How to add family members to Google Account without payment profile?

Question

I am trying to set up a Google family (to use Youtube and maybe other services together).

So I follow the setup process:

1. Open https://families.google.com/u/0/families

2. Then "Invite family member"

3. This sends an invite to my kid's account.

4. My kid clicks the link, then on the page "Join Family".

5. This pops up:

Trouble joining family group Looks like you're in a different country than the family manager.

And that's it. No hint how to solve the problem or where the "country" information is actually coming from.

While searching the net I found:

Everyone -- there's two separate things that need to match. Your payment profiles in Google Pay need to have the same country listed (delete any other payment profiles that don't match), and the geolocation of your IP address must match the country listed in your Google Pay profiles (use a VPN if you're not in the correct country; the VPN is only needed on a one-time basis for linking the accounts).

From https://support.google.com/photos/thread/483914?hl=en

And:

I actually managed to find a workaround. So I had ONLY 1 - the Finland profile - visible on Google Play although in reality I had two payment profiles in payments.google.com. So I closed the Finland profile down for good and lo and behold suddenly the single selected option in Google Play Countries and Profile became that of the Estonian one. I have no idea why it didn’t show then the 2 existing profiles in the selection when both were present, but all’s well that ends well.

From https://support.google.com/googleplay/thread/3487244?hl=en

Well, my kid does not have any payment method associated with his account.

Furthermore, it seems that you can only add/change the country by adding a payment method, see Google Play Help or their youtube help video.

I don't see the option to add a country You may not see this option if: You have changed your country within the last year. You aren’t currently in a new country. This is based on your IP address. You’re part of a Google Play Family Library.

Related Q: https://android.stackexchange.com/q/220045/200566

How to fix this?

Answer 1

Solution to the problem:

1. Open Google Play Store (kid's device).
2. Go to "Payment Methods".
3. Add credit card and change country to your country.
4. Check kid's Gmail for payment profile invitation. Accept.
5. Click invitation link for Family Link. Accept. Done.

Optional: Remove credit card from payment profile to prevent kid from spending money. 😀

Answer 2

You could also try submitting a request to change the country at https://support.google.com/accounts/troubleshooter/10082950 .
This page also shows the country which is linked with the account.

Answer 3

What worked for me was to remove the payment profile and login and accept the link from the same country as the family manager.

I got the ideas from this support group

Everyone -- there's two separate things that need to match. Your payment profiles in Google Pay need to have the same country listed (delete any other payment profiles that don't match), and the geolocation of your IP address must match the country listed in your Google Pay profiles (use a VPN if you're not in the correct country; the VPN is only needed on a one-time basis for linking the accounts).

This site also supports that idea

It is very confusing on how does google determine if your family member if not in the same address as you. However it appears that your first payment method address is set to be your legal address.

So here are steps to fix this issue.

Navigate to google.com or in Google Chrome click account and navigate to "Manage your Google Account" On the left hand navigation open "Payments and subscriptions" In "Payment methods" section find and click on link to "Manage payment methods" Navigate to "Settings" tab Find payment profiles and at this point you have 2 options. Close all profiles that you have and do the same for your family member and then recreate payment profile with the same address only delete payment profile for your family member, but entering your legal address. Hope that helps!

Answer 4

In my case, it was Google Play. My Google Play account was still in a different country. Hope this helps.