How to Hide App Store Purchases in Family Sharing
The Family Sharing feature built into Apple devices makes it easy for any members of a family to freely download music, movies, TV shows, books, and apps that were purchased by other members. However, there might be purchases that you don’t want to share with everyone else.
Fortunately, each member of the family can hide any of their purchases in Family Sharing without the need to remove the people you’re hiding them from. Here’s how:
Open the App Store app. Tap the picture thumbnail from the upper-right corner. If you’re running an old version of iOS and you don’t see the picture, select Updates at the bottom. Tap Purchased. Swipe from right to left on any app that you want to hide from Family Sharing, and select Hide. Tap Done at the top when you’re finished.
How to Hide iTunes Store Purchases in Family Sharing
Hiding iTunes Store purchases from other Family Sharing users is fairly similar to hiding App Store purchases. The major difference is that iTunes Store purchases can only be hidden using the iTunes program on a Mac or Windows computer; you can’t use the iTunes Store app on your device.
Open iTunes and select Store near the center of the top of the program. Select Purchased from the right-hand column, mid-way down the page. If asked, log in with your Apple ID that’s associated with Family Sharing. Select Music, Movies, TV Shows, Books, or Audiobooks from the top right. Hover the mouse over the items you want hidden from Family Sharing, and select X at the top left. Select Hide.
How to Unhide Purchases in Family Sharing
Hiding apps, movies, books, etc., is useful, but there are some instances where you’ll need to unhide those items, like to re-download the purchase.
From iTunes, go to the Account menu and select View My Account. You might be asked to log in with your Apple ID. Scroll down to the iTunes in the Cloud section and select Manage. Locate the hidden song, movie, book, app, etc. through the menus at the top right. Select Unhide to make the purchase available through Family Sharing again.
