Family Sharing

Family Sharing makes it easy for up to six family members to share iTunes, Apple Books, and App Store purchases, an Apple Music Family Subscription, an Apple News+ subscription, and an iCloud storage plan. Your family can also share a photo album, calendar, and reminders, and even help locate each others’ missing devices.

One adult in your household—the family organizer—chooses a feature for your family to share and invites family members to join. After the family members join, Family Sharing is set up on everyone’s devices automatically. Then if you want to add more services to share with your family, the organizer can update your Family Sharing settings at any time.

You can use Family Sharing on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 8 or later, your Mac with OS X Yosemite or later and iTunes 12, or your PC with iCloud for Windows. 

• On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, tap Settings > [your name]. Then tap Set Up Family Sharing > Get Started, then follow the onscreen steps. If you have iOS 10.2 or earlier, tap Settings > iCloud > Set Up Family Sharing, then follow the onscreen steps.
• On your Mac, go to Apple menu > System Preferences > iCloud, click Set Up Family, then follow the onscreen steps.

You can also set up Family Sharing when you sign up for an Apple Music Family Subscription, or when you buy an iCloud storage plan to share with your family.

When you set up purchase sharing, the songs, albums, movies, TV shows, books, and apps purchased by family members are immediately available to everyone else in the group. And, of course, so are new purchases. The content appears automatically in the Purchased tab in iTunes, Apple Books, or the App Store for each family member. Just select the family member whose collection you’d like to browse, then download or play the content you choose. Other family members can access your collection in the same way. If you want to keep some purchases private, you can choose to hide individual items or choose not to share your purchases in your Family Sharing settings.

In-app purchases can't be shared with your family members. Learn more about the types of content you can share.

With purchase sharing, all new iTunes, Apple Books, and App Store purchases made by your family are billed to the organizer’s account. But the organizer can still call the shots. Just turn on Ask to Buy for children in the family. When a child initiates a purchase, an alert is sent to the organizer, who can review the download and approve or decline it right from the organizer’s device. This applies to both purchases and free downloads.

Now you can share an iCloud storage plan with your entire family. Choose a 200GB or 2TB plan to give everyone enough space to store photos, videos, documents, and more. It’s easy to see how much everyone is using, and you can upgrade to a larger plan at any time. Learn about iCloud storage plans and pricing.

When you share a storage plan, other family members won’t have access to your content unless you choose to share it. And if an adult family member needs more space or wants to use their own iCloud storage, they can choose their own storage plan and still remain part of the family.

With Family Sharing, you can start sharing your location with the rest of the family automatically. If you’re running late to a restaurant or need to know if your kid made it to band practice, just use Find My Friends or the Messages app to keep tabs on each other.

If you need privacy, you can temporarily stop sharing your location by turning off Share My Location in iCloud settings.

Finding your family’s lost devices is easier when everyone can help. With Family Sharing and Find My iPhone, any family member can help locate another member’s missing device. Their devices appear in a single list in the Find My iPhone app and on iCloud.com. So it’s easier than ever to track down a misplaced or stolen iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

With Family Sharing, you can share music, movies, apps, and more with family — and it now works with Screen Time. You can view reports and adjust settings for children in your family any time, right from your device.

If you're already in a family group, go to Settings > Screen Time, and tap your child's name. If you need to create an Apple ID for your child, go to Settings > [your name] > Family Sharing > Screen Time.

Or if you're new to Family Sharing, tap Set up Screen Time for Family and follow the instructions to add a child and set up your family. You can add family members any time from Family Sharing settings.

To use Screen Time with Family Sharing, you need to be the family organizer or parent/guardian in your family group, on iOS 12. Your child must be under age 18, in your family group with their own Apple ID, and on iOS 12.

Kids under 13 can have their own Apple IDs. As a parent or legal guardian, the organizer creates the child’s Apple ID and adds the child to the family group. Ask to Buy is turned on by default, and the organizer can also limit the content kids have access to on their devices through Content & Privacy Restrictions on an iOS device or parental controls in macOS and iTunes.

Family Sharing requires a personal Apple ID signed in to iCloud. If your family has purchase sharing turned on, music, movies, TV shows, and books can be downloaded on up to 10 devices per account, five of which can be computers.

iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite or later are required to set up or join a Family Sharing group and are recommended for full functionality. Not all content is eligible to be shared. Content can be hidden by family members; hidden content is not available for download. Content downloaded from family members or acquired via redemption codes is not subject to Ask to Buy.