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iFanaddic

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 24, 2008
818
241
Montréal, Canada
for those who have iOS 8 installed

is there any way we can tell if family sharing will be possible with different credit cards? it may be an advantage to some but not to me. Just wondering because I plan to use it but we all have an independent credit card account.
 
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afsnyder

macrumors 65816
Jan 7, 2014
1,270
33
for those who have iOS 8 installed

is there any way we can tell if family sharing will be possible with different credit cards? it may be an advantage to some but not to me. Just wondering because I plan to use it but we all have an independent credit card account.

If you have independent credit cards then you can't use Family Sharing. Just switch them over and then you all can share.
 

iFanaddic

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 24, 2008
818
241
Montréal, Canada
You don’t need Family Share for sharing Find My Phone. Create a separate iCloud ID for that function and let everyone use it for Find My Phone.

The point of Family Share is to allow family members to share iTunes/MAS purchases with different IDs.

And you can do the shared Find My Phone today - no need to wait for iOS 8 to be released.

but according to this article (http://www.iphonehacks.com/2014/07/ios-8-preview-family-sharing.html) family sharing will give me the ability to share pictures, calendars, locations ect..
 

irnchriz

macrumors 65816
May 2, 2005
1,034
2
Scotland
Those are all functions of iCloud today. Just create a new iCloud account (using ANY email address). Add it to all of the iDevices and chose to share photos, calendars, Find My Device and any other of the options that you want to share. Don’t check the items that you wish to keep separate (Mail, Messages, etc).

https://www.apple.com/icloud/

You can actually add multiple iCloud accounts to your devices and have them serve separate functions. People often confuse the iTunes Store/MAS account with iCloud. You CAN use the same ID for everything, but you don’t HAVE to. Breaking it up by function makes it all available today.

And again, the point of Family Share is to allow a "family" (defined as a group of people using the same credit card) to share iTunes/MAS purchases, even with different log-ins. THAT won’t be available until iOS 8 drops (GA).
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Sorry, but your solution is a very poor workaround.

By doing this they would be giving up the following:

Individual documents and data
Individual Safari favourites
Individual iCloud backup OR having to buy more space to fit all of the device backups
Individual keychains
Individual photo streams

Yes, you can successfully use one Apple ID for the App Store and iTunes, we currently do that at home. Or you can all use different accounts with different payment methods.

If you want to share location ID use a third party app or 'Apples 'find Friends' app.
 
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chinanderm

macrumors regular
Jul 20, 2014
235
211
Iowa
For legal reasons, I'm sure Apple cannot allow Family Sharing to spread across multiple credit cards. Allowing multiple Apple IDs with multiple payment methods would just invite people to become a "family" and share, a la the original Napster.

There is no way to verify that a group of Apple IDs are truly family without having some common purchase method. I could have everyone in my condo complex be considered my "family" on iTunes and Apple would not know how to verify that. Having a master credit card tied to multiple Apple IDs is the perfect way to verify that those accounts are a part of a family.

Now, if Apple could somehow verify with credit card companies that a family's group of credit cards are all part of one master account, then multiple cards could work.
 

lint2015

macrumors member
Jul 8, 2013
75
20
You are entitled to your opinion. You do realize that you have have multiple iCloud accounts for various reasons. And while you may see it as "a poor solution", it works for us.

My point was that what the OP was asking for is largely available today - especially since he was not interested in sharing iTunes account/purchases.
While you can do most of what Family Sharing does already (Family Sharing just sets it all up for you automatically) apart from sharing iTunes, App Store and possibly iBooks purchases, that's not the case with Find My iPhone.

Family Sharing will allow you to use any linked family device to see the location of another family member's devices. Currently, you can only see a family member's devices in Find My Friends, and only from the one device they have elected to share, not all their devices.
 

londondude

macrumors regular
Nov 13, 2007
199
0
For legal reasons, I'm sure Apple cannot allow Family Sharing to spread across multiple credit cards. Allowing multiple Apple IDs with multiple payment methods would just invite people to become a "family" and share, a la the original Napster.

