Apple has released a new feature that lets users move their digital purchases from one Apple account to another. This makes it easier for people who have old or separated accounts for iCloud and purchased media.
This new option transfers apps, music, books, TV shows, and movies from a secondary account to your main account. This is especially useful for anyone wanting to simplify their Apple setup and avoid handling multiple accounts, but there are some requirements. Both accounts must have two-factor authentication set up, and the country/region settings for purchases need to be the same. The main account should have been used for purchases before. The secondary account shouldn’t have any outstanding balance, and any rentals or pre-orders should be finished.
There’s also a waiting period of up to 15 days after the last purchase on the secondary account. This is likely to keep people from making purchases and then trying to use the migration process to make it harder to charge their accounts.
Users have to confirm the payment method linked to the secondary account. After the transfer is complete, all payment methods and subscriptions from the secondary account will move to the main account. This decision is permanent, and the secondary account will be disabled for future purchases. Users will need to log into their primary account on all their Apple devices moving forward.
This change will also impact Family Sharing settings; neither account can be part of a Family Sharing group, and Purchase Sharing must be turned off. There are some limitations on who can migrate accounts, including:
- Child accounts
- Accounts that have already been migrated (which must wait a year to migrate again)
- Accounts with conflicting music libraries
- Accounts tied to Apple One subscriptions that share iCloud storage with another account
- Accounts that haven’t made any purchases or downloads
- Deleted or deactivated accounts
- Locked or disabled accounts
- Accounts with specific app or content access, like those enrolled in the VPP program.
Unfortunately, this process isn’t available for users in the European Union, the United Kingdom, or India. Apple didn’t mention whether it would go to other countries, but people in the US can try this process out today.
