What happens to iOS Apps when you turn OFF Family Sharing?

Question

I have Family Sharing turned on currently, but no longer wish all my family's purchases to come from the one credit card.

As some iOS apps have been bought for the benefit of the whole family, what happens to these apps if I were to turn off the Family Sharing feature?

I note that any In-App Purchases will not be shared (which is fine), but:

1. Will the apps continue to reside on all the other people's phones and be updatable etc?
2. Presuming 1. to be "Yes", what happens if in the future they remove it from their phone, but then want it back again?
3. Does it show as purchased on their accounts?
4. If the answer to 3 is "no", would turning Family Sharing back on temporarily solve this?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Before Family Sharing, you could take someone else's iOS device and sign in to the app store with your account and download all/any apps you choose.

At that point, your password was needed to update, but signing out didn't delete the apps or in any other way prevent them from working. Let's set aside in-app purchases for the time being.

Family sharing changes this in that when someone joins the "family" - their Apple ID is used to download and update other family member apps. They do not show up in your purchases, they show up as the other named family member's purchase. All that changes is the password needed to install and update.

When you as a family member remove yourself from the plan - you get a warning that lists what will happen and basically, you immediately lose access to the purchases, photos, calendars and other items that were shared in the plan.

Rejoining the family would then let you re-download and re-sync the items.

You'll probably want to find a better way to use the family service than routinely joining and leaving or skip the family share and use the older method of signing in to multiple devices which doesn't immediately remove/revoke the items.