I did eventually manage to migrate (posted earlier), TestFlight was the issue for me. I had three apps I had been beta testing many years ago, and had completely forgotten about. I had to select each one in TestFlight and tap Stop Testing. After that, the Migrate button appeared. Successfully migrated everything. Maybe this, or a variation….?
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Apple Now Lets You Move Digital Purchases From One Apple Account to Another
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Holly crap!! This was it! Went back to TestFlight, though i had stopped testing active apps, I didn’t go into past apps and select “stop testing” once I did that, BAM the migrate button came back and it was a success!
Edit to add: Had U2 album in both accounts.
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Edit: Apple support confirmed the migrations require the secondary account to continue existing as it’s just an association and not a complete transfer of your purchase history. Don’t delete it. They were at least able to undo the migration which restored the account to add payment methods and update or download apps again.
They should probably mention that on the support page.
Original:
After a successful migration and seeing all the purchase history on the primary account I deleted the secondary account and it has not been a good experience. I’m locked out of adding payment methods and all the existing ones are gone, all my subscriptions originally on the primary account are cancelled including AppleCare, and apps on macOS and iOS will not update saying the account has been disabled.
When adding a new payment method the error is “Tap Continue to request re-enablement” but there is nothing that shows up to tap. When trying to update apps the error is “Your account has been disabled in the App Store and iTunes.”
Signing out and back in on all devices did not change anything and the primary account appears to be very broken now with everything on the AppStore.
Removing the apps that won’t update and attempting to reinstall them just results in an error as well which is “This redownload is not available for this Apple Account either because it was bought by a different user or the item was refunded or cancelled.”
Initially contacted support and was told my account was flagged for a security issue and they reenabled it after some questions. Updates appeared to start working but then several apps errored out. Total two hours of being escalated through support with a senior contact scheduled for a few hours from now.
TLDR don’t delete the secondary account even if everything seems successful you are probably in for a bad time.
They should probably mention that on the support page.
Original:
After a successful migration and seeing all the purchase history on the primary account I deleted the secondary account and it has not been a good experience. I’m locked out of adding payment methods and all the existing ones are gone, all my subscriptions originally on the primary account are cancelled including AppleCare, and apps on macOS and iOS will not update saying the account has been disabled.
When adding a new payment method the error is “Tap Continue to request re-enablement” but there is nothing that shows up to tap. When trying to update apps the error is “Your account has been disabled in the App Store and iTunes.”
Signing out and back in on all devices did not change anything and the primary account appears to be very broken now with everything on the AppStore.
Removing the apps that won’t update and attempting to reinstall them just results in an error as well which is “This redownload is not available for this Apple Account either because it was bought by a different user or the item was refunded or cancelled.”
Initially contacted support and was told my account was flagged for a security issue and they reenabled it after some questions. Updates appeared to start working but then several apps errored out. Total two hours of being escalated through support with a senior contact scheduled for a few hours from now.
TLDR don’t delete the secondary account even if everything seems successful you are probably in for a bad time.
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Thanks for sharing this information! I am surprised the secondary account would not have produce some kind of a warning given the account had been migrated.
Question for you: Can you confirm whether you ever had iTunes Match or Apple Music past or present on either the Primary and Secondary accounts?
I know this question wasn’t directed at me but just for info if it helps anyone. I am subscribed to iTunes Match and Apple Music on my Secondary account. I was subscribed to Apple Music on my Primary account several years ago, but only a free trial via Best Buy. I did log into Apple Music on my Primary account to check nothing was there. Hid the U2 album and was presented with an offer of six months of Apple Music for $2.99. Didn’t take it of course. The U2 album has nothing to do with it as you can’t actually delete it at this time.
Have (had) iTunes Match on secondary account, had to resync from iMac, iPhone & iPad now all on one main account.
This was my suspicion hence my prior warning post.
Apple Account purchase migration tool now 'works' in the EU and UK - 9to5Mac
Apple has updated its support document for the recently introduced purchase migration tool, removing the EU and UK from the...
9to5mac.com
Migration button is now missing from my account again, which I am interpreting as a good sign. Hopefully they have successfully implemented the pre-migration checks now, such that it only appears IF you can migrate. In this case, we can simply periodically check to see if the migration button has re-appeared..makes it easy if not repeatedly disappointing.
Just got an answer from senior Apple Support regarding my account purchases migration failure.
If you have or ever had a subscription to either Apple Music or iTunes Match on your Primary account, this makes you non eligible for the migration . Secondary is okay, but not Primary.
The official solution for people like me is to setup a Family Share to access all purchases.
If you managed to get your account migration to work and have or had either subscription on the primary then you got lucky.
It seems that Apple has put in a safeguard to protect a users music library from getting damaged. You may remember several years ago when Apple users experienced music libraries that vanished.
If you have or ever had a subscription to either Apple Music or iTunes Match on your Primary account, this makes you non eligible for the migration . Secondary is okay, but not Primary.
The official solution for people like me is to setup a Family Share to access all purchases.
If you managed to get your account migration to work and have or had either subscription on the primary then you got lucky.
It seems that Apple has put in a safeguard to protect a users music library from getting damaged. You may remember several years ago when Apple users experienced music libraries that vanished.
No I’ve never used anything but a local library in iTunes. Aside from the U2 album everyone got and I long since used the removal option after the backlash.
A warning in the support document would be a great start. Some sort of warning at delete account if it’s linked after a “migration” would be even better. Mobile Me users will never escape their old accounts at this rate. lol
I was an old MobileMe user and with the migration done I consider the matter closed. Yes technically my old iTunes account still exist, but since I only used it for iTunes, everything on it now shows on my iCloud account and now it won’t allow logging in for that I’ve put it behind me.
