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How to share your itunes library with your iphone or ipad

If you open iTunes and expect to access your local music library collection, you might be perplexed when you find that a music library is not immediately visible. Instead, launching modern versions of iTunes goes directly to the iTunes Store. Some iTunes users then attempt to access their iTunes music library by selecting the ‘Music’ dropdown menu but still are unable to find their local music library. Not to worry, if you can’t find your local music collection in iTunes, we’ll show you how to quickly access the local music library in iTunes on the Mac or Windows PC.

Note this tip is for accessing and seeing the full iTunes library within iTunes itself. This is not aiming to access iTunes music files which is discussed here if that’s what your objective is.

How to Access iTunes Music Library in iTunes on a Computer

  1. Open iTunes app
  2. Look near the top of the iTunes window and click on the ‘Library’ button (sometimes this is labeled as “My Music”)

How to share your itunes library with your iphone or ipad

This may sound obvious to some Mac and Windows PC users, but after visiting with someone recently I learned they were convinced their iTunes Music Library had been deleted or vanished. In fact the iTunes Music Library was still there, but because iTunes opened directly to the Store and they kept using the pulldown menu to try and access Music, they stayed stuck in the iTunes Store and never found their actual music library within iTunes. Basically they were unable to find their iTunes Music because they were looking in the wrong part of the app, so don’t go for that menu item to find a library – the dropdown menu chooses the type of content seen (Music, Movies, etc) rather than the library itself:

How to share your itunes library with your iphone or ipad

This might be a helpful tip for users who rely on iTunes to manage a local music library collection.

A similar difficulty for some iTunes users is when selecting an iPhone or iPad in iTunes, which can be counterintuitive or confusing for some people. Fortunately that is also quite simple. Sometimes simply learning how to do things reveals just how easy it is, even if the task is not initially obvious.

Older versions of iTunes defaulted to launching directly to a users local music library, but that behavior changed with modern iTunes releases which now default to opening directly to the iTunes Store instead.

Learn how to sync music, movies, and more using iTunes on your Mac or PC.

If you’re using macOS Mojave or earlier or a Windows PC, use iTunes to sync content to your devices. Before you use iTunes to sync content to your iOS or iPadOS device, consider using iCloud, Apple Music, or similar services to keep content from your Mac or PC in the cloud. This way, you can access your music, photos, and more on your devices when you aren’t near your computer. Learn more about using Apple Music or iCloud Photos instead of iTunes.

If you use iCloud or other services like Apple Music to keep your content up-to-date across all of your devices, some syncing features through iTunes might be turned off.

What you can sync with iTunes

  • Albums, songs, playlists, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and audiobooks.
  • Photos and videos.
  • Contacts and calendars.

iTunes features might vary by country or region.

Sync or remove content using iTunes

  1. Open iTunes and connect your device to your computer with a USB cable.
  2. Click the device icon in the upper-left corner of the iTunes window. Learn what to do if you don’t see the icon.
  3. From the list under Settings on the left side of the iTunes window, click the type of content that you want to sync or remove. * To turn syncing on for a content type, select the checkbox next to Sync.
    How to share your itunes library with your iphone or ipad
  4. Select the checkbox next to each item that you want to sync.
  5. Click the Apply button in the lower-right corner of the window. If syncing doesn’t start automatically, click the Sync button.

* You can only sync your device with one iTunes library at a time. If you see a message that your device is synced with another iTunes library, your device was previously connected to another computer. If you click "Erase and Sync" in that message, all content of the selected type on your device will be erased and replaced with content from this computer.

Sync your content using Wi-Fi

After you set up syncing with iTunes using USB, you can set up iTunes to sync to your device with Wi-Fi instead of USB.

  1. Connect your device to your computer with a USB cable, then open iTunes and select your device. Learn what to do if your device doesn’t appear on your computer.
  2. Click Summary on the left side of the iTunes window.
  3. Select "Sync with this [device] over Wi-Fi."
  4. Click Apply.

When the computer and the device are on the same Wi-Fi network, the device appears in iTunes. The device syncs automatically whenever it’s plugged in to power and iTunes is open on the computer.

Read this post to know 3 methods to access your iTunes library from iPhone/iPad/iPod so that you can enjoy your music everywhere.

