One of Apple’s “original sins” is the proliferation of Apple IDs and the inability to merge or manage them. I have four that I know of with cryptic and fungible relationships between Apple ID and product ownership. (The worst bugs in the software world are data model bugs.)
In iOS 12 Family Sharing there’s now a setting for Purchase Sharing with an associated Apple ID. Mine is set to my Apple Store ID which is historically distinct from my iCloud ID (many old timers have this unfixable issue). If you tap on this Apple ID it rings up a dialog that allows this to be changed (there’s a bug here — tapping on it doesn’t always work. I had to leave the screen and return to it to enable tap). When I tapped it switched the default to my iCloud Apple ID.
I believe this is a new control. It will be interesting to see what happens when I migrate other family devices that use this iTunes Store ID for purchasing.
At the moment only one Apple ID can be used, but this UI could support multiple Apple IDs. The screen also displays a payment method that cannot be changed, it’s presumably defined by Apple ID.
This is something to watch.
PS. The ten year history of this mess is one reason I recommend Spotify over Apple Music for families.
See also:
- Move your Apple product records from one Apple ID to another Apple ID 11/2014
- How to delete your iCloud account and Apple ID 6/2017 (not)
- iCloud Family Sharing storage: What happens to Alice’s photos when Bob drops her from the Family? 10/2017. Wonder if this has changed.
- Apple’s Apple ID fiasco is getting worse — declining support for Apple Store ID that is not iCloud ID 11/2017 Then it seemed to reverse. I don’t know where Apple is going with this.
- Apple has a new problem with DRM and device management 3/2018 This will be interesting to retest.
- Converting from shared store ID to Family Sharing - and what didn’t work 4/2018. That was a fiasco - largely because family sharing only works for children.
- Apple ID Hell: Apple’s identity mismanagement - back in 5/2012
- Apple’s messed up Apple ID system: what are they smoking?! - 7/2008. Ten years ago.
- My Apple purchase records jumped from true AppleID to one I've never used. This is what I think happened. 7/2012. I think they were missing a ‘foreign key’ between two or more database systems.
- Apple's identity and account system is screwed up. Again. 10/2008
- Apple ID associated purchase records have jumped again: partly back to my old Dev account 7/2014
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