Universal Setting-up Family Sharing Questions

[ssledoux]

I have some questions about how to go about setting up family sharing to where each person has their own Apple ID they can use, but they can all still benefit from apps purchased. Is that even possible?

Situation:

My dd's kids' devices (iPads) are all under her Apple ID, and, right now, they all have access to all games and shows purchased. However, she keeps iMessage turned off because they will get all her texts on their devices.

She'd like the older one, and possibly the older two, to be able to use iMessage so they would be able to text her if they are at their dad's for the night, and just want to send her a message, or whatever.

I'm just trying to figure out if there is a way to do this without them losing games or other purchased items already on their iPads. My niece says yes, but I am clueless right now because I cannot figure out how to do this. I just don't want to screw up anything on their iPads.

I actually have 2 daughters in this situation with their kids, so it would be awesome if I could figure it out.

Thanks for the help!

 

[barbu]

yes this should be pretty easy. Go to your iCloud settings and set up sharing (settings > <your name>) then tap on Family Sharing. You will be the "organizer" and you can tap "add Family Member" and invite mom (sorry, I am not sure what dd stands for, so forgive me if I use the wrong terms here) as a parent. Then invite the kids by tapping Add Family Member > Create Child Account. Do this for each one, then get them to sign in on their devices with those accounts. All purchases by parents can be shared with each other & the kids at this point. This goes for cloud storage as well, so you can add a decent sized iCloud Drive that everyone can use if you like.
Parental Controls would be another thing but I have no experience with that yet!

 

[ssledoux]

Oh awesome! This doesn't seem as awful as I thought. DD is my daughter. ;-p

One more question - does this have to be set up from the mom's device, or can it be done from any one of the devices? I just wondered if I have to do it from the main one (as in the mom's).

So if these devices already back up to the cloud, I'm assuming this wouldn't mess that up, since that is done by device, right?

This will just be my daughters and their families - I don't have them associated with my account.

 

[barbu]

the device isn’t important but the account is, since you have to “claim” the parent role with mom’s account. This is what I’d do:
- sign kids out of the account on their devices. Make sure to retain all data when prompted.
- enable family sharing on mom’s device. Set her up as a parent. Re-enable her iMessage while you’re there.
- use family sharing to create the kid accounts. Make sure they use strong passwords such as a pass phrase (a sentence or word series that is unique to them).
- sign kids in to new accounts on their devices.

That should do it.

 

[ssledoux]

Sorry I'm just getting back to this - new grandbaby arrival! ;-p

The mom's iMessage has never been disabled on her device - only on the kids' devices because we never had family share setup; they've just all been under her account, and she hasn't wanted them to be getting all the messages coming through on their iPads.