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How to set up iOS Family Sharing
In This Article
Apple Family Sharing is the easiest way to share subscriptions with your family and introduce parental controls for your kids without merging your accounts. Here’s how to set it up.
When you create a Family Sharing group, you’re able to share your App Store subscriptions, Apple TV, Apple Books and iTunes purchases, your location and even your Apple Card (if you’re in the US) with up to five other family members.
This means there’s no need to waste your cash on multiple iCloud Plus, Apple TV Plus, Apple Music, Apple Fitness Plus, Apple News Plus or Apple Arcade subscriptions, along with plenty of other App Store purchases.
Not only that, but you can set up parental controls to manage your children’s purchases, limit their Screen Time and choose the contacts they’re allowed to communicate with on their devices, making it safer for them to use their phones or tablets.
This guide will cover how to set up Family Sharing on an iPhone, but you can also use this feature on an iPad, iPod Touch, Mac, PC and Apple TV.
What you’ll need:
The Short Version
How to set up iOS Family Sharing
Step1
Open the Settings app on your iPhone
Whoever sets up the Family Sharing account will be the family organiser.
Step2
Tap on your name
This will take you to your account settings.
Step3
Select Family Sharing
It might say Learn More next to it if you haven’t used Family Sharing before.
Step4
Tap Set Up Your Family
Or tap Learn More to find out more about Apple Family Sharing.
Step5
Tap Invite People
You can also choose to create an account for a child at this stage if they don’t already have one.
Step6
Invite your family to join the group
You can use iMessage, AirDrop or invite them in person. Then, simply follow the steps onscreen.
Troubleshooting
To open a Family Sharing group, you’ll need to be running one of the following operating systems on an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac, PC or Apple TV:iOS 8 or aboveOS X Yosemite and iTunes 12 or aboveiCloud for Windows 4.1 and iTunes 12 or abovetvOS 7.0 or above
No, each family member will still have their own account so their own activity can remain private, including photos, files and documents. Each person will also see their own preferences and recommendations in the apps they’re subscribed to and sharing.
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Hannah joined Trusted Reviews as a staff writer in 2019 after graduating with a degree in English from Royal Holloway, University of London. She’s also worked and studied in the US, holding positions …
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Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.
Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