Joy Taylor Last Updated: Jul. 10, 2020

iTunes Tips & Issues

iTunes Basic Learning
iTunes Music Tips
iTunes Libary Tips
iTunes Connection Issues
Other iTunes Data Issues

Computers, no matter Macbook or Windows PC, could be some nice device to store lots of good media files that you downloaded from iTunes. However, this big stuff, especially the desktop one, is not easy to be moved and get songs played everywhere. So some music lovers try to access computer iTunes library from iPhone, iPad, iPod so that they can enjoy songs/videos more conveniently.

In this post, we offer you 3 methods to easily access iTunes library from iPhone/iPad/iPod, no matter new released iPhone 11 or old iPhone 11/Xs/Xr/X/8/7/6s. Now, let’s check how these methods work.

Method 1. Access iTunes Library from iPhone iPad iPod with Home Sharing

Home Sharing is one good feature of iTunes. It is free and you can use it to share iTunes library to another computer, or stream songs to iPhone, iPad or iPod touch on the same network. However, notice that before you try this method, you have to use the same Apple ID on your iOS device, and it doesn’t support some models of iPod, such as classic, Nano, and Shuffle.

How to share your itunes library with your iphone or ipad

Access iTunes Library by Using Home Sharing

Method 2. Access iTunes Library with iCloud Help – iTunes Match

If you want to access the iTunes library remotely out of the home network, obviously the Home Sharing is not suitable. In this situation, you can use iTunes Match. After paying $24.99/year for this iCloud service.

Method 3. Transfer iTunes Library to iPhone/iPad without Erasing – AnyTrans

Although iTunes Match and Home Sharing make some difference in sharing iTunes library, they require a network connection. If you want the music streaming to be stable, you can choose to directly transfer songs/playlists from iTunes to iPhone/iPad by using AnyTrans. In this way, you can never be worried about music-play freezing because of a bad network connection.

How to share your itunes library with your iphone or ipad

Access iTunes Library by Using AnyTrans

In addition, AnyTrans allows you easily transfer specific items to Apple mobile devices, which is useful if you don’t want to sync the whole iTunes library. Different from Home Sharing, it supports almost all models of iPod/iPad/iPhone, such as iPod classic. And it provides you free trial download.

The Bottom Line

You may get some good ideas about accessing the iTunes library from iPhone or other iOS devices. If you do have, please share it on the comment box below to help others.

Joy Taylor

Member of iMobie team as well as an Apple fan, love to help more users solve various types of iOS & Android related issues.

How to share your itunes library with your iphone or ipad How to share your iTunes library with your iPhone or iPad

Generally, we tend to keep our favorite songs and videos stored on the hard drive of our computers, rather than browsing for them online each time we wish to listen to a song or watch a movie. However, more and more people are starting to use mobile devices like iPhones or iPads to enjoy their favorite songs and movies. Thus, sharing the iTunes library of your Mac with iOS mobile devices might be a good idea to get instant access to your media library. If you wish to learn how to do it fast, read the guide below.

Moreover, as iTunes can be installed on Windows computers as well, you can also share the music and videos from your PC with other devices, like Apple TV, without ever transferring your files.

Use iTunes’ “Home Sharing” feature

In case you didn’t know, iTunes comes with a handy feature called “Home Sharing” that allows you to easily share and stream your video and music libraries to your Apple devices or other computers. In order to access the feature, first launch iTunes. Next, go to the “File” menu, scroll down to the “Home Sharing” option and click on the “Turn on Home Sharing” item.

How to share your itunes library with your iphone or ipad Turn On Home Sharing

After that you will be asked to type in your Apple ID. Simply provide your login credentials and wait for the logging process to end. And that’s about all you need to do on your Mac in order to share your music or video libraries.

How to share your itunes library with your iphone or ipad Provide your Apple ID

Now that you have shared your media libraries from your Mac, it is time to make it work on your iPhone or iPad. Before accessing the libraries on your mobile device, make sure your smartphone or tablet is connected to the same wireless network as you Mac, and check if you have logged into your Apple account using the same ID as the one used on your computer. Just in case you don’t know how to do that on iPhone or iPad, go to the “Settings” app and tap on the “iTunes and App Store” menu item. There, you will see your ID. If it is not the same as the one used on your Mac, then simply tap the “Apple ID” link and change it accordingly.

How to share your itunes library with your iphone or ipad Check Apple ID

Once you have checked the Apple ID, you might want to find out how to access the shared media libraries from your Apple device. Well, the process is quite simple, and all you need to do is open the Music or Video app on your iPhone or iPad and tap the “Shared” option to access the shared libraries. If you don’t find the option straight away, then look for a “More” button (usually, represented by three (3) dots sign that can be found in the app’s bottom menu bar) and tap it to bring out extra items.