The only remaining thing left is that I use my iTunes account for my Game Center account so I still need to log into it for that.
Hi!
I have been trying to migrate for a several hours without luck, and had 2h long chat with apple support with not much results.
The button is showing but after a few seconds will error with:
Unable to migrate purchases. One or more accounts is not eligible for purchase migration.
My current feeling is that it’s a music library issue.
Since Apple has no clear explanation, I’m hoping some here can help guide me hopefully.
My old account (hotmail) has no subscription anymore. It used to have apple music etc. Opening the music app, its all empty so I assume the library is gone?
My current account (icloud) has all my subscription actives, including apple one premium, etc.
What exactly should I do to fix the music library issue and what will I lose? Losing 20y+ if music is not really what I am looking forward to… i just wanna get done with double passwords etc everytime due to so many apps accross both accounts.
Thanks
I have been trying to migrate for a several hours without luck, and had 2h long chat with apple support with not much results.
The button is showing but after a few seconds will error with:
Unable to migrate purchases. One or more accounts is not eligible for purchase migration.
My current feeling is that it’s a music library issue.
Since Apple has no clear explanation, I’m hoping some here can help guide me hopefully.
My old account (hotmail) has no subscription anymore. It used to have apple music etc. Opening the music app, its all empty so I assume the library is gone?
My current account (icloud) has all my subscription actives, including apple one premium, etc.
What exactly should I do to fix the music library issue and what will I lose? Losing 20y+ if music is not really what I am looking forward to… i just wanna get done with double passwords etc everytime due to so many apps accross both accounts.
Thanks
Just went through this. Completely disabled all forms of sharing, deleted all cloud based data, cancelled Apple One Premium. All just to try and make the migration work.
After spending about 6 hours working with Apple over 4 calls I finally got what I believe to be a knowledgeable senior support contact to confirm the following:
If the primary account has or ever had a subscription to either Apple Music or iTunes Match then this account is not eligible for migration.
The person I was speaking with at Apple read this to me directly from their screen. They fully acknowledged that the Apple Support documentation and migration check list currently do not state this.
This is how Apple currently describes the point in question:
"You can’t migrate purchases if both the primary Apple Account and the secondary Apple Account have music library data associated with each of them."
Speculation:
This was probably done to prevent people from damaging a music library due to the migration process.
Possibly, if your Primary account was not subscribed to either Apple Music or iTunes Match for certain number of days the process might work since cloud data for cancelled subscriptions is supposed it get deleted at some point.
Thanks a lot for your great insight!
This seem to correlate what the tech guy was trying to tell me (he was not so great at conveying his thoughts).
This would render this migration system only handy for "new" users with an old media&purchase account and about to create a new account. Anyone that has had apple stuff for a while is bound to have either of their account fully loaded, like mines...
"If the primary account has or ever had a subscription to either Apple Music or iTunes Match then this account is not eligible for migration." as in... ever?
So, do I take it that we have 0 solutions as it does not seem to be a way to completely "delete" a music library. Back to adding my 2nd account to Family Sharing I guess then.... Damn this sucks :s
I wish I had better news. For over 15 years the answer to customers requesting migration or merging of accounts has been a Hard No. And now for the vast majority of Apple customers who could really use the account migration the answer is still a Hard No.
From what I've heard the official remedy is for users to utilize Family Sharing. This is your solution case closed. I just don't understand why they bothered doing anything.
The thing that got everybody celebrating was how all the tech blogs announced this as the thing we had all been waiting for. Together with the fact that the Apple Support document was not completely clear on the restrictions.
Totally agree with you. When I saw the news, I dropped a beat, finally it was here, spent the whole day and so many hours trying to figure it out to this...
In a way, I wish they would have not done that and leave it as it was lol.. Oh well, who knows, in another 10 years they might fix something else for us..
I would argue that for most people migration worked and that only a relatively small number of people cannot migrate. I’ve had 2 Apple accounts for 17 years and was able to migrate without issue. I’ve never used my iCloud account for anything but iCloud.
You can't argue about facts you don't actually know. No one knows how many users can or can't use this supposed migration feature. And there are an absolute ton of complaints on all the Apple forums from users saying the system neither tells them why it's failed for them, nor offering any clear way forward when it does fail.
Then we have these 2-4 hour calls to AppleCare users are forced into, to maybe-perhaps get a reason or not; given tech staff there are often at a loss to understand the errors themselves.
Even if it transpires that a user used to subscribe to Apple Music several years ago on their primary account, why should Apple make a system that stops them migrating years later? Especially given people were forced into making decisions on which account to use in the first place, due to Apple's past intransigence on account issues.
This is all so badly designed and implemented by Apple. Yet again.
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I was responding to a post that said most people couldn’t migrate. I argued that most could. There was also a post that only people with new iCloud accounts could migrate. I mentioned I migrated to my original MobileMe Apple account.
If this was a mass problem I’d expect articles about migration problems at all the major tech sites. I found one. The Apple discussions I’ve seen had a few dozen “me toos”. Similarly Reddit posts have a couple of replies.
I’m not saying there aren’t people that can’t migrate. I’m saying they are in the minority.
Add another to the minority I suppose. ;-)
Old original mobile me account and new(er) iCloud account, and "one or both accounts are ineligible.".
Apple should've offered a migration prep tool, to verify the accounts first, and then provide remediation mechanisms /solutions to the end-user to make sure both accounts are "eligible". THEN run the Migration wizard itself to migrate.
Just my 2 cents..
Finny.
Old original mobile me account and new(er) iCloud account, and "one or both accounts are ineligible.".
Apple should've offered a migration prep tool, to verify the accounts first, and then provide remediation mechanisms /solutions to the end-user to make sure both accounts are "eligible". THEN run the Migration wizard itself to migrate.
Just my 2 cents..
Finny.