Family Sharing on Apple Watch SE won’t allow my child to purchase apps I approve. Why?

i got my child an Apple Watch SE. I set up Family Sharing and turned on Purchase Sharing. I also requested that I’m asked before he can make a purchase. So, it asks me. I approve the purchase. Then it says he can’t purchase it. We try again. Same steps, but this time it doesn’t ask me to approve, but instead repeatedly asks for his Apple IF password to be entered in settings and provides a button link to do that. We put it in, Nothing happens. It just leaves us in settings or asks to change the Apple ID password. I just want him to be able to purchase an app after I approve it and it seems impossible to make this work. Is there a way to make it so that he has to ask me to make a purchase, I can simply approve it, and then it purchases it using my payment info? It seems like this is what this feature is for but it doesn’t work at all.

Posted on Aug 7, 2023 11:23 PM

Top-ranking reply

Bill_T1

Community Specialist

Posted on Aug 8, 2023 6:54 PM

Hi atariatari,

In the support article If Ask to Buy isn't working it notes:

"Make sure that you're using a supported device

You need iOS 8 or later on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, and OS X Yosemite or later on your Mac to set up or join a Family Sharing group. When you try to make a purchase on an unsupported device, you'll still be asked to request permission. However, you won't get a notification when the family organizer approves or declines the request. If the family organizer makes the purchase and your content doesn't download automatically, you can tap the price again to download the item."

As the Apple Watch and watchOS are not listed, it's possible that the Apple Watch is not an approved device for this feature. These are also not mentioned in Approve what kids buy with Ask to Buy. That article describes the process as:

"...they send a request to the family organizer. The family organizer can use their own device to approve or decline the request...If the family organizer approves the request and completes the purchase, the item automatically downloads to the child's device. If the family organizer declines the request, no purchase or download will take place."

To verify this, attempt to download the item using the iPhone that the Apple Watch is paired to (assuming it is the child's iPhone) and verify the service is operating as described in those articles.

Regards.

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Family Sharing on Apple Watch SE won’t allow my child to purchase apps I approve. Why?

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