There is no way to verify that a group of Apple IDs are truly family without having some common purchase method. I could have everyone in my condo complex be considered my "family" on iTunes and Apple would not know how to verify that. Having a master credit card tied to multiple Apple IDs is the perfect way to verify that those accounts are a part of a family.

Now, if Apple could somehow verify with credit card companies that a family's group of credit cards are all part of one master account, then multiple cards could work.


Amazon prime allows it if you live in the same location.
 

irnchriz

macrumors 65816
May 2, 2005
1,034
2
Scotland
You are entitled to your opinion. You do realize that you have have multiple iCloud accounts for various reasons. And while you may see it as "a poor solution", it works for us.

My point was that what the OP was asking for is largely available today - especially since he was not interested in sharing iTunes account/purchases.

But you can only have ONE iCloud account for keychain, safari favs, find my iPhone.

Other than that you have email accounts and iTunes accounts. To share location data you give up a multitude of features to do it. Seems a stupid and backward way to do device tracking unless you all really want to have the same safari favourites and store each others website passwords and have access to each others documents etc.
 

mactumors

macrumors 6502
Aug 3, 2008
306
29
Can't you put multiple credit cards on an iTunes account? If you trust your friend enough to have your CC number then just let them add it to their account.

I don't actually have iOS 8. Would that work?
 

lint2015

macrumors member
Jul 8, 2013
75
20
Why not just use find my friends for location sharing? I think the family sharing is intended for families living in one household.

Because Find My Friends is for locating people while Find My iPhone is for locating devices?
 

ErikGrim

macrumors 603
Jun 20, 2003
6,467
5,085
Brisbane, Australia
You can use Find my iPhone as long as you trust your family to use your iCloud account. You can log in with any id on any device, regardless of what iCloud ID is already on the device, as long as you have the username and password.
 

maviso5

macrumors regular
Mar 25, 2009
159
2
Kent
Has anyone found the answer to this?

I want to have multiple cards to stop family members purchasing stuff on my card when they have their own card.
 
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LewisChapman

macrumors 6502a
Jan 10, 2015
600
861
Has anyone found the answer to this?

I want to have multiple cards to stop family members purchasing stuff on my card when they have their own card.

I don't think it is possible. Are Apple that naive to think that every family is hunky-dorey with their money? I don't expect anybody else in my family to pay for my purchases, not sure why Apple would.
 

maviso5

macrumors regular
Mar 25, 2009
159
2
Kent
Well that's just the point I don't want to pay for my relations purchases...want them to pay for their own... :/
 

LewisChapman

macrumors 6502a
Jan 10, 2015
600
861
Well that's just the point I don't want to pay for my relations purchases...want them to pay for their own... :/

The family sharing feature is a good idea, but in actual use it just isn't realistic. I want to set it up in time for Apple Music but looks like we are all going to have our own subscriptions instead - great for Apple.
 

maviso5

macrumors regular
Mar 25, 2009
159
2
Kent
It is realistic if you're other users are kids that have devices however we're all old enough and ugly enough to have our own accounts but it would be nice to share purchases without hammering 1 central credit card :(
 

LewisChapman

macrumors 6502a
Jan 10, 2015
600
861
It is realistic if you're other users are kids that have devices however we're all old enough and ugly enough to have our own accounts but it would be nice to share purchases without hammering 1 central credit card :(

Are those kids not going to get cards for themselves eventually? Once they do the functionality is broken.
 

LewisChapman

macrumors 6502a
Jan 10, 2015
600
861
Of course they will one day but it allows them to safely buy Music/Apps etc. in the short term


When I was at the age to be able to afford an iDevice I was competent enough to not spend wild amounts of money on apps/IAP.

I can definetly see your point however it does not change my opinion that the functionality is limited and not realistic for a lot of families.
 

gsmornot

macrumors 68040
Sep 29, 2014
3,588
3,698
Are those kids not going to get cards for themselves eventually? Once they do the functionality is broken.

