYONE in the family seeing your Messages conversations, EVERYONE in your family seeing what sites you visit.

When I initially heard about family sharing (admittedly I didn't see A LOT about it), my impression was that it was only being "advertised" as being able to share apps purchased on one account with other accounts in the family share, not share an entire iCloud/iTunes/MAS account.

So, everyone in the family has the same contact list? I imagine your expectation is that you can filter the contacts, calendars, etc. on each device as needed so it only shows the list desired at any particular time, but that still means everyone has access to everyone else's stuff. I don't care how "proper" you are, I'd rather keep some stuff separate and inaccessible to others in the group.

 

[enigma2118]

I think your expectation of family sharing could be REAL messy.

I hear ya Hallux.

Bah, I'm still not sure how to make it all work smoothly. I suppose having control over which iCloud account each app uses works best for me. That way, each device can have an iCloud account for Messages to keep them private (that and each phone obviously needs it's own messages account). But I actually would like every device to be able to view browser history and Safari tabs. I would like every device to share photos automatically.

So I would like the "Family" iCloud account to be the "open and transparent" account. Use that for Safari, Reminders, Calendar, Photos, Contacts. Shared across all devices that are part of that Family.

Then I would like my own private iCloud for Messages and FaceTime (which by extension will then connect to my iPhone for on-the-mac phone calls and SMS text messages)

And for those who want their Safari private, choose your iCloud account for that app, and not the Family account.

Don't mind me, actually typing this all out is helping me figure out what my perfect setup would be

 

[petsounds]

I'm sure it works for some, but what I was hoping for in Family Sharing was a bit different. First, I really wish Safari tabs where shared across all iCloud accounts in one Family Sharing plan.

I think it's a reasonable request to have an option to "Publish to Family Share" for bookmarks and such. But just sharing en masse would create more problems than it solves. Imagine if, for instance, a parent forgot and bookmarked something of an adult nature which showed up on their kids' iPads. Apple would get an earful.