How to share your itunes library with your iphone or ipad More button

How to share your itunes library with your iphone or ipad Shared option

After your have tapped on the “Shared” icon, you should be able to see all the media libraries you have shared on your Mac and, in order access them, simply tap on the corresponding library and wait for the pairing process to end (the synchronization time may vary, depending on the size of the shared library). Now you will be able to play all the shared music and video files on your Apple device, without transferring them to your device, which will save you a great deal of storage space.

How to share your itunes library with your iphone or ipad

It is also worth mentioning that you can use your Apple ID on five computers. This means that you can easily share all the music and video libraries from all the computers in your house with your Apple devices without any problems. All you have to do is repeat the steps you have previously seen for each of your systems.

Another fact that you might want to keep track of is that, when closing the Music or the Videos app on your iPhone or iPad, the “Home Sharing” connection will be disabled. So, if you want to continue listening to your shared music or watch your shared videos, then you will have to re-establish the connection by following the above mentioned steps. This can take some time, depending on the size of your shared libraries. Thus, if you deal with libraries that contain lots of big media files, you might want to leave your Music or Videos app opened and just pause the movie or song, if you plan to resume it in a short time.

Conclusion

As you have seen, sharing music and videos from your Mac or Windows PC to your iPhone or iPad is quite a simple process. Even though you have to keep your Apple device connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your computer and log in using the same Apple ID, it is a great way to enjoy media on your smartphone or tablet without having to actually copy or move the files onto your device.

If you have any questions, suggestions or if you know of a better way to share your media library with your Apple devices, then feel free to let us know in the comment section below.

With Home Sharing, you can share, stream, and import media from up to five computers that are connected to your home Wi-Fi network.

Before you set up Home Sharing

  • Update all of your Apple devices to the latest versions of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and tvOS. On your PC, make sure that you have the latest version of iTunes for Windows.
  • Connect all of your devices to the same Wi-Fi or Ethernet network.
  • Make sure that all of your devices are signed in with the same Apple ID and authorized to play purchases using that Apple ID.

Apps and features might vary by country or region. Learn more about what’s available in your country or region.

Set up Home Sharing

Before you can use Home Sharing, you need to set it up on your Mac or PC.

Set up Home Sharing on your Mac

  1. Choose Apple menu  > System Preferences.
  2. Click Sharing.
  3. Click Media Sharing.
  4. Select Home Sharing and sign in with your Apple ID. Use the same Apple ID for every computer or device on your Home Sharing network.
  5. Click Turn On Home Sharing.

How to share your itunes library with your iphone or ipad

Set up Home Sharing on your PC

  1. Open iTunes for Windows.
  2. If you’re not signed in, sign in with your Apple ID. Use the same Apple ID for every computer or device on your Home Sharing network.
  3. From the menu bar at the top of the iTunes window, choose File > Home Sharing > Turn on Home Sharing.

How to share your itunes library with your iphone or ipad

You can use Home Sharing with up to five computers that are connected to your home Wi-Fi or Ethernet network.

Use Home Sharing

On your Mac or PC, you can use Home Sharing to see shared libraries from other computers that are connected to the same Wi-Fi network and signed in with the same Apple ID.

To see a shared library from a computer on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Apple TV, you need to be signed in with the same Apple ID as the computer and connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

You can use Home Sharing to access your media library across computers that are on the same Wi-Fi network. And you can stream music, movies, and TV shows from one authorized computer to another. Just make sure that your computers are powered on, awake, and have the Music app or iTunes for Windows open.

Use Home Sharing on your Mac

To access your media library:

  1. Open the Music app.
  2. If you’re not signed in, sign in with your Apple ID. Use the same Apple ID for every computer or device on your Home Sharing network.
  3. In the sidebar, click Library.
    How to share your itunes library with your iphone or ipad
  4. Click the media library.

To go back to your music library, click Eject in the sidebar.

Use Home Sharing on your PC

You can use Home Sharing to stream music, movies, and TV shows from one authorized computer to another. Just make sure that your computers are powered on, awake, and have the Music app or iTunes for Windows open.

To see all of your shared libraries, click Music in the upper-left corner of the iTunes window.

