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

[NervousFish2]

Had some trouble with Apple TV, too. My "Next Up" queue stopped updating completely. Couldn't add anything new, either from ATV or from my iPhone's ATV app. Logged out of ATV with the main account. Rebooted. Logged in again. And it seems to be working now.

 

[Norouzi]

So it's the Apple Music subscription that ruins it?

The support article implies that is possible if the primary account already had a music library...

About migrating Apple Account purchases between accounts - Apple Support

Learn about what purchases and associated content can be migrated between two accounts.

support.apple.com

Though that conflicts with the other article

Migrate purchases from one Apple Account to another Apple Account - Apple Support

If an Apple Account is only used for making purchases, those purchases can be migrated to a primary Apple Account to consolidate them.

support.apple.com

Turns out my primary account had that stupid free U2 album, and nothing else.....

Were you ever able to get your accounts to merge? I think I've been facing something similar. My chat with support was absolutely useless as they just kept referring me to the article and couldn't tell me what the "music library data" actually meant. When I log into Music with my secondary account I keep seeing that stupid U2 album come back. I've cleared the Library of everything else that was in it.

 

[NervousFish2]

Just a note. I had to relink all the apps to Apple TV again. The first 3 I had to link one at a time and then somehow all the others linked automatically.

Had some trouble with Apple TV, too. My "Next Up" queue stopped updating completely. Couldn't add anything new, either from ATV or from my iPhone's ATV app. Logged out of ATV with the main account. Rebooted. Logged in again. And it seems to be working now.

 

[bluesteel]

Holy *****, this is so freakin' over due. Been wanting to do this for the last 15 years or so.

Just performed the migration ten minutes ago. Very easy. All purchases (movies, tv, music, apps, etc) from my secondary apple account have transferred over to my primary iCloud account already. Wasn't expecting the transfer to complete so fast.

 

[NervousFish2]

This is probably why mine didn't work. If my primary account had Music data it was from trying to figure out how to do Family Setup or something while juggling both accounts for so many years in the first place!

One thing I will note tho is old iTunes purchases do move. I am not sure if this because I never had an Apple Music account on my old account. But I was tickled to see some really old album purchases show up in my Music app. There are a few that are not streaming in AM!

Old audio book purchases showing up in Books, too. Great!

 

[pixelwix]

Was anyone able to get there testflight working after the migration? Iost all my invites.

 

[Cbarnett202]

The migration not only did not work - it’s also screwed up my family share. Just spent 1.5 hours on phone with senior advisor to no avail.

 

[Astrohunter]

• 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.

So if I purchased music on main account and secondary, I can't merge them?
How does it make any sense?

 

[SavageFromNiceCave]

I'm getting the "unable to migrate" error. I've read the support article 1000 times and the only bullet point I'm not quite understanding is "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."

What exactly is "music library data"? It can't be as simple as iTunes purchases as it sounds like others have managed to move theirs. I did at one time subscribe to iTunes Match on the secondary account, but all remnants of that (such as uploaded non-iTunes tracks) would have been removed many, many years ago. Is this what's stopping me??

 

[Morac]

Just a note. I had to relink all the apps to Apple TV again. The first 3 I had to link one at a time and then somehow all the others linked automatically.

Just want to update that channel links do not migrate over. I thought some did, but it turns out channels link as “families” and about 8 were in a family. I had to manually link all channels I wanted to connect to Apple TV. It’s easier to do that in the iPhone or iPad Apple TV app than it is on Apple TV as you can just tap the channel in the “channel and apps” section and click link.

 

[Morac]

Also a warning about Apple Music. I somehow ended up with a few duplicated playlists and music library items.

This explains why Apple Music was giving me a bunch of ineligible statues when trying to re-add items to my library as they were already there. Fortunately this was a very small percentage of my overall library. Around 50 out of 8517 songs, so I was able to clean this up fairly quickly.

I would recommend downloading any purchased, matched and uploaded music before migrating though. It doesn’t really matter about Apple Music+ ones as you don’t own those anyway.

 

[spacegoose]

I'm now slightly confused by the discussions about family sharing. In the Apple manual it states:

• Make sure the secondary Apple Account isn’t a part of a different Family Sharing group, and that it’s not being used for Purchase Sharing. Learn how to leave Family Sharing and turn off Purchase Sharing.

I have a secondary Apple ID that I use for media and app purchases. For this Apple ID i have enabled family sharing with my family. What does "different" family now mean? It is not a different family. It is my family. Do I now need to disable family sharing prior to the migration and then re-enable it once migrated to the primary Apple ID or how do I achieve that my family still has access to the purchases that were shared through me?

What about purchase sharing? Should I just disable purchase sharing, migrate and then re-enable it on the primary Apple ID?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[jimthing]

How does this all work with lossless ALAC files you own (i.e. not bought from Apple)?

Like many others, I have 99% of my owned tracks as digitised ALAC's in Apple Music macOS app, and use iTunes Match service to match them and be able to download lossy versions on my iOS/iPadOS devices.

