Only 5 family members in total, but still cannot add family members to my Family Sharing group

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Level 1

4 points

Only 5 family members in total, but still cannot add family members to my Family Sharing group

Recently I deleted an unused Apple account to remove it from Family Sharing, in order to add a different family member to the sharing. However, I can't add family member to family sharing even though I now only have total 5 members in the group. On the iPhone the + sign to add members is greyed out, and on the Mac, while I can click the + to add members, after I click on invite nothing happens.

Is this some hidden time counter to allow me to add again a member? The deleted account is confirmed to have been deleted - trying to login with the user ID shows a login error of person not found.

What could be the issue?

iPhone 13 Pro, iOS 15

Posted on Jan 8, 2022 12:13 AM

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Answer 1

talalc Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 8, 2022 3:05 AM in response to turingtest2

Hi

Thanks for your help, since it's a new year for only a week so I guess that limitation you mentioned isn't the problem but your former assumption. I was advised by Apple Support to go through the delete account option in order to make room on my family sharing for a different user. I would have expected them to know of this counter, but probably not all their support reps are aware of this small "insignificant" detail.. As I recall they told me it's a valid way of removing the account from the Family Sharing - you cannot remove a child's account from the sharing without first deleting it or moving it to a different adult's Family Sharing group.

I guess I have no option really but to go back to calling them and let them know of this mess they made. It's a shame they couldn't/wouldn't open the B-Day field for me to alter the date to day before the child becomes an "adult" in Apple's system. Would have made everything easier. In utero, I probably should have created a "dummy" adult Apple ID just to move the child into it instead. Why do Apple make great devices but bug-filled services to support it?..

Anyway, thanks for your help.

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

274,119 points

Jan 8, 2022 2:13 AM in response to talalc

At a guess you deleted the Apple ID without removing it from Family Sharing first. There is no reason to assume that deleting an ID automatically updates family sharing properties in a different account. Somewhere there may be a counter saying that there are 6 members, even if one is invalid. I suspect you will need the assistance of Apple Support to resolve this. Or you could delete the whole family and set it up again from scratch. Note however there is a limit on joining families, which you can only do twice in a year, even if it is the same family.

tt2

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Only 5 family members in total, but still cannot add family members to my Family Sharing group

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