How to Hide iTunes and App Store Purchases in Family Sharing

Prevent your family from seeing what you bought

What to Know

  • App Store purchases: Open the App Store app and tap your profile image > Purchased.
  • Then, swipe right to left on any app you want to hide from Family Sharing. Select Hide and tap Done.
  • iTunes purchases: Open iTunes on a PC. Select Store > Purchases. Choose a category > select X > Hide.

This article explains how to hide App Store and iTunes purchases from Family Sharing on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices running iOS 11 and newer, and Macs running at least macOS 10.13.

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:

  1. Open the App Store app.

  2. 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.

  3. Tap Purchased.

  4. Swipe from right to left on any app that you want to hide from Family Sharing, and select Hide.

    Screenshots of the iOS App Store showing how to hide a purchased app
  5. Tap Done at the top when you're finished.

Hiding apps from the Family Sharing service isn't the same as hiding an app from your device so that people using your phone can't see it or open it. Learn how to lock an iPhone app if that's what you're after. There are also vault apps for hiding photos, videos, and texts.

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.

These steps pertain to iTunes 12.9.

  1. Open iTunes and select Store near the center of the top of the program.

    A screenshot of iTunes with the Store tab highlighted
  2. 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.

    A screenshot of iTunes with the Purchased heading highlighted
  3. Select Music, Movies, TV Shows, Books, or Audiobooks from the top right.

    A screenshot of iTunes with the media categories highlighted
  4. Hover the mouse over the items you want hidden from Family Sharing, and select X at the top left.

    A screenshot of the Purchased screen of iTunes with the Hide button highlighted
  5. Select Hide.

    A screenshot of iTunes with the Hide button highlighted

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.

  1. From iTunes, go to the Account menu and select View My Account.

    You might be asked to log in with your Apple ID.

    A screenshot of iTunes with the View My Account menu option highlighted
  2. Scroll down to the iTunes in the Cloud section and select Manage.

    A screenshot of iTunes with the Manage option highlighted
  3. Locate the hidden song, movie, book, app, etc. through the menus at the top right.

    A screenshot of iTunes' Hidden Purchases screen with the media categories highlighted
  4. Select Unhide to make the purchase available through Family Sharing again.

    A screenshot of iTunes' Hidden Purchases screen with the Unhide button highlighted
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