How To Troubleshoot This App Is No Longer Shared With You

If you’re using the Family Sharing feature on your iPhone or iPad, you’ve probably seen the message “This app is no longer shared with you” when attempting to open an app.

This message can be confusing and a bit concerning, but there’s no need to worry.

In this article, we’ll explain what the error means and how you can fix it.

This App Is No Longer Shared With You – Causes

Apple’s Family Sharing feature is an invaluable resource for households with multiple members, allowing them to share purchases and photos among 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 instance, when one person makes a purchase on the App Store or iTunes, the item will immediately become available to all other family members at no extra cost.

On the downside, Family Sharing comes with its fair share of problems. One of these is the dreaded “This app is no longer shared with you” error message.

Some potential causes include mismatches between purchase records and Family Sharing accounts, disabled Family Sharing settings, or even operating system bugs which typically affect free apps that don’t necessarily need to be shared in the first place.

Luckily, there are various solutions out there that may help you solve this problem.

How to Fix “This App Is No Longer Shared With You”

The first thing you should do when encountering this message is to contact the person who has bought the app for the group. If they have accidentally turned off Family Sharing or their account went offline, their device won’t share the app and everyone else will receive the error message.

As a refresher, Family Sharing options can be found under Account Settings (tapping or clicking on your name in Settings) in the Family Sharing option.

You can check with the user if their Family Sharing feature was turned off or if your Apple ID is missing from the list of shared devices.

Reboot Your Devices

The first step when receiving a “This app is no longer shared with you” message is to reboot both your device and the device of the person who purchased the app.

Rebooting can resolve Family Sharing errors because it clears the device caches and restarts all of the services associated with the feature. It also refreshes the connection between your devices and Apple’s servers.

Update Your OS

Updating to the most current version of iOS or macOS can resolve Family Sharing problems. But why?

One potential reason is that the update fixes glitches or errors in the previous operating system that may have been causing problems with family sharing. Another possibility is that updating your OS resolves conflicts between different versions of Family Sharing software on different devices.

Here’s how to manually update the OS on your mobile device:

1. Go to Settings.
   
2. Select “General.”
   
3. Choose “Software Update.” If there’s a newer version of the OS, it will be listed here.
   
4. Tap “Download and Install.” If there’s more than one update option, choosing the most recent one is always recommended.
   

Keep in mind that you’ll need a decent amount of storage space available on your device to install the update, so it’s a good idea to delete any unused apps or files before proceeding. Once the update has been downloaded, follow the prompts 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’ll always have the latest patch of your OS whenever Apple releases a stable version of it. This can help you avoid bugs and compatibility issues that may trigger various problems, including app availability issues when using the Family Sharing feature.

Here’s how to do this on a mobile device:

1. Open Settings.
   
2. Tap on “General.”
   
3. Select “Software Update.”
   
4. Tap the “Automatic Updates” toggle.
   

Once that’s turned on, your iOS device will automatically download and install any available updates.

Check the Family Sharing Apple ID

If restarting your device or updating your operating system doesn’t bring back your app, check whether you’re signed in with the Apple ID associated with Family Sharing.

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Request the person who shared the app to share your Family Sharing Apple ID with you.
2. Go to Settings.
   
3. Tap on your name.
   
4. Make sure your Apple ID matches what was used when setting up your Family Sharing account. If not, sign out of iCloud, then sign back in using the correct credentials.

If you’ve changed Apple ID accounts this way, try downloading or opening the shared app again.

Offload the App

If you’ve ever ventured into your device settings, you might have seen two options for each application: deleting and offloading. While these processes may seem similar at first glance, there is an important distinction between the two.

Deleting (uninstalling) does what it says – everything associated with that particular app, from photos to music to documents, gets wiped away from your device altogether. On the other hand, offloading only removes the app and its binary information. All data and documents, such as photos, stored within the app will be safe and sound in the cloud.

So, if you were to take this route to deal with your error message problem, reinstalling the app won’t be a totally fresh start since your old files will still be available.

Here’s how to offload the affected app on your iPhone or iPad:

1. Open Settings and tap on “General.”
   
2. Tap on “iPhone Storage” (or “iPad Storage” if you’re using an iPad). Here, you’ll see a list of all the apps installed on your device and how much storage each one is taking up.
   
3. Find the app that you want to offload, and tap on it.
   
4. On the next screen, tap on “Offload App.”
   
5. Confirm that you want to offload the app.
   

After offloading the app, install it again and see if it works.

Reinstall the App

If offloading the app didn’t work, try deleting it from all your devices. Although some users have reported successfully resolving Family Sharing problems with this method, it’s unclear why it works. However, it most likely has something to do with cache data.

Cache data is a temporary storage area where apps store files so they don’t have to download them again the next time they’re accessed. Sometimes this cache data can become corrupted, which can cause all sorts of problems with the apps. Deleting the app clears any corrupted cache, allowing your device to start with a clean slate.

At best, you might be the only one who needs to reinstall the app. In some cases, the person sharing the app (one who initially bought it for the group) will also need to reinstall it. If this doesn’t work, other members of the Family Sharing group might need to repeat the process. Keep this as one of the final options to prevent significant data loss.

Here’s how to reinstall an app on your iPhone or iPad:

1. Open the Settings app and select “General.”
   
2. Scroll down to “Storage.” This will bring up a list of all the apps on your device and how much space they are taking up.
   
3. To delete an app, tap on it and select “Delete App.”
   
4. Tap “Delete App” to finalize the process and wait for the deinstaller to clear the app.
   
5. After deleting the app, go to the App Store.
   
6. Find the app and install it.

Sign Out of iCloud

If all else fails, signing out of iCloud altogether on all Family Sharing devices might work. This will reset any syncing problems between the devices.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Open Settings and tap on “iTunes and App Store.” You should see the Apple ID connected to your account displayed at the top of your screen.
   
2. Tap the Apple ID and select “Sign out” from the resulting dialog box.
   
3. At this point, switch off your device and then fire it back up after a few moments.
   
4. Reopen the Settings app and tap on the “Sign in to your iPhone” option at the top of your screen. Enter your credentials as required.
   
5. After signing in successfully, reopen the App Store and download and install the app.
   

For best results, be sure to delete the culprit application before signing out of iCloud.

Try Advanced System Repair Tools

As a measure of last resort, you might want to try advanced system repair software.

This type of software can fix a wide range of problems, from simple glitches to more serious issues. It can also help to improve the overall performance of your device. In most cases, you only need to download and run the software on your device.

Popular system repair software for iOS devices include iMyFone Fixppo, Dr.Fone-Repair, and Tenorshare ReiBoot. However, we recommend you research which software has excellent reviews on the App Store and seems safe before downloading it.

Don’t Panic

If you encounter a “This app is no longer shared with you” message when using Family Sharing on an iPhone or iPad, don’t panic. There are several straightforward solutions, including rebooting your device, updating the operating system, offloading the app, and signing out of iCloud.

Remember that whenever you’re troubleshooting a problem, you should always start with the simple methods before engaging the more complex ones.

Have you used any of these tips to restore your access to any app? How did it go? Let us know in the comments section below.