If you’re using Family Sharing on your iPhone or iPad, you’ve probably seen the “This app is no longer shared with you” message when trying to open an app.
This message may be confusing and a little worrying, but there is nothing to worry about.
In this article, we will explain what the error means and how to fix it.
This application is no longer shared with you – Causes
Apple’s Family Sharing feature is an invaluable resource for multi-member households, allowing them to share purchases and photos between family members if they have Apple devices. With Family Sharing, each family member has a unique Apple ID and iCloud account, but they can interact in a single shared space.
For example, when one person makes a purchase on the App Store or iTunes, the item will be immediately available to all other family members at no additional cost.
On the downside, Family Sharing comes with its fair share of problems. One of them is the dreaded “This app is no longer shared with you” error message.
Some potential causes include discrepancies between purchase records and Family Sharing accounts, disabled Family Sharing settings, or even operating system bugs that typically affect free apps that don’t necessarily need to be shared in the first place.
Fortunately, there are several solutions that can help you solve this problem.
How to fix “This app is no longer shared with you”
The first thing you should do when you come across this message is to contact the person who purchased the application for the group. If you accidentally turned off Family Sharing or your account was logged out, your device won’t share the app and everyone else will receive the error message.
As a refresher, Family Sharing options can be found in your Account Settings (by tapping or clicking your name in Settings) under the Family Sharing option.
You can ask the user if their Family Sharing feature was turned off or if their Apple ID is not appearing in the list of shared devices.
Restart your devices
The first step when receiving the message “This app is no longer shared with you” is to restart both your device and the device of the person who purchased the app.
Restarting can resolve Family Sharing errors because it clears the device caches and restarts all services associated with the feature. It also updates the connection between your devices and Apple servers.
Update your operating system
Updating to the latest version of iOS or macOS may resolve Family Sharing issues. But why?
One possible reason is that the update fixes glitches or bugs in the previous operating system that may have been causing problems with family sharing. Another possibility is that updating your operating system resolves conflicts between different versions of Family Sharing software on different devices.
Here’s how to manually update your mobile device’s operating system:
- Go to settings.
- Select “General.”
- Choose “Software Update.” If there is a newer version of the operating system, it will appear here.
- Tap “Download and install.” If there is more than one update option, it is always recommended to choose the most recent one.
Keep in mind that you’ll need a decent amount of available storage space on your device to install the update, so it’s a good idea to delete any unused apps or files before continuing. Once the update is downloaded, follow the instructions to install it.
One of the easiest ways to keep your iPhone or iPad up to date is to enable automatic software updates. This way, you will always have the latest patch for your operating system every time Apple releases a stable version. This can help you avoid errors and compatibility issues that can trigger various problems, including app availability issues when using the Family Sharing feature.
Here’s how to do this on a mobile device:
- Open configuration.
- Tap “General.”
- Select “Software Update.”
- Tap the “Automatic Updates” toggle.
Once activated, your iOS device will automatically download and install available updates.
Verify Apple ID for Family Sharing
If restarting your device or updating your operating system doesn’t recover your app, check to see if you’re signed in with the Apple ID associated with Family Sharing.
To do this, follow these steps:
- Ask the person who shared the app to share their Family Sharing Apple ID with you.
- Go to settings.
- Tap your name.
- Make sure your Apple ID matches the one used when you set up your Family Sharing account. Otherwise, sign out of iCloud and then sign back in with the correct credentials.
If you changed Apple ID accounts this way, try downloading or opening the shared app again.
Download the app
If you’ve ever ventured into your device’s settings, you may have seen two options for each app: delete and download. While these processes may seem similar at first glance, there is an important distinction between the two.
Delete (uninstall) does what it says: everything associated with that particular app, from photos to music to documents, is completely erased from your device. On the other hand, downloading only removes the application and its binary information. All data and documents, such as photos, stored within the app will be safe and sound in the cloud.
Therefore, if you were to take this route to fix the error message issue, reinstalling the app will not be a totally fresh start as your old files will still be available.
Here’s how to download the affected app on your iPhone or iPad:
- Open Settings and tap “General.”
- Tap “iPhone Storage” (or “iPad Storage” if you’re using an iPad). Here you will see a list of all the apps installed on your device and how much storage each one takes up.
- Find the app you want to download and tap it.
- On the next screen, tap “Download App.”
- Confirm that you want to download the application.
After downloading the app, install it again and see if it works.
Reinstall the app
If downloading the app didn’t work, try deleting it from all your devices. Although some users have reported successfully resolving Family Sharing issues with this method, it is not clear why it works. However, it most likely has something to do with the data in the cache.
Cache data is a temporary storage area where apps store files so they don’t have to download them again the next time they access them. Sometimes this cache data can become corrupted, which can cause all kinds of problems with applications. Deleting the app clears any corrupted cache, allowing your device to start fresh.
At best, you may be the only one who needs to reinstall the app. In some cases, the person sharing the app (the one who initially purchased it for the group) will also need to reinstall it. If this doesn’t work, other members of the Family Sharing group may need to repeat the process. Keep this as one of the final options to avoid significant data loss.
Here’s how to reinstall an app on your iPhone or iPad:
- Open the Settings app and select “General.”
- Scroll down to “Storage.” This will show a list of all the apps on your device and how much space they take up.
- To delete an app, tap it and select “Delete app.”
- Tap “Delete App” to finish the process and wait for the uninstaller to delete the app.
- After deleting the app, go to the App Store.
- Search for the app and install it.
Sign out of iCloud
If all else fails, signing out of iCloud completely on all Family Sharing devices might work. This will reset any syncing issues between the devices.
Here’s how to do it:
- Open Settings and tap “iTunes & App Store.” You should see the Apple ID connected to your account at the top of the screen.
- Tap Apple ID and select “Sign Out” in the resulting dialog box.
- At this point, turn off your device and then turn it on again after a few moments.
- Reopen the Settings app and tap the “Sign in to your iPhone” option at the top of the screen. Enter your credentials as necessary.
- After successfully signing in, reopen the App Store and download and install the app.
For best results, be sure to delete the offending app before signing out of iCloud.
Try advanced system repair tools
As a last resort, you may want to try advanced system repair software.
This type of software can fix a wide range of problems, from simple crashes to more serious problems. It can also help improve the overall performance of your device. In most cases, you just need to download and run the software on your device.
The most popular system repair software for iOS devices includes iMyFone Fixppo, Dr.Fone-Repairand Tenorshare ReiBoot. However, we recommend researching which software has great reviews on the App Store and seems safe before downloading it.
Do not panic
If you see the message “This app is no longer shared with you” when you use Family Sharing on an iPhone or iPad, don’t panic. There are several easy solutions, including restarting your device, updating the operating system, downloading the app, and signing out of iCloud.
Remember that whenever you are solving a problem, you should always start with the simple methods before using the more complex ones.
