Ask To Buy Permission Not Working? Reasons & Troubleshooting Steps

If you are a parent or guardian trying to use the “Ask to Buy” feature on your child’s Apple device, you may have experienced issues with the feature not working properly.

This can be frustrating, as it prevents you from approving or denying your child’s purchase requests.

But don’t worry, there are a few reasons why the “Ask to Buy” feature may not be working and steps you can take to troubleshoot the issue.

In this blog, I will go over the different reasons why “Ask to Buy” may not be working and the troubleshooting steps you can take to fix it.

Why Is Ask To Buy Permission Not Working For Your Device?

Is your Ask To Buy Permission troubling you?

Are you not able to see your Ask To Buy requests or set the permission right?

Then you have come to the right place. Keep on reading to understand the problems that might be causing you to tear your hair out due to being worried about your children’s safety.

1. Your Ask To Buy Might Not Be Working Properly Because You Need To Change The Names Of The Devices

Sometimes changing the names of the devices after you have updated your iOS system will fix the problem.

You might try it and see if that is the issue with you.

You will find how to do it in our Fix section of this guide.

2. You Have Not Set Any Advisor In Your Ask To Buy Settings

You will have to set yourself as an advisor in your Device’s settings.

Otherwise Ask To Buy will not work properly and you will not be able to control what your child is buying.

3. The Family Sharing Setting Might Not Be Set Correctly

You have to set the Family Sharing settings properly because Ask To Buy will not request your permission otherwise if your child wants to buy anything from Apple Store and you will not get any Ask To See notification.

4. You May Have Disabled Ask To Buy From Your Device

If you have disabled Ask To Buy from your device then also you will not be asked for permission by that feature as it will not work in your system.

5. Your Device Is Not Compatible With Ask To Buy

This is another big reason why you are not being asked about permission from Ask To Buy.

Not all iOS devices support the Ask To Buy feature of Apple.

To use that feature you will have to have iOS 8 or later to support Ask To Buy for your iPhone and iPad.

As for your Mac, you need to have OS X Yosemite or later to get the feature of Ask To Buy. 

How To Fix Ask To Buy Permission Not Working?

If you have encountered the problem of Ask To Buy Not asking permission from you then there is no need to get stressed anymore.

You can easily solve that problem by following the solutions given below.

1. Change The Name Of Your Device

After you have updated your Apple device to its latest version this problem of Ask To Buy permission not working happens but it is not difficult to resolve at all.

Something as simple as changing the name of your device and your Child’s device can solve the issue of Ask To Buy not asking your permission.

To do that you can follow the steps below.

Step 1: Open Settings and go to General.

Step 2: Navigate to About.

Step 3: Change the name of your iPhone.

Step 4: Do the same process for your child’s phone.

Now you should be able to get the Ask To Buy permission request to your device and easily keep an eye on what your children are buying in through their Apple device.

2. Restart Your Apple Devices

TYou can always try to restart your Apple devices because sometimes a glitch or bug may occur which makes your device not function as it should.

Apple may also have a glitch in its system.

However if the glitch is in your device then it should fix the issue when you will restart your iPhone.

Follow the steps below to restart your device.

Step 1: Press and hold the side button of your iPhone until the power off slider appears.

Step 2: Now drag the slider across the screen and wait for 30 seconds.

Step 3: after some time, press and hold the side button again and your device should restart automatically.

Note: you should press the button until you see the Apple logo reap;pearing in your screen. After that you can let go.

3. Check Whether You Have Disable The Ask To Buy In Your IOS Devices

Check and make sure that you have the Ask To Buy enabled in your iOS devices. To do that you can follow the steps below.

For iPhone and iPad

Step 1: Open Settings and navigate to Family.

Step 2: Tap on Family Members.

Step 3: Turn on the toggle for Require Purchase Approval.

For Mac

Step 1: Open system Settings.

Step 2: Navigate to Family and then Child’s name.

Step 3: Find Ask To Buy from the sidebar.

Step 4: Toggle on the Require Purchase Approval.

And that’s it! You have successfully enabled Ask To Buy on your device now. You should be getting all the requests when your child wants to buy something from their device now.

4. Check Who You Have Put As Approver

You may not have put yourself as an Approver for your Ask To Buy notifications.

In that case you will not be able to get any notification from Ask To Buy.

You should always put yourself as an Approver if you want to get notification from the Ask To Buy system of iOS.

To check who is put as approver you can follow the steps below and edit it to your liking.

For iPhone and iPad

Step 1: Open the Settings in your iOS system.

Step 2: Navigate to Family.

Step 3: Now, go to the family Member’s name.

Step 4: Tap on Parent/guardian.

Step 5: Tap on Set as Parent/ Guardian.

For Mac 

Step 1: Open the Settings app in your Mac

Step 2: Choose Family from the menu.

Step 3: Bow, choose the family member’s name.

Step 4: Tap on Parent/Guardian.

Step 5: Press on Set As Parent/ Guardian.

Step 6: Click on Done to confirm the settings.

And that’s how you change or set an approver for your iOS devices.

You should make sure that it is you who is set as approver and then only you will be getting the notifications from Ask To Buy.

5. Check Your Family Sharing Settings

You may have logged into your Apple device and Apple stores with different Apple accounts due to which you are not getting the notification of Ask To Buy.

In such a case, you may have signed in your iTune account and iCloud account with different IDs.

You will have to check your Family sharing settings and the Apple ID that you have in your device.

To check your Family sharing settings, go to Settings >> then navigate to Apple ID Banner >> Tap on Family Sharing and check the ID put there.

After that you have to check your Apple ID on the device by going to Settings >> Apple ID Banner.

6. Contact Apple Support Team

If you have tried all the above mentioned solutions yet you still are not able to get your Ask To Buy permission working in your Apple devices then it is time to contact the apple support team.

You can contact them from here and communicate that you are not able to use your Ask To Buy permission in your Apple device to them.

They will solve the issue for you as soon as they can.