How to create an Apple Account for Family Sharing abroad?

When you're living in Europe it's easy to cross borders. My family (genetically speaking, not in apple terms) lives in different countries. I subscribed to icloud+ to be able to share stuff with different members of my family, only to be informed that apple does not allow sharing over different stores (stores are assigned to countries and, for whatever reason, to languages, which has both caused for confusion years back).


So I realised that in order to share (some) icloud stuff (like photos) with different members of my family, the easiest way would be to create another apple account in different store. Am I going in the right direction?


The thing is I need to be the family administrator (manager, or whatever apple called the person in charge) in both "families" (in apple terms).

  1. Is it possible to be a family administrator only using the website? (I don't have a spare iphone just for that purpose). I need to manage subscriptions for "foreign family" (in apple terms).
  2. I also want to be able to share icloud photos of "foreign family" with "local family" (in apple terms). Is it possible?


I don't need to use "foreign family" subscription myself - I just need to pay for it and manage it.

Do you guys know how to achieve this?

When I ask this question, where is it published, btw? Is it only in my "local" store, or is it world-wide?


Cheers


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Family members in different stores - possible? how?

Posted on Aug 11, 2025 2:25 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 11, 2025 3:09 PM

oneanotheruser wrote:

1. When you're living in Europe it's easy to cross borders. My family (genetically speaking, not in apple terms) lives in different countries. I subscribed to icloud+ to be able to share stuff with different members of my family, only to be informed that apple does not allow sharing over different stores (stores are assigned to countries and, for whatever reason, to languages, which has both caused for confusion years back).

So I realised that in order to share (some) icloud stuff (like photos) with different members of my family, the easiest way would be to create another apple account in different store. Am I going in the right direction?

No. You cannot be a member of 2 family groups at once. You would need to designate a device to manage one of the family groups that is completely separate to the other devices that are part of the other family group.


The thing is I need to be the family administrator (manager, or whatever apple called the person in charge) in both "families" (in apple terms).
Is it possible to be a family administrator only using the website? (I don't have a spare iphone just for that purpose). I need to manage subscriptions for "foreign family" (in apple terms).

No. There is no way to manage a Family Sharing group from the website. You need a spare Apple device. Does not need to be an iPhone. it can be an iPad or a not too old Mac.


2. I also want to be able to share icloud photos of "foreign family" with "local family" (in apple terms). Is it possible?

To share photos you don't really need to do all this. You can simply create a shared album, and send links to other family members to their emails so they can access them on iCloud.com

click here ➜ How to use Shared Albums in Photos on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac - Apple Support


I don't need to use "foreign family" subscription myself - I just need to pay for it and manage it.
Do you guys know how to achieve this?
When I ask this question, where is it published, btw? Is it only in my "local" store, or is it world-wide?

Not really possible as you describe. What exactly are you looking to pay for? You don't need any subscriptions at all to share photos. Purchase sharing on Family sharing also does not require any subscriptions.



2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 11, 2025 3:09 PM in response to oneanotheruser

oneanotheruser wrote:

1. When you're living in Europe it's easy to cross borders. My family (genetically speaking, not in apple terms) lives in different countries. I subscribed to icloud+ to be able to share stuff with different members of my family, only to be informed that apple does not allow sharing over different stores (stores are assigned to countries and, for whatever reason, to languages, which has both caused for confusion years back).

So I realised that in order to share (some) icloud stuff (like photos) with different members of my family, the easiest way would be to create another apple account in different store. Am I going in the right direction?

No. You cannot be a member of 2 family groups at once. You would need to designate a device to manage one of the family groups that is completely separate to the other devices that are part of the other family group.


The thing is I need to be the family administrator (manager, or whatever apple called the person in charge) in both "families" (in apple terms).
Is it possible to be a family administrator only using the website? (I don't have a spare iphone just for that purpose). I need to manage subscriptions for "foreign family" (in apple terms).

No. There is no way to manage a Family Sharing group from the website. You need a spare Apple device. Does not need to be an iPhone. it can be an iPad or a not too old Mac.


2. I also want to be able to share icloud photos of "foreign family" with "local family" (in apple terms). Is it possible?

To share photos you don't really need to do all this. You can simply create a shared album, and send links to other family members to their emails so they can access them on iCloud.com

click here ➜ How to use Shared Albums in Photos on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac - Apple Support


I don't need to use "foreign family" subscription myself - I just need to pay for it and manage it.
Do you guys know how to achieve this?
When I ask this question, where is it published, btw? Is it only in my "local" store, or is it world-wide?

Not really possible as you describe. What exactly are you looking to pay for? You don't need any subscriptions at all to share photos. Purchase sharing on Family sharing also does not require any subscriptions.



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