Apple Now Lets You Move Digital Purchases From One Apple Account to Another

[BeauGiles]

That message is detailed and a good find. Can you check your iCloud drive settings? Do you see Apps syncing to iCloud drive and then is Music enabled? The "and iCloud has mac push device" makes me wonder if you turn off iCloud syncing for the Music app in iCloud drive, maybe it will delete the data you want from your primary account and then let you complete the merge. Also, i'm curious if you even see the Music app listed here in your iCloud drive settings on your Mac with your primary account. My account has already been merged and I see the Music app listed on my Mac (and enabled) but do not see it on my wife's Mac (her account has not yet been merged). I also don't see it on my iPhone, but the error message specifically states "mac push" so I'm wondering if you need to disable that from iCloud sync on your Mac.

You can get to this setting by clicking into your apple account (on your Mac), clicking iCloud, clicking Drive, then clicking Apps that sync to iCloud Drive.

No luck here - if I log into my Mac account that has my primary account signed into iCloud + Media & Purchases, Music doesn't show in iCloud Drive settings at all.

If I log into my other Mac account that has my primary account signed into iCloud and the secondary signed in for Media & Purchases, then it does appear in iCloud Drive - toggling makes no difference.

I also found this article about resetting your iCloud music library. Not sure if these steps will help you but maybe you can wipe it out from your primary account.

Apple Music Messed Up? Reset Your iCloud Music Library

If your songs didn't match well in Apple Music, you may want to reset your iCloud Music Library. Here's step-by-step instructions for how.

www.tomsguide.com

Unfortunately based on the error message, it does appear that if you 'ever' had a music library, you're out of luck - mine is already empty, apart from that stupid U2 album + digital booklet which I've tried deleting, but the fact it still exists means I'm out of luck.

Hoping that either the Apple Feedback team or even the Privacy team have some good news soon...

 

[Morac]

I was successfully able to transfer all my purchases to my 'primary account' from my 'secondary account'. Does any one know if you can safely delete the 'secondary account' after this procedure is successful?

I would highly recommend not doing that as the secondary account is still there, it’s just hidden behind the scenes. You can still see it listed in the primary account’s media account info screen. Deleting the secondary account might end up deleting all the migrated purchases off the primary account.

 

[Morac]

"Account has a music library on iTunes and ever had a music library on iCloud and iCloud has mac push device"

That error message really is a word salad, but if I’m reading it correctly it’s complaining you have a music library on your secondary account (iTunes) and you at some point in the past signed into iTunes Match or Apple Music on your primary account (iCloud) and synced your music library from your Mac to the cloud.

Interpreting that, it means even signing in to iTunes on a Mac/Windows with your iCloud (primary) account, enabling cloud sync (which requires iTunes Match or Apple Music) and pushing an empty music library to the cloud is enough to make your primary account ineligible.

What is a bit ambiguous is the wording “has a Mac push device” which implies that a Mac is still syncing to the primary account as it says “has” and not “had”. Then again the error message may just be worded wrong.

Why Apple would would limit that, I have no idea. If Apple really wanted to they could just make the migrated library overwrite the existing one, so it’s an artificial limitation.

 

[nylon]

I would highly recommend not doing that as the secondary account is still there, it’s just hidden behind the scenes. You can still see it listed in the primary account’s media account info screen. Deleting the secondary account might end up deleting all the migrated purchases off the primary account.

Logically doesn't seem to make any sense. Isn't the whole point to transfer ownership of purchases from one account to another.

 

[tothemoonsands]

I love the idea others here have mentioned - this isn’t just an iCloud/iTunes team issue, it’s a privacy team issue.

That’s a fantastic angle. We should be able to delete individual service data for privacy / GDPR reasons. And then that should open the door for migrations.

This elevates the migration issue from merely a convenience factor to actual regulatory compliance. It’s a great angle for us to try to get a solution from Apple.

 

[Morac]

Logically doesn't seem to make any sense. Isn't the whole point to transfer ownership of purchases from one account to another.

From what I can tell it doesn’t actually transfer ownership of purchases from one account to another, but effectively links the 2 accounts together so the purchases in the secondary account are treated as if they are in the primary account similar to family sharing. That’s why there’s an “un-migrate” option which separates them again. If you delete the secondary account, it’s possible that link will be severed. I’m guessing it probably won’t even let you delete the account unless you unmigrate first, but who knows with Apple.

There’s no real reason to delete the secondary account anyway at that point as it won’t let you login with it for media purchases. It can still be used for iCloud and Game Center, but if you don’t use it for that just ignore it and pretend it doesn’t exist.

 

[nylon]

From what I can tell it doesn’t actually transfer ownership of purchases from one account to another, but effectively links the 2 accounts together so the purchases in the secondary account are treated as if they are in the primary account similar to family sharing. That’s why there’s an “un-migrate” option which separates them again. If you delete the secondary account, it’s possible that link will be severed. I’m guessing it probably won’t even let you delete the account unless you unmigrate first, but who knows with Apple.

