Apple Music - Family Plan - Not Sharing Personal Library with family member devices

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Level 1

8 points

Apple Music - Family Plan - Not Sharing Personal Library with family member devices

Using Big Sur on iMac with large personal library from old iTunes (now in Music Library on my iMac).

Most current iOS on my iPhone and my wife's iPad Pro. Have Apple Music Family Plan. My wife and I have sharing activated. I am the manager of the shared account. Music shows up in shared items. I can play all of our iMac library content (Apple Music, matched, and uploaded) on my iPhone. I have repeatedly tried every possible suggestion from existing Apple Community discussions and exhaustive internet searches and still cannot get our iMac Music content on my wife's iPad. Only her music library from her older iTunes/Music history is available. Have logged in on her iPad Music app with my Apple ID. Home sharing is enabled on all systems.

Despite what all the Apple and non-Apple descriptions of Music app say, it is not sharing our personal music loaded into iMac and accessible with Music app across all family members in our sharing circle.

Am I mis-interpreting the statement about sharing Music content across all Family Plan shared devices?

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Aug 27, 2021 11:56 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

turingtest2

Level 10

274,564 points

Aug 27, 2021 12:52 PM in response to 2nd_gen

Family Sharing lets you share purchases between family members. A family Apple Music plan gives each member their own independent iCloud Music Library. See Share music with friends on Mac - Apple Support for a way to share playlists with each other.

tt2

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Answer 2

javaliga

Level 10

119,869 points

Aug 27, 2021 12:14 PM in response to 2nd_gen

Fom the second paragraphs in:

Get an Apple Music family subscription - Apple Support

and:

What types of content can I share with my family? - Apple Support

"And each family member gets their own personal music library, and music recommendations based on what they love to listen to."

"You can share content that you purchase from Apple including music, movies, tv shows, apps, and books. You can also share your Apple subscriptions including Apple One."

So, my interpretation is that you can share purchased music from the iTunes Store, but not music that you lease with an Apple Music subscription. (You "share" a common subscription, but not the music itself. I also believe you can share playlists. but not the actual songs.)

I may be wrong, but that is the way I see it.

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Answer 3

2nd_gen Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 27, 2021 12:36 PM in response to javaliga

Thanks javaliga! Helpful! I suppose my interpretation was incorrect. However, it does allow me to see all of our iMac media content on my iPhone Music app. It just doesn't make sense that I can't see it on my wife's iPad while signed in with my Apple ID in her Music app on the iPad.

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Apple Music - Family Plan - Not Sharing Personal Library with family member devices

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