How to share your itunes library with your iphone or ipad

Use Home Sharing on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

To use Home Sharing to access your computer’s media library on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, sign in to Home Sharing on your device:

  1. To see a music library, go to Settings > Music. To see a video library, go to Settings > TV > iTunes Videos.
  2. Under Home Sharing, tap Sign In. . Use the same Apple ID for every computer or device on your Home Sharing network.

After you sign in, connect your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to the same Wi-Fi network as your computer, and open the Music app, Apple TV app, or iTunes for Windows on your computer.

You have one iTunes library at home but you want to share it among different devices. Here's how.

How to share your itunes library with your iphone or ipad

Your iTunes library may be stored on a PC or Mac at home, or it may be housed on a network drive. Either way, you want to be able to access it from other devices, like an iPhone or iPad.

Up to five of your devices can tap into your iTunes library either directly on a network drive, through a special app, or via a feature called Home Sharing. Through Home Sharing, you can share your iTunes music library from one machine and make it accessible to other devices as long as they’re all on the same network.

One important point: Directly retrieving your library on a network drive through an app gives you access to music, videos, files, and other content. Home Sharing only offers access to your iTunes music. Let’s look at several ways you can share your iTunes library.

Network Attached Storage (NAS)

First, if you’ve set up your own home network, one option is to store your iTunes library on your network drive. When you set up iTunes from a computer, you create your library file on the network drive, aka network-attached storage (NAS), rather than on your local hard drive. Setting it up this way automatically makes your library available to any computer that can directly access the network. The one drawback here is that you need special apps on your iPhone or iPad to tap into your NAS, but that’s pretty simple with the right software.

Through such apps as FileBrowser from Stratospherix Ltd and Remote File Manager from Jane Zhang, you can set up a connection to your NAS and then browse and play the content in your iTunes library. You simply choose the option to connect to a NAS, enter the IP address, username, and password for the NAS, and the app should automatically connect to it. From there, click on the setting for your NAS and then navigate to the content in your iTunes library.

Click on a song, video, or other file, then open it within the app.

Home Sharing

To enable Home Sharing, open iTunes on your computer. Click on the File menu and scroll to Home Sharing. Then click on the option to “Turn On Home Sharing.”

Now Click on the Edit menu and then select Preferences.

At the Preferences window, click on the Sharing tab. Click on the checkbox to “Share my library on my local network.” Choose whether you want to share your entire network or just selected playlists. Then select whether you want to enable a password. The last option for “Home Sharing computers and devices update play counts” keeps tabs on how many times you play a particular song, which can be useful if you wish to compile a playlist of your favorite tunes. Click OK.

To access your music from another computer via Home Sharing, open iTunes on that computer. Click on the drop-down menu at the top of the screen that lets you switch among your music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and other iTunes content. At the bottom of that menu, you should see your library listed as a destination. Click on the name of your library.

You’ll now be able to access all the music from your library.

To use Home Sharing from an iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > Music. Scroll to the bottom of the Music screen until you see the category for Home Sharing. If you see a link to “Sign in,” click on it and choose your Apple ID. If your ID already appears, then you can leave this setting as is.

Now open the Music app on your iOS device. You should see Home Sharing listed as one of the categories in your Library.

Click on the link for Home Sharing and then click on the name of your library.

Your iTunes music library should then appear with access to all albums.

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The built-in sharing tools on iTunes make it easy to listen to a library of music on several machines on your home network. Here’s how.

How to share your itunes library with your iphone or ipad

The built-in sharing tools on iTunes make it easy to listen to a single library of music on several machines on your home or office network.

By tweaking a few setting through iTunes preference panes, you can control who can access your network, what they’ll find there, and how your own remote listening habits can update your shared playlists and stats.

Traditional network sharing

This was the first — and at one time the only — choice if you wanted to share your iTunes library. It’s a simple one-click operation, with a few options that let you control precisely what’s shared, and with who.

Mac users will find the setting at ‘iTunes’, ‘Preferences’ then ‘Sharing’. On iTunes for Windows it’s at ‘Edit’, ‘Preferences’ then ‘Sharing’. If you’re happy to share everything, check the box beside ‘Share my library on my local network’ and leave the other settings on their defaults.

iTunes only shares your content across your local subnet, so it won’t be available beyond your network. If you’re using iTunes in an office, you may find that it’s not available throughout your workplace, depending on how your corporate network has been structured.

However, if you want to control what’s available, rather than broadcast everything, select ‘Share selected playlists’ and choose which playlists you’d like to make public by checking the boxes beside them. Applying restrictions this way means you can share a single track or album by creating a new playlist for just that item.

