8 Signs It’s Time to Dissolve Your Apple Family Sharing Plan

Family Sharing lets up to six people share Apple subscriptions and services. It’s not always suitable for everyone, or it may run its course as members of your group get older. Here are some tell-tale signs that it might be time to break up the band.

1 Your Kids Are Old Enough to Pay For Themselves

When your kids are younger, setting up Family Sharing makes a lot of sense. You can keep track of their location using Find My, and you can control how they use their Apple devices using the Screen Time feature to block content or set time limits for apps.

Once they hit 18, they have the ability to turn off location tracking and use their devices however they want. When your parents are paying for your Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and Apple Fitness+ subscriptions, there’s very little reason to leave Family Sharing.

At some point, you might feel it’s time that your kids started paying their own way, especially if you’re paying for subscriptions like Apple Fitness+ that you wouldn’t otherwise dream of using. If your kids are earning their own money, they should probably be paying their own bills, too.

2 Grandma Won’t Stop Buying Apps

Family Sharing simplifies the process of buying apps and other content by having one payment method for everyone within the Family Sharing group. This can be great if you’re only using it for you and your kids, as you’d be footing the bill anyway. If your Family Sharing group includes adults outside your household, however, paying for each app or movie they download can begin to stick in your craw.

Some apps only cost a buck or two, but there are plenty that require significant one-off payments, or continual subscription fees. If it gets to the point where grandma’s app addictions are leading you to bankruptcy, it might be time to bring your Family Sharing group to an end.

3 Your Mother-in-Law Keeps Checking Your Location

Location tracking in Family Sharing can be really useful. In the Find My app, not only can you see the location of all your devices, but also the location of the devices of everyone who’s in the Family Sharing group. This is especially useful for keeping track of your kids.

The trouble is, your location is just as visible as everyone else’s, meaning that anyone in your Family Sharing group can see where you are at all times. While it’s possible for adults to turn off location sharing if they wish, it is quite obvious if you do so. If you’re sick of your mother-in-law checking up on your location, it might just be time to do away with the whole thing.

4 You Just Really Miss Spotify

One of the biggest benefits of Family Sharing is that you can share an Apple Music subscription. The cost of a sub can be shared with up to six people, each of whom gets their own individual account. It’s far cheaper than paying for a single subscription.

The trouble is, with Family Sharing, you feel tied to Apple Music, since the deal is so good. If you find yourself guiltily looking at your old Spotify playlists and missing the excellent Spotify music recommendations, then it might be time to say goodbye to Family Sharing.

5 You’re Tired of Being Tech Support

Family and tech aren’t always a good mix. If you set up Family Sharing with older family members, you may find that a lot of your time is given up to help them resolve their tech problems. Great Aunt Mabel may have an uncanny ability to somehow turn off every vital setting on the iPhone 5S that she refuses to upgrade. Talking her through the steps to turn things back on again is enough to have you tearing your hair out.

Just when you think things have calmed down, she’ll discover that she can’t see any of the updates in the shared photos album, and you’ll have another three hours of talking her through how to open the Photos app. If it all gets too much, you might want to consider pulling the plug on Family Sharing and letting Mabel fend for herself.

6 Literally No One Is Using Apple Arcade

When you signed up for Apple Sharing, you suggested to the other members that an Apple One Family subscription would be more than enough but were outvoted. Other members were convinced that they would definitely get a lot out of the additional Fitness+ and News+ subscriptions and the extra 1.8TB of iCloud storage.

The reality is that only three of you are using the Apple Music subscription, and not a single person has touched Apple Arcade since the day you set Family Sharing up. This is despite you telling everyone about how awesome Balatro+ is.

If it gets to the point where you’re all paying a monthly fee for services that you’re not even using, it might be time to say goodbye to Family Sharing.

7 You Really Want to Get a Foldable

You like your iPhone. You like your iPad. You don’t like the fact that your iPad doesn’t fit in a pocket the way your iPhone does. You see people using foldable phones that offer the best of both worlds, and you can’t help but feel jealous.

There’s no point waiting around for Apple, either. Foldable iPhones and iPads may be on the cards, but they’re still years away. All of which means you’re feeling very tempted to ditch Apple completely and switch to Android.

While it is possible to use some aspects of Family Sharing on non-Apple devices, you’re not going to get the full benefits. It might be time to ditch Family Sharing and get yourself a nice new foldable instead.

8 Uncle Steve Has Stopped Paying His Share

If mixing family and tech is bad, mixing family and money is even worse. Family Sharing has the potential to save everyone involved a lot of money on their Apple subscriptions and app and movie purchases. For it to work, however, everyone has to pay their share.

Chasing up Uncle Steve every month because he’s “forgotten” to send you his share can get old fast. You’re constantly left out of pocket and have to waste your time pestering an uncle that you don’t even (want to) see that often. It might be time to cut your losses and dissolve your Apple Family Sharing plan.

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Family Sharing has a lot of benefits for groups of people who all use Apple devices. However, it’s not ideal for everyone, and there may be some clear signs that Family Sharing isn’t working out for you. There’s no shame in calling it a day, as long as you can get everyone to agree and make the transition a smooth one.