Unable to shut down family sharing

I need to either remove my daughter or fully close down my family sharing account so I can join my husbands but the “stop family sharing” button isn’t red. It’s greyed out so I can’t do anything and can’t accept my husbands invite until I leave my family sharing account! Heeelllpp!

iPhone 16 Pro, iOS 18

Posted on Aug 29, 2025 12:49 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 29, 2025 1:03 PM

Check these possibilities:

● If an app or feature on your device is not working, not appearing, or is restricted (grayed out), a frequent reason is it may have been disabled using Screen Time, or by a technology administrator if you are using a device owned by an employer or educational institution.

- Read this support article If your Apple ID or other options are greyed out in Settings —> If your Apple Account is grayed out in Settings, or you can't sign out - Apple Support


Tap your Settings app > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions > scroll to Allow Changes and turn on.


- If the device is managed (check: Settings > General > VPN (or Profiles) & Device Management), contact the technology department of the organization that is doing the managing.


5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 29, 2025 1:03 PM in response to Shanalam19

Check these possibilities:

● If an app or feature on your device is not working, not appearing, or is restricted (grayed out), a frequent reason is it may have been disabled using Screen Time, or by a technology administrator if you are using a device owned by an employer or educational institution.

- Read this support article If your Apple ID or other options are greyed out in Settings —> If your Apple Account is grayed out in Settings, or you can't sign out - Apple Support


Tap your Settings app > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions > scroll to Allow Changes and turn on.


- If the device is managed (check: Settings > General > VPN (or Profiles) & Device Management), contact the technology department of the organization that is doing the managing.


Aug 31, 2025 8:00 AM in response to Shanalam19

A person can only be signed into one family group at a time.


You don't say how old your daughter is. The document Move a child to another group using Family Sharing - Apple Support says: "You can't remove a child under 13 years old [see the document for regional age variations] from your family group, but you can move them to another group or delete their account." If this is a non-minor child you can remove them from your group as outlined in this document Leave Family Sharing - Apple Support


Sep 5, 2025 10:17 AM in response to Shanalam19

Shanalam19 wrote:

My daughter’s under 13, she’s under her dad’s family group under her iCloud email address, it’s her gmail email address that’s under my one.

Now it is sounding like she has two Apple Accounts, one with you and one with her father. The one will you have to be either also transferred, or deleted entirely. One way to do this would be to log into the unwanted "child" account and request deletion of the Apple ID. You should have the ID and password from when you first set up the account.


Another way would be for the child to make the request.

From: How to delete your Apple ID account - How to delete your Apple Account - Apple Support

Section: Can I delete my child’s account?

"Your child can also request deletion of their Apple ID, which requires your approval.

The approval request will be sent via email to the primary Apple ID email address of your family organizer account. When approving the request from this email, you will go through the process of deleting the child account."

If the child's account password is unknown, see the section in this document about using a family Organizer's device to reset the password --> Change your Apple Account password - Apple Support


If you have problems doing that then contact Apple about this request: Click here --> Choose your country or region - Official Apple Support Select your country, then a product and work your way down the menu to the desired issue. If you don't see one then try a different product until you reach a telephone or chat help request and ask to be redirected.


"I spoke to Apple support and it can take up to 30 days to delete the child account from the backend." - Unable to remove Family Sharing - Apple Community


Aug 31, 2025 2:15 AM in response to Limnos

Thanks for your help. Sadly that didn’t work! I’ve disabled screen time and it changed nothing. I still can’t stop family sharing or remove my daughter’s account. I think it’s because I’ve set up family sharing using a gmail email address as my daughters log in and later, my husband set up an iCloud email address for her and also set up family sharing so I can’t get her to leave my group from her phone as she’s logged into a different group so I’m stuck! Might have to take my phone in to an Apple Store to see if they can fix it

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Unable to shut down family sharing

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