I'm not sure if this is accurate. If I login to my 'primary account' on my Mac all my iTunes transferred purchases show up and are downloadable without having the 'secondary account' ever signed in on the Mac. It's possible since you can only do one migration a year that after one year you are no longer able to unmigrate.

 

[Morac]

I'm not sure if this is accurate. If I login to my 'primary account' on my Mac all my iTunes transferred purchases show up and are downloadable without having the 'secondary account' ever signed in on the Mac. It's possible since you can only do one migration a year that after one year you are no longer able to unmigrate.

Again the media portion of the accounts are effectively linked. By signing in to your primary account you get the secondary account automatically.

On an iPhone or iPad, if you go to Settings -> Your Name -> Media & Purchases -> View Account and then scroll down you can see the secondary account’s email address listed even though you are signed into your primary account. If the purchases were truly migrated over, there’d be no need to list the secondary account at all.

There’s nothing that says you can only unmigrate for a year. The only restriction is you can’t remigrate for 1 year after you unmigrate.

Again there’s no reason to delete an Apple account which is why the option is hidden away on a separate privacy web site. You can always just change the email address associated with the account if you don’t want it associated with your email.

 

[nylon]

On an iPhone or iPad, if you go to Settings -> Your Name -> Media & Purchases -> View Account and then scroll down you can see the secondary account’s email address listed even though you are signed into your primary account. If the purchases were truly migrated over, there’d be no need to list the secondary account at all.

As stated earlier, after the transfer process on iOS if you login to your primary account on Mac, all the purchases show up, without reference to the secondary account. I believe on iOS the secondary account is listed to facilitate undoing the migration if you wish to do so.

Again there’s no reason to delete an Apple account which is why the option is hidden away on a separate privacy web site. You can always just change the email address associated with the account if you don’t want it associated with your email.

Just to be sure I just contacted Apple support. They stated that once you have confirmed purchases have successfully transferred and you are sure you do not need any data on the 'secondary account' then it is safe to delete the 'secondary account'. The purchase transfers are unaffected. The only issue is you will obviously be unable to undo the migration.

 

[WebHead]

Those who've had multiple accounts long enough for this to be a problem likely have the U2 album, no? And since many have had success with the migration, maybe it's not the culprit?

 

[Cinimod1000]

Those who've had multiple accounts long enough for this to be a problem likely have the U2 album, no? And since many have had success with the migration, maybe it's not the culprit?

Yes, I had the u2 album. I deleted it, signed out and back in and was presented with the offer of Apple Music for 6 months. I don’t think that is the problem.

 

[jimthing]

FYI, you used to be able to delete that U2 album from your music library; but CANNOT do so anymore as the tool's been deleted. Here's the original MR story about it, from 2014.09.15:
"Apple Creates Tool for Users to Delete Unwanted U2 Album"

But surely EVERY Apple account got the U2 album, so I can't see the U2 album being the issue stopping these migrations, as that would mean the migration wouldn't work for almost anyone (except the few folks who actually used the removal tool at the time, obviously!).

 

[jimthing]

I'd REALLY like an explanation from Apple as to why UK Apple Accounts are not allowed to use this migration feature AT ALL!

Added a week later.

 

[Cinimod1000]

FYI, you used to be able to delete that U2 album from your music library; but CANNOT do so anymore as the tool's been deleted. Here's the original MR story about it, from 2014.09.15:
"Apple Creates Tool for Users to Delete Unwanted U2 Album"

But surely EVERY Apple account got the U2 album, so I can't see the U2 album being the issue stopping these migrations, as that would mean the migration wouldn't work for almost anyone (except the few folks who actually used the removal tool at the time, obviously!).

Well, I can categorically say the U2 album was not the problem. I decided to try and migrate the secondary account again. Deleted Family Sharing (just myself and wife). Set her up with her own account and icloud backup. Still no joy. Then I downloaded the TestFlight app using my secondary account on my iPhone to double check and saw three apps I used to test several years ago. Deleted them and voila, I was then able to merge/ migrate accounts.
So, lesson learned. Double check yourself 😵‍💫.
I still think Apple need to have the software tell you exactly WHY you are “ineligible”……

 

[WebHead]

Those who've had multiple accounts long enough for this to be a problem likely have the U2 album, no? And since many have had success with the migration, maybe it's not the culprit?

Yes, I had the u2 album. I deleted it, signed out and back in and was presented with the offer of Apple Music for 6 months. I don’t think that is the problem.

Sorry, just realised that had already been established earlier.

 

[adm58]

There’s no real reason to delete the secondary account anyway at that point as it won’t let you login with it for media purchases. It can still be used for iCloud and Game Center, but if you don’t use it for that just ignore it and pretend it doesn’t exist.