My iTunes Match and Apple TV+ annual subscriptions are with my secondary 'stores' Apple Account (used for all sw/music/movie + hw purchases from Apple). While my 'iCloud' Apple Account is for all the sync stuff (iCloud+ 2TB, email/sync services etc.)

(ex-MobileMe user, with a previous stores A-ID, so like millions of others I had to have new A-ID for MobileMe onwards forced by Apple!)

Not an Apple Music subscriber now (though in 2015 tried it free for 3-mths trial, using my 'iCloud' Apple Account).

Any problems to note, or hold-ups stopping me using this migration anyone can see?

 

[DustinJohns]

The migration not only did not work - it’s also screwed up my family share. Just spent 1.5 hours on phone with senior advisor to no avail.

Scroll back a little bit and there’s a fix for the family share thing, assuming it’s the same issue I had.

 

[DustinJohns]

Also a warning about Apple Music. I somehow ended up with a few duplicated playlists and music library items.

This explains why Apple Music was giving me a bunch of ineligible statues when trying to re-add items to my library as they were already there. Fortunately this was a very small percentage of my overall library. Around 50 out of 8517 songs, so I was able to clean this up fairly quickly.

I would recommend downloading any purchased, matched and uploaded music before migrating though. It doesn’t really matter about Apple Music+ ones as you don’t own those anyway.

If I have to backup my music before migrating, I’d rather just leave it the way it is. It takes less effort to just not migrate at all, if I have to backup my stuff in fear of losing it.

 

[DustinJohns]

I'm now slightly confused by the discussions about family sharing. In the Apple manual it states:



I have a secondary Apple ID that I use for media and app purchases. For this Apple ID i have enabled family sharing with my family. What does "different" family now mean? It is not a different family. It is my family. Do I now need to disable family sharing prior to the migration and then re-enable it once migrated to the primary Apple ID or how do I achieve that my family still has access to the purchases that were shared through me?

What about purchase sharing? Should I just disable purchase sharing, migrate and then re-enable it on the primary Apple ID?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

This is the situation a lot of us were in. The wording is so confusing. I disabled my secondary from family sharing, and migration still failed. At that point I wasn’t able to add it back because you become locked out for 90 days. I would refrain from doing that until everything is sorted out.

 

[macsimcon]

Who cares about iOS and iPadOS? I need to move Mac apps between two accounts: one is personal and one is business. But of course, I can't do that, that would be crazy.

Oh, and once you move purchases from one account to the other, the old account can no longer be used for purchases. Another stupid, stupid policy from Apple. It's like buffoons are running the company. Oh wait, that's just what's happening...

 

[spacegoose]

This is the situation a lot of us were in. The wording is so confusing. I disabled my secondary from family sharing, and migration still failed. At that point I wasn’t about to add it back because you become locked out for 90 days. I would refrain from doing that until everything is sorted out.

Thanks!

 

[macnavarra]

"This is the situation a lot of us were in. The wording is so confusing. I disabled my secondary from family sharing, and migration still failed. At that point I wasn’t about to add it back because you become locked out for 90 days"

Obvious Second or first account, ATM Card mandatory for family sharing.

 

[jjp007]

Now just make it where we can move our Apple Card to a new Apple ID and we are set!

this exactly THIS. i somehow applied for the apple card with my old account i don't use much and now I can't use it on my main account. Saves me money though lol but agree that it would be nice if this could be done.

 

[jjp007]

Careful here. I just did the merge, and all the music I had on my phone that I didn’t buy from Apple/iTunes is not there. All but 2 playlists are also missing. Song count was over 10k, now down to about 1500.
It says it could take a few hours for the music library to migrate, but I’m glad I have backups just in case.

can you reply and let me know if it all transferred over, this is my concern as well. Good luck.

 

[Morac]

What does "different" family now mean? It is not a different family. It is my family.

Based on my experience the secondary account can’t be part of any family. My secondary and primary accounts were in the same family and it wouldn’t let me migrate the secondary account until it left my family group.

 

[surferfb]

• 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.

So if I purchased music on main account and secondary, I can't merge them?
How does it make any sense?

A complete and total guess that is likely wrong, but maybe there is something in their contract with record labels about not allowing transferring music between accounts? And maybe Apple got the labels to agree that a completely empty account is ok, but one that has existing music is not?

I'm probably wrong, but rights issues is often the cause of "something that sounds very stupid" being in place when it comes to music. And this seems like the simplest fix in the world otherwise.

 

[sodajerk2]

How Apple of them "You might not see Migrate Purchases if you’re not eligible" — so good luck figuring out which of the 10 things that could be blocking you from migrating.

Yep, I was unable to migrate for some unexplained reason. It would actually be helpful if an explanation was provided regarding what prevented the migration with links to how to resolve the issue.

 

[DustinJohns]

I’m curious at this point if anyone was unable to migrate at first, found out what was causing it, and then successfully migrated. That has to be a very small amount of people. I literally changed one thing hoping to resolve the issue, and it made everything worse, so I gave up. 😂