Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Now Lets You Move Digital Purchases From One Apple Account to Another
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Migrate button is back for me!
Still doesn’t work though, keep getting the “one or more accounts not eligible” error…
Might be because I bought another movie today though, so fingers crossed after that is billed/cleared…
Still doesn’t work though, keep getting the “one or more accounts not eligible” error…
Might be because I bought another movie today though, so fingers crossed after that is billed/cleared…
If for some reason that vague “music data” requirement is why it’s failing for me, then give us a choice! I checked and only saw the u2 free album that I then deleted, but I can’t rule out that I somehow inadvertently subscribed to apple music or iTunes Match at some point. Although if I did, then there’s certainly no library evidence of that that I can see, only had that forced u2 album….
But anyways, give us a choice! I’d gladly take “you will lose all music purchases on your primary account after migration”. I don’t care about any of the music ownership, I’m trying to migrate 600+ movies!! That’s all I care about, and I suppose a few paid apps but heck I’d even rebuy those if need be.
Why didn’t you just add your other Apple ID to your family? That way that Apple ID could get Apple One and share it with both you and your family.
The primary reason for all of Apple’s restrictions about the music library is that Apple is doing this solely for people who have one Apple ID for iCloud and the other for media. If you have a music library on both Apple IDs, then that means both were used for media which is outside the use case that Apple is trying to solve for.
Apple could probably figure something to handle those cases, but considering it took them 14 years to come up with this solution, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
My undo migration link is back, so this might have been a glitch. Though of note, I signed up for TestFlight again after migrating.
I think the reason for the TestFlight restriction is that there is a 10,000 Apple ID limit for Test Flight and if you don’t leave before migrating you will end up permanently holding one of those spots until the owner drops you. Even then your Apple ID will be permanently linked to the test group.
I wish they could just transfer the test flight to the other apple ids. Why couldn't they implement something like this?
There are many people (myself included) who thought they did have one account for iCloud and one account for media, who are still getting the error. I checked my music library of the iCloud and it appeared empty except for the forced U2 album. Perhaps I accidentally had iTunes Match etc. on my primary at some point years back, but not for long and probably was only because I got mixed up....since I was forced into the 2 account debacle by APPLE'S OWN DOING.....
To justify this as acceptable because it is outside of the use case Apple is trying to solve for, is to completely throw under the bus MANY long-time Apple customers, including the 9to5Mac writer here. (https://9to5mac.com/2025/02/14/apple-adds-new-requirement-for-migrating-purchases-between-accounts/)
The reason I mention the 9to5Mac writer is that it's not like it's just a handful of self-inflicted users who errored into ineligibility....There's LOTS of people unable to do it, many of whom are deeply knowledgable of Apple computers and services.
Please keep us updated! I am basically willing to do whatever I need to do to solve that music library issue...Literally beg them to offer a way to just exclude music from transferring over or something like that. I don't think most people care about their music libraries at this point given the rise of Apple Music and streaming...The vast majority are after combining movie purchases, app purchases, and the general convenience of not having 2 Apple Accounts!
Just a FYI, but you can check what media data Apple by going to the https://privacy.apple.com/ web site, clicking on “Get a copy of your data” and selecting “Apple Media Services Information”. That might give you some insight as to what Apple thinks is preventing you from migrating.
I actually went there thinking I could just delete that part of my account. But nope! I have to delete the entire account (you would think you would be able to delete certain services for privacy reasons too).
The only music I have associated with the id I’m trying to move to is the forced u2 album.
It makes no sense not to allow me to merge IDs because of their incompetence in making me have this stupid U2 Album.
It makes no sense not to allow me to merge IDs because of their incompetence in making me have this stupid U2 Album.
Just spent an hour trying to get this to work. No button for me. Would love to merge my old iTunes account purchaes into my .Mac/Mobile Me/iCloud account.
Same, clearly Apple knows it would be too painful for us to lose this precious U2 album. 🥲
Purchased music should be excluded from music library data right???? Isn’t it stored in iTunes Media Services?
Yeah I still haven't been able to get a clear answer on "music library data" from the 3 support agents I've chatted/spoken with. I believe Apple Music songs are removed from one's account after there's been no subscription for a few months, so on the user side it looks like no songs, but perhaps something is retained on Apple's side. Apple Music or iTunes Match...
I really hope someone can reach a senior engineer / the team responsible for adding this purchase migration and they can either fix this issue or at least add some granularity on the migration (many of us would forego music purchase migration entirely if it said that is what we had to do in order to complete the migration for Movies and Apps).
The basic support team members clearly know very little, and can offer nothing more than rehashing the support document.
Data point to add to the issues:
Primary Apple ID is XXXXX@me.com, it pays for an iCloud 2TB plan, and family shared this plan with 4 members. It also pays for monthly AppleCare+ for my iPhone. No other sharing.
Secondary Apple ID is XXXXX@gmail.com. I use it for apps and subscriptions including Apple Music student plan.
The Migrate Purchases option did not show up. I contacted Apple Support via chat and Ramona said it is because I have two active subscriptions under my XXXXX@gmail.com, DJay Pro and Apple Music student. Apple support helped me submit a refund request to fully cancel both subscriptions immediately, rather than me cancel, and letting the subscriptions lapse after the payment cycle. That way I don’t have to wait for weeks.
