I set up family sharing, my family members are able to locate the apps in their iphones and download them, but if they are not FREE apps, and I already paid for them, they are being asked to subscribe and pay again?
Any help is much appreciated. Thanks
If Family Sharing is enabled, they should be able to re-download paid apps at no additional cost by tapping App Store > Purchased.
If they are on separate Apple ID's linked through Family Sharing they need to choose your account from the top right corner of the Purchased section in App Store. Then they should be able to download the paid app(s) at no additional cost.
Normally any app is accessible to your family after setting up Family Sharing, inviting your members to your Family Group, and successfully accepting the invitation. A family group has the limit of six members. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201088 ; also from my experience all the elements of the family group have to be in the same country store.
The app has then to be selected using your Account in the Purchased section by your family members (as aidan posted).
However, there are hidden caveats. Not all apps can be shared.
As it can be seen perusing this document, https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203046 an app can be marked as non-shareable and furthermore, an app bought by an Apple ID account for Students is not shareable to the family group.
In-App purchases are also not available for Family Sharing. From http://9to5mac.com/2014/09/19/ios-8-how-to-set-up-and-use-family-sharing/:
In-App purchases are not supported by Family Sharing. So if your children are playing games with the pseudo-currency, or if they are playing games that require in-app purchases to get to the full version these you would be paying for twice. Most apps are now compatible for Family Sharing. However, developers do have the option to opt out of enabling their apps to be used with Family Sharing. When you are viewing the description of the app in the App Store, there is now a label that will say Family Sharing. If it says yes, that means the app is compatible with Family Sharing and can be redownloaded by other family members, before the existence of Family Sharing.
I had the same issue, none of the apps that cost anything came up with family sharing, but if you manually search for the app in the search bar, then go through all the steps you would if you were to buy it again (obviously ensuring that your accounts are linked properly first) then after you’ve confirmed your payment it will prompt you about a family member having already purchased it and ask if you want to download it for free. Just click “OK” and the app will download without charging you.
I really struggled with this so I thought I would share my experience.
I added my girlfriend to my Apple familly. However, that was not enough to download the app.
I had to do the following first:
After that, it finally worked by:
As a nice perk, I got granted access to her app. I guess that's how things work :)