I think the key reason (other than personal fastidiousness) would be to free up the name space to then add that email to the primary account. Then the user could enable it as a "reachable at" address for Messages and FaceTime, in addition to their .Mac/MobileMe/iCloud address.

But I agree it would be dangerous to try deleting the old secondary account. The migration process seems like less of a migration and more of a glue.

Now that I have successfully migrated purchases, I've considered going into the secondary account and renaming it so that I can reclaim that email address on my primary. But I don't plan on attempting it. Again, feels too risky.

 

[tothemoonsands]

Unfortunately seems the thread is stalling out. Appears we are simply out of luck for now ☹️

At the very least let’s try to make sure we can unify any future threads into this one, or however we can consolidate info to make sure we all stay up on the latest developments together.

 

[spacegoose]

I agree. If not done yet please provide feedback at apple.com/feedback. I think for now that's the only thing we can do.

 

[gdjsnyder]

I agree. If not done yet please provide feedback at apple.com/feedback. I think for now that's the only thing we can do.

I’d add in addition the leaving feedback there, leaving feedback at http://feedbackassistant.apple.com/ may also be beneficial. These reports go directly to the engineering teams and you can actually track these reports as well.

 

[One2Manycats]

Like others I have spent many hours working with Apple Support and still cannot get past the following error message:

“Unable to Migrate Purchases. One or both accounts is not eligible for purchase migration.”

My wife and I created a Family Share through a subscription to Apple One Premier. We each have two accounts (Primary and Secondary). Four accounts or family members total. This was all done as a workaround for the Secondary accounts.

Okay here is what Apple Support had me try in chronological order:

• Remove Secondary Accounts from Family. Solution failed.
• Stop Family Purchase Sharing. Solution failed
• Stop Sharing iCloud Storage. Solution failed
• Dissolve Family completely and cancel Apple One Premier, wait 48 hours before retrying account migration.

The Apple Support staff have been great and I really do feel for them. You can just tell they are frustrated with how this is going. To a large degree many of the solutions suggested have been cooked up among themselves. One lady told me she was getting her information from an online employee chat forum where possible solutions are shared.

At first, I was told having Apple Music at any time on the Secondary would make the migration non eligible. Then I was told it was actually having had iTunes Match would make the migration non eligible. Next, it was the active Apple One Premier on my Primary Account, which was causing the problem because this includes Apple Music. Now, I wait 48 hours and give it a try again, what a mess.

By the way, a post like this one will get removed from the Apple Discussion forums due to not being helpful. Very surprising.

 

[One2Manycats]

If anybody is interested in having a complete list of purchased items for your account you can use:

https://reportaproblem.apple.com

Just login with your Apple ID and scroll to the bottom, wait for everything to load. Then if your browser is Safari you can just go File->Export as PDF.

Nice to have a copy to back check the purchase migration process should you have success.

 

[gdjsnyder]

Also, just so every one is aware, I updated my iPad mini to iPadOS 18.4 and still get the ‘unable to migrate purchases’ error.

 

[MikeCP]

If anybody is interested in having a complete list of purchased items for your account you can use:

https://reportaproblem.apple.com

Just login with your Apple ID and scroll to the bottom, wait for everything to load. Then if your browser is Safari you can just go File->Export as PDF.

Nice to have a copy to back check the purchase migration process should you have success.

This was nice to have to review, but using the console I get that error others are reporting showing a previous Apple Music Library...and yet, no purchase of that ever.

 

[MAXAAPL]

I still don’t have an option to migrate. I went thought the checklist many times and still the option has completely disappeared from my secondary account.

When I attempted to sign in via another secondary account that I haven’t really used, the option to migrate comes up right away.

I requested some of my data from Apple a few days ago and I finally got it back. It seems that having the music app turned on in my primary account syncs things like play time, skip count etc. However when I sign in on my primary for media and purchase there isn’t an Apple Music library or songs to remove from my library. I did notice that a few smart playlists I created on my secondary (this account holds my entire Apple Music library) somehow were also in my primary account but I have since deleted them (they were completely empty because again no songs in the library on the primary).

Honestly I think I’m going to just give up. It’s annoying that I waited for this feature to be a thing but for whatever reason my secondary account does not have the to option at all to migrate. When the feature first came out, it had the option but said “unable to migrate. One or both accounts are not eligible”. Now the option has completely disappeared and this is just so aggravating because I can’t understand why.

 

[MAXAAPL]

Yes, I had the u2 album. I deleted it, signed out and back in and was presented with the offer of Apple Music for 6 months. I don’t think that is the problem.

I didn’t even have the U2 album in my primary account. There’s literally no songs and I never paid for an Apple Music subscription that would even allow the primary account to use Apple Music. Still no option to migrate.