You can beef up your security further still by setting a password. Combine each of these measures and you can share selected tracks with only those who you choose to give a password, and only then if they’re logged on to the same network as yourself.

It’s a good start, but it’s not perfect.

Home sharing

The traditional network sharing model outlined above is a fundamentally read-only method of sharing your music. If you’ve set up your library on a home server and shared it in this way, you’ll have access to all of your tracks, but your master library won’t know anything about your interactions.

That’s a problem if you’ve set up smart libraries to track your most listened to, least heard, recently played tracks and so on, as they won’t reflect your listening habits. Worse, if you’re using that master library to download podcasts, it won’t be long before your master library stops updating.

iTunes automatically stops downloading new podcast episodes if it notices that you haven’t recently listened to them. The network sharing method described above isn’t reflected in your shared master library, which means that as far as iTunes is concerned, you’ve lost interest in your downloads, and it’ll suspend your subscription.

The Home Sharing feature on iTunes can be set to update your master file though, where traditional network sharing can’t.

Home Sharing uses your Apple ID — the same username and password you use to download apps and tracks from the iTunes Store — to log you into your remote library and keep a record of your listening habits. So, if you play an episode of your podcast subscriptions remotely, it’s marked as listened to in your master iTunes library, which consequently won’t stop downloading new episodes.

You’ll need to change two settings to get it working. First, click ‘Advanced’, then ‘Turn on Home Sharing’, enter your Apple ID and password and click ‘Create Home Share’. That makes your tracks visible on the network to anyone else who is logged into your account using the same Apple ID (up to a maximum of five devices).

Now, to make sure your remote listening habits are recorded in your master iTunes library, return to the Preferences pane’s Sharing section and check the box beside ‘Home Sharing computers and devices update play counts’.

Now that you’ve set up Home Sharing, you can also playback your master library on your iPhone , iPad or iPod touch when you’re connected to the same network. This lets you access your complete music library without installing it onto your device or paying for an iTunes Match subscription.

To enable it, open the Settings app, scroll down to Music and enter your Apple ID and password in the Home Sharing section.

Now, when you want to browse your shared library, open the iOS Music app and tap ‘More’, then ‘Shared’. This calls up a short menu showing all of the shared libraries on your network to which you have access. Tap the one you just created to access its contents. A grey strap at the top of the screen warns you that you’re not browsing the media stored on your device.

How to share your itunes library with your iphone or ipad

Note that if you haven’t changed Music’s default menu bar, you’ll need to tap ‘More’ to find your podcasts.

Synchronised sharing

Apple’s sharing tools only make your library available on your local network. This is why it introduced its paid-for iTunes Match service, which makes a copy of your library available through its iCloud servers for access wherever you happen to be, on whichever device you’re using.

However, there are some instances when iTunes Match is overkill. Video editors, for example, who use iMovie to compile their footage, will often use royalty-free sound effects and licensed tracks direct from the iTunes library, thanks to the excellent and quite simple media browser that lets you share iTunes, iPhoto and iMovie assets between each application.

If you need to maintain a licensed or royalty-free library of this sort for work you’ll conduct on more than one machine, it makes sense to have the same library available in each location, which could be tricky if not all of your machines are located on the same network.

However, because you don’t have to store your library in the folder Apple dictates, two simple solutions present themselves. Firstly, you can store your library on a portable hard drive that you can carry from one workplace to the another. Secondly, you could move your library to a synchronised folder, such as one linked to a Dropbox account.

Don’t try sharing a large library full of music this way as it will take a long time to synchronise, but for small working libraries, it’s a simple fix. Drag your library to its new location in your Dropbox, open iTunes’ preferences pane again and click ‘Advanced’, then ‘Change. ‘ and point iTunes at your library’s new home.

You shouldn’t notice any difference to the way your first computer works, but you’ll have to make a similar change to your second machine, pointing it at your Dropbox library to access your synchronised tracks there too. If you’re using a Mac and can’t get this setting to stick, then quit iTunes and restart while holding ‘Alt’ to call up a dialogue through which you can choose your synchronised library.

Sometimes, we want to share the music collection in iTunes among our friends and families. iTunes is one of the most powerful tool to transfer music from iTunes to iOS Devices. However, if you use iTunes to transfer songs to your iPhone which is not synced with this iTunes Library, all the data on this iPhone will be erased.

