What is Family Sharing?
Family Sharing lets up to six members of your family share their iTunes Store, App Store and Apple Books purchases, a family calendar, family reminders list and family photos, all without sharing accounts. Your family can also share subscriptions to Apple Music, Apple TV , Apple News and more. In addition, eligible App Store subscriptions can be shared with your family.
One adult — the family organiser — sets up Family Sharing, invites up to five people to join the Family Sharing group, and chooses the features your family will share. Family members get immediate access to each other’s music, movies, TV shows, books, eligible apps, subscriptions to Apple TV and Apple News , and more. In addition, family members can easily share photos in a shared family album, add events to a family calendar, share reminders, share their location with other family members, and even help locate another family member’s missing device. Once family members join, Family Sharing is set up on everyone’s devices automatically.
Each family member needs an Apple ID and must be signed in to their Apple ID preferences to access the Family Sharing preferences. For a child too young to create an Apple ID, the family organiser can provide parental consent and create an Apple ID on the child’s behalf while adding the child to the family. Family Sharing is designed to be used by a single family (adults and children). You can be part of only one family sharing group at a time.
To create a family sharing group, you first sign in to Apple ID preferences with your Apple ID. The Family Sharing preferences then appear in System Preferences. You click Family Sharing and, as the family organiser, you set up your family sharing group. See Set up Family Sharing on Mac.
Family Sharing is available on Mac computers (OS X 10.10 or later), on iOS devices (iOS 8 or later), iPadOS devices and Windows computers with iCloud for Windows (Windows 7 or later required). For information about setting up Family Sharing on iOS devices and iPadOS devices, see the Apple Support article Set up Family Sharing.