The Migrate Purchases option showed up next day. Clicked it, then it provided an error “Unable to Migrate Purchases. One or both accounts is not eligible for purchase migration.” I reviewed the entire Apple documentation and cannot figure out what’s making me ineligible, so off to Apple chat again. Apple chat agent Luis said they cannot access my accounts over chat, so they scheduled a call back with a phone agent, as they can access my account.
Apple agent on the phone Sydney went into my account, and immediately said that since my media and purchases account XXXXX@gmail.com has used Apple Music, it is ineligible for migration. This completely goes against the Apple website documentation, but she said this is true. I asked can Apple delete all my Apple Music data as I do not want any of them, she said this is not possible. She said that I should fill in the Apple feedback form https://www.apple.com/feedback/ to let Apple know that this needs to change.
Hope this helps anyone out with the “Unable to Migrate Purchases” error. Maybe it is because you have used Apple Music on your media & purchases Apple account.
Primary Apple ID is XXXXX@me.com, it pays for an iCloud 2TB plan, and family shared this plan with 4 members. It also pays for monthly AppleCare+ for my iPhone. No other sharing.
Secondary Apple ID is XXXXX@gmail.com. I use it for apps and subscriptions including Apple Music student plan.
The Migrate Purchases option did not show up. I contacted Apple Support via chat and Ramona said it is because I have two active subscriptions under my XXXXX@gmail.com, DJay Pro and Apple Music student. Apple support helped me submit a refund request to fully cancel both subscriptions immediately, rather than me cancel, and letting the subscriptions lapse after the payment cycle. That way I don’t have to wait for weeks.
The Migrate Purchases option showed up next day. Clicked it, then it provided an error “Unable to Migrate Purchases. One or both accounts is not eligible for purchase migration.” I reviewed the entire Apple documentation and cannot figure out what’s making me ineligible, so off to Apple chat again. Apple chat agent Luis said they cannot access my accounts over chat, so they scheduled a call back with a phone agent, as they can access my account.
Apple agent on the phone Sydney went into my account, and immediately said that since my media and purchases account XXXXX@gmail.com has used Apple Music, it is ineligible for migration. This completely goes against the Apple website documentation, but she said this is true. I asked can Apple delete all my Apple Music data as I do not want any of them, she said this is not possible. She said that I should fill in the Apple feedback form https://www.apple.com/feedback/ to let Apple know that this needs to change.
Hope this helps anyone out with the “Unable to Migrate Purchases” error. Maybe it is because you have used Apple Music on your media & purchases Apple account.
Attachments
So basically if you have ever had ANY music library data associated with either account. You cannot merge them. I just spent 1 hour and 30 minutes on the phone with them. It is extremely frustrating because the last time I used Apple Music on my iCloud account was in 2021 and it was a free trial. Heaven forbid I want a free trial of an Apple service.
And no, Apple support cannot delete the music data. But don't worry, if you want to delete a single service from your Google account, you have been able to do this for YEARS.
And no, Apple support cannot delete the music data. But don't worry, if you want to delete a single service from your Google account, you have been able to do this for YEARS.
I got the migrate button to come back, and successfully completed a migration.
My issue was that I had a free movie rental on my "secondary account" that I've historically used for media and purchases. No account balance otherwise, but I had to burn that movie rental and then wait 48 hours for the rental to expire.
Then, the migrate button reappeared in Settings and I successfully migrated purchases.
My issue was that I had a free movie rental on my "secondary account" that I've historically used for media and purchases. No account balance otherwise, but I had to burn that movie rental and then wait 48 hours for the rental to expire.
Then, the migrate button reappeared in Settings and I successfully migrated purchases.
What the support agents told you is blatantly untrue.
I migrated a secondary account with an active Apple Music subscription, so both the “you can’t have active subscriptions” and “you can’t have ever used Apple Music on your secondary account” are wrong. You can’t have “preorders”, but that’s something completely different. That’s why you should never trust level 1 support.
There was a glitch where the migrate and unmigrate buttons disappeared for a day, but they returned on their own the next day. That may be what you ran into.
I’ve never made any media purchases or subscriptions (besides iCloud storage) on my primary account. I’ve never even ever logged into the App Stpre or iTunes with my primary account which I believe is the key. The primary account can not have ever been used for media purchases.
I’m not saying you’re wrong cause none of this makes sense, but this line kinda contradicts that statement:
- If your primary account has never been used for purchases or free downloads, you can’t migrate purchases.
Yes that line does not make sense and I thought it would prevent me from migrating as I’ve never made any media purchases or app downloads on my primary account that I can recall. I’m pretty sure I’ve never even signed into the App Store with my primary account yet I could migrate.
I wish they just had an iCloud webpage to merge X account into Y account
Would be amazing. I just wish I didn't have the amount of money invested in my secondary Apple Account as I do. I would easily eat a loss of a couple hundred to rebuy what I needed to.... But I've got like 600 movies...It's unfathomable.
It's hurtful to see Apple roll out such a half baked migration after all of these years. So broken that it's not just that we are unqualified for a migration at this time, but the support document mislead us into all the trouble it did (kicking family off of Apple One with a 90 day lockout, etc.)