Fortunately, here is a professional iPhone transfer tool to change the situation. This article is going to show you an easy way to share music on iTunes with the help of iPhone/iPad/iPod Manage (for Windows users). This program is a powerful tool that enable you to share your songs from iTunes to others’ iPhone, iPad and iPod without removing old songs on them. Moreover, it gives you the chance to share music from one iTunes to another.

Download iPhone/iPad/iPod Manage tool and try to share iTune music.

How to Share Songs on iTunes

Step 1: Run the program and connect your iOS devices to the computer

Download, install and run iPhone/iPad/iPod Manage. Connect the iPhone/iPad/iPod to the compute via the USB cable. This program will detect your device quickly, and show it in the main window.

How to share your itunes library with your iphone or ipad

How to share your itunes library with your iphone or ipad

Step 2: Share iTunes songs

If you just want to transfer some of them, you can uncheck your unwanted playlists. After that, click “OK” button. Please make sure your iPhone/iPod/iPad is connected to the computer during the music sharing process.

How to share your itunes library with your iphone or ipad

Finished! Now, you have shared iTunes songs to your iPod/iPhone/iPad without remove the old songs on the device.

Moreover, you can take this process below to share the music back to another iTunes.

Download this tool on another computer and connect iPod/iPhone/iPad to this computer. Then, in the primary window, click “Playlist” to get the playlist window. Choose the shared playlists, and click “Export to” button. You have two options in the pull-down list: “Export to My Computer” and “Export to iTunes Library“. You can select one to share songs to folder on computer or iTunes library.

How to share your itunes library with your iphone or ipad

Done! You can share music on any iTunes to an iPhone/iPod/iPad anywhere and anytime with the help of this program. It’s so virus-free and safe, so you never need to worry about music loss.

Now, download iPhone/iPad/iPod Manage and try to share iTunes music in a simple way.

Family Sharing lets you and up to five other family members share access to amazing Apple services like Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple News+, Apple Arcade, and Apple Card. 1 Your group can also share iTunes, Apple Books, and App Store purchases, an iCloud storage plan, and a family photo album. You can even help locate each other’s missing devices.

Getting set up is simple.

Choose what you want to share, invite your family members to join, and enjoy each other’s digital company.

Get organized.

One adult in your family — the organizer — invites all the other members to join and sets up accounts for anyone under 13. 2 Once family members join, Family Sharing is set up on everyone’s devices automatically. The group then chooses which services and features they’d like to use and share.

Keep everyone entertained.

Whether it’s music, TV and movies, news, or games, Apple entertainment services have something for everyone. And with Family Sharing, your whole group can share the same subscriptions. Family members access each service from their own Apple IDs, so they see only their own content, preferences, and recommendations — not the whole family’s.

Apple TV+

Original shows and movies from the world’s best storytellers.

Apple Music

Over 75 million songs ready to stream or download, ad‑free.

Apple News+

Hundreds of magazines and leading newspapers at your fingertips.

Apple Arcade

Unlimited access to more than 100 games. No ads, no in-app purchases.

Share an iCloud storage plan with your family.

Your entire family can share a single iCloud storage plan large enough to store everyone’s photos, videos, and files. Each person’s files and documents remain private, but it’s easy to see how much storage everyone is using. If you need more space, you can upgrade to a larger plan at any time.

  • 200GB $2.99/month Shareable with family
  • 2TB $9.99/month Shareable with family

Apple One

Bundle iCloud
with up to five other great services.
And enjoy more for less.

All your family’s purchases on all your family’s devices.

When you set up purchase sharing, everyone in the group gets immediate access to the songs, albums, movies, TV shows, books, and apps purchased by family members who choose to share them. New purchases appear in the Purchased tab in Apple Books, the App Store, or iTunes 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.

  • Music
  • Movies
  • Books
  • Apps

Making purchases is easy. So is setting limits.

When your family sets up purchase sharing, all new Apple Books and App Store purchases will be billed to the organizer’s account. But if Ask to Buy is turned on for children in the family, the organizer can still call the shots. 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.

They ask to buy.

Before your children can make a purchase, they must ask your permission.

You reply from anywhere.

A notification appears on your device. You can review the request, then approve or decline it.

Be more aware of how kids use their devices.

Screen Time can give you a better understanding of how much time your kids spend using apps, visiting websites, and on their devices overall. When you use Screen Time with Family Sharing, you can review your kids’ activity reports and set time limits for specific apps right from your own device. You can also name another family member as a parent/guardian, so that you’re always on the same page when it comes to your kids and their screen time.