How to Fix Apple Music Family Sharing Not Working

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Grace
November 1, 2024

Apple Family Sharing allows up to six family members to share Apple services such as Apple Music and Apple TV+. With Family Sharing and an Apple Music Family subscription, your entire family can access millions of songs with no additional cost, and each of them enjoys all the benefits of the Apple Music Individual plan.

However, a feature is only great when it operates properly. If you encounter problems with Apple Music family sharing such as it doesn’t work for some family members, the following guide will assist you in resolving the issue and getting your family-sharing experience back on the right path.

Contents

apple family sharing

Part 1. Basic Requirements of Apple Music Family Sharing

To successfully share Apple Music with your family members, make sure to meet the basic requirements of the Family Sharing feature.

1. Apple ID/Apple Account

Each family member needs to have their own Apple ID/Apple Account. For those who don’t have one yet, they can easily create it for free at account.apple.com.

Note: Apple ID is now called Apple Account. This change applies to iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia, and watchOS 11. Users can continue to log in with their existing Apple ID credentials.

2. Device Compatibility

To access your family’s shared content, make sure your devices meet these requirements:

  • For iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch: iOS 8 or later
  • For Mac: macOS X Yosemite (10.10.5) or later
  • For Android devices: Google Play is installed to download the Apple Music app.
  • For Windows computers: Windows 7 or later

3. Geographic Eligibility

  • All members of a Family Sharing group must have their Apple IDs set to the same country. You cannot join a Family Sharing group if your Apple ID is set to another country.
  • Certain features of Family Sharing may not be available in some countries or regions.

Part 2. Solutions to Apple Music Family Sharing Not Working

Family Sharing not working for Apple Music is a common issue among users. Here are several effective solutions to fix this problem and restore proper functioning.

1. Check your Apple Music subscription status

If your Apple Music family sharing doesn’t work, check your Apple Music Family Plan first and make sure the subscription is active. Update to the Apple Music Family plan if you are currently on an individual plan.

The Apple Music Family Plan allows up to six people to have unlimited access to Apple Music on their devices. Each family member has their own library and personalized music recommendations based on their listening preferences. That is to say, you can have altogether six members in your family to enjoy all the benefits of the Individual Plan (10.99/month) for just $16.99/month.

2. Confirm your Apple ID

If you have several Apple IDs, make sure that you’re using the same Apple ID for both your Apple Music subscription and Family Sharing. To check the Apple ID on your device, go to Settings and tap your name to view your account details.

apple id

3. Enable Share with Family

After you’ve subscribed to the Apple Music Family plan and set up the Family Sharing, everyone in your family group should automatically have access to Apple Music. However, if “Share with Family” is accidentally disabled, Apple Music Family Sharing will stop working. You can manually turn on the “Share with Family” feature with these steps:

  1. Go to Settings and tap your name to enter your Apple ID page.
  2. Tap Subscriptions.
  3. Scroll down and enable Share with Family.

4. Sign out and back in your Apple ID

Sometimes, software glitches may disrupt Apple Music Family Sharing functionality. Users have reported situations where their family members have accepted the invitation, however, Apple Music still asks them to sign up for a subscription, even though their settings indicate they already have a shared Apple Music plan.

In such cases, a simple but effective solution is to sign out of your Apple ID and then log back in. This process can reset your connection to the subscription and recognize the family member’s acceptance of your Apple Music Family Sharing. It also helps resolve other glitches and restore the proper functioning of Apple Music family sharing.

Here is how you can log out of Apple Music and sign back in.

  1. Go to Settings and tap your name.
  2. Select Media & Purchase.
  3. Tap Sign Out and confirm logging out.
  4. Apple will immediately ask you to Sign In. Sign back in with your Apple family sharing account.
sign out and back in

5. Remove and add your family members again

If you’ve already tried the previous methods and Apple Music Family Sharing is still not working, you can try removing your current members from the family sharing setup and then add them back by sending new invites.

To Remove a family member from your Family Sharing:

  1. Go to Settings and select Family.
  2. Select one family member.
  3. Tap Remove from Family.
remove from family

To add a family member to your Family Sharing:

  1. Go to Settings and tab Family.
  2. Tap the Invite Family icon in the upper right corner.
  3. Select Invite Others and send out invitations to your family members.

6. Wait until the Apple Music free trial ends

If a member in your family group is currently on a free trial of Apple Music, the member may not be able to access the Apple Music family sharing until the trial period ends. In such cases, wait for the free trial to expire and try sharing your Apple Music family plan with the member again.

Extra tip: How to download Apple Music to MP3

Apple Music allows users to download tracks, albums, and playlists for offline playback. However, downloaded Apple Music content will only be available for offline listening within the Apple Music app while your subscription is active. If you want to save Apple Music songs forever on your devices, you can go with the best Apple Music downloader – Pazu Apple Music Converter.

Pazu Apple Music Converter is a safe and effective downloader that can help you download any Apple Music playlists, albums, and songs, to MP3, AAC, FLAC, and other popular formats on Mac/Windows without any loss in quality.

Not only does Pazu Apple Music Converter download your favorite playlists and songs, but it also preserves the original audio quality, ID3 tags, and metadata, so you won’t lose any important information. Plus, one of the distinguishing features of Pazu Apple Music Converter is the really fast download and convert speed – almost 10 times faster than any other similar software.

Pazu Apple Music Converter is integrated with the Apple Music web player, so you can batch convert any Apple Music playlist or album to the format you choose without iTunes or the Music app.

Key Features of Pazu Apple Music Converter

  • User-friendly interface
  • 10x Fast Music download speed
  • Advanced DRM removal
  • Lossless audio quality
  • Keep original ID3 tags & metadata
  • Download Apple Music songs, albums and playlists
  • Unlimited downloads
  • Adjustable output options

The following tutorial will show you how to download Apple Music to MP3 and get Apple Music for free. 

Step 1 Launch Pazu Apple Music Converter

Download, install and run Pazu Apple Music Converter on your Mac or Windows.

Apple Music Converter

Step 2 Choose the output format

The default format is M4A in 256kbps. Apple Music Converter also supports MP3, AAC, FLAC, WAV, and AIFF. Click the gear icon if you want to change the output format or output folder.

Apple Music Converter settings

Step 3 Choose a playlist, artist, or album you want to download

Follow the on-screen instructions to choose a playlist, artist, or album that you want to download.

add Apple Music songs

Step 4 Start to download Apple Music songs

Click the “Convert” button to start downloading Apple Music songs, albums, and playlists to MP3, so you can play them anywhere you want, even after canceling your Apple Music subscription.

convert Apple Music to MP3

Conclusion

Apple Family Sharing is a convenient way to share subscriptions like Apple Music and other content with up to six family members. If you encounter issues with sharing Apple Music through Family Sharing, the solutions in this guide should help. Besides, we also provide an extra tip to download Apple Music as MP3 files with Pazu Apple Music Converter. Enjoy your favorite music with your family and the ultimate offline listening experience.

Download, install and run Pazu Apple Music Converter on your Mac or Windows.

Apple Music Converter

Apple Music Converter

Download Apple Music to MP3, M4A, etc.