Once they do you no longer need family sharing. They would then be at a point to not need the family option, they can care for themselves. What you wanted to say is how can we pay one lower fee for music and still all act like adults. I get that and only moved to family sharing myself because I have to for the feature to work. Prior we did share my iTunes account with the idea that one day we would move on.
 

LewisChapman

macrumors 6502a
Jan 10, 2015
600
861
Once they do you no longer need family sharing. They would then be at a point to not need the family option, they can care for themselves. What you wanted to say is how can we pay one lower fee for music and still all act like adults. I get that and only moved to family sharing myself because I have to for the feature to work. Prior we did share my iTunes account with the idea that one day we would move on.

I don't quite understand what you are suggesting here. Not only would I want to use family sharing for the 'lowered' cost of Apple Music, the family would also like to share previously purchased applications. Why pay again for the same app when the family already owns it.

I assume the reason why we cannot use multiple cards is because of the family verification issue that chinanderm mentioned earlier:

For legal reasons, I'm sure Apple cannot allow Family Sharing to spread across multiple credit cards. Allowing multiple Apple IDs with multiple payment methods would just invite people to become a "family" and share, a la the original Napster.

There is no way to verify that a group of Apple IDs are truly family without having some common purchase method. I could have everyone in my condo complex be considered my "family" on iTunes and Apple would not know how to verify that. Having a master credit card tied to multiple Apple IDs is the perfect way to verify that those accounts are a part of a family.

Now, if Apple could somehow verify with credit card companies that a family's group of credit cards are all part of one master account, then multiple cards could work.

The point I am trying to make is that because of this, the feature is limited in it's user base because not all families share the same payment card. Me and evidently other users find this frustrating.
 

gsmornot

macrumors 68040
Sep 29, 2014
3,588
3,698
I don't quite understand what you are suggesting here. Not only would I want to use family sharing for the 'lowered' cost of Apple Music, the family would also like to share previously purchased applications. Why pay again for the same app when the family already owns it.

I assume the reason why we cannot use multiple cards is because of the family verification issue that chinanderm mentioned earlier:

I'm suggesting you want to find a way to share with a family of up to 6 people and only pay once. Apps or music or whatever. The trouble you have though is the family is older and should be paying for each purchase on their own. I assume they are older based on each person having their own payment method. I'm not judging you, I'm simply saying in another way you're not happy with the current Family Sharing system because its keeping you from discounted music and forcing one person to pay for all purchases when really each person should be paying for themselves. My kids are younger and part of the plan but in a few years they are on their own to manage and purchase content. Most of it I will be keeping because until recently our mode of operation was to just share my iTunes login. I will keep them on the plan as long as I can but at some point they will not be interested in all the other related sharing that is part of Family Share and want to just move on and pay the bill. Until then, my family of 4 will use the service. I thought about adding other family but then I run into the problem you have, they really should not be in the group looking at all other related activity on the account just to save a few bucks. Again, not judging, just offering my point of view.
 

LewisChapman

macrumors 6502a
Jan 10, 2015
600
861
I'm suggesting you want to find a way to share with a family of up to 6 people and only pay once. Apps or music or whatever. The trouble you have though is the family is older and should be paying for each purchase on their own. I assume they are older based on each person having their own payment method. I'm not judging you, I'm simply saying in another way you're not happy with the current Family Sharing system because its keeping you from discounted music and forcing one person to pay for all purchases when really each person should be paying for themselves. My kids are younger and part of the plan but in a few years they are on their own to manage and purchase content. Most of it I will be keeping because until recently our mode of operation was to just share my iTunes login. I will keep them on the plan as long as I can but at some point they will not be interested in all the other related sharing that is part of Family Share and want to just move on and pay the bill. Until then, my family of 4 will use the service. I thought about adding other family but then I run into the problem you have, they really should not be in the group looking at all other related activity on the account just to save a few bucks. Again, not judging, just offering my point of view.

I can see where you are coming from and I do agree with your setup as it makes sense for you.

I just love to use all of the features Apple offer and I'm disappointed that I can't use this one and when Apple Music comes out we will all be paying more for no real reason apart from the fact that our family is older.
 
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