Apple Now Lets You Migrate Purchases Between Apple Accounts. Here’s How

Apple recently rolled out a new feature that solves a problem that’s persisted for decades (really).

Way back in 2003, Apple introduced the iTunes Music Store. Charging for digital music files was a bold move in the face of the widespread file-swapping services, such as Napster, that were booming at the time. Apple bet that people wanted to legally own legitimate copies of music — Napster was later sued nearly out of existence — leading to an online marketplace that would go on to sell billions of songs.

But are you using the same email as you did back then, or perhaps you’ve been using two separate accounts for other reasons? If you switched to a new account at some point, such as an Apple Account that now handles your iCloud Plus subscription, those old purchases have been forever locked to that other ID. 

Until now.

This new feature now allows you to migrate purchases from one Apple account to another. Note that it does not merge Apple accounts. It’s only for bringing the items you bought using the old account to the new one so they’re all under the same digital umbrella.

The process is complicated and includes several caveats, so let’s walk through it together.

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How to tell if you have purchases under a different Apple account

Here’s how to see your purchase history from an account you may have used between then and now.

Go to reportaproblem.apple.com and sign in with the Apple ID and password of the account you want to check. This is Apple’s portal to check for fraudulent purchases, but it works great for viewing your history.

The purchases are listed chronologically and include anything bought from Apple, including music, video and apps.

Make sure your Apple accounts are eligible for migration

First, some important terminology. Apple calls the old account the “secondary” account, and your current account the “primary” account.

Next, Apple ties some strings to the migration process, so before you get started, make sure you’ve checked off the following criteria:

• Make sure the secondary account is not part of a Family Sharing group or is set up for Purchase Sharing. If it is, you can remove those options on a device signed in to that account (go to Settings > [Apple Account name] on a device or go to account.apple.com in a web browser and choose the Family Sharing option).
• Make sure both accounts have Two-Factor Authentication enabled.
• Both accounts must be set to the same country and region for purchases.
• If there is any outstanding balance on the secondary account, get it down to zero. The same applies to any outstanding rentals or pre-orders; they need to be complete before you can migrate.
• At least 15 days must have passed since the last purchase on the secondary account. (However, I was able to migrate some purchases from earlier in the week, so this might not be rigidly enforced.)
• Make sure you have the payment method nearby for the secondary account.

This last point is important to mention, because if it’s a different credit card than what you normally use, the secondary card becomes the payment method for the primary account. In my case, my primary account is tied to an Apple Card and my secondary account uses a credit card from my bank. After I migrated, that bank card became the main payment method, so I switched it back to my Apple Card.

Also, note that migrating assumes you won’t be using that account for purchases anymore, so you will not be able to make new purchases on it.

Sign in to Media & Purchases with your secondary account

With those prerequisites out of the way, it’s time to do the actual migration.

1. On your iPhone, iPad or Mac that’s signed in to your primary account, go to Settings > [Apple Account name].

2. Tap Media & Purchases and tap Sign Out to temporarily disconnect your purchases from your primary account. This means you won’t see items you’ve bought in the Apple TV app or Music app, for instance, but that’s OK.

3. The Media & Purchases option should now read Set Up: Tap it again. (If you get the same pop-up that appeared in the previous step, switch to another setting and then back to the Apple Account to see the Set Up option.)

4. In the next dialog, tap Not [your name or account], because you want to sign in using your secondary account.

5. Enter the secondary account name and password, and respond to the authentication step (such as getting a code from a device logged into that account or via text).

Now, the Media & Purchases item should display the address of your secondary account. (Again, I had to select a different setting and return to the Apple Account to see this result.)

Migrate purchases from the secondary account

To perform the actual migration, do the following:

1. Still in Settings > [Apple Account name], tap the Media & Purchases option.

2. In the pop-up that appears, tap View Account to view the Account Settings window.

3. Scroll down and tap Migrate Purchases. You may need to provide your primary account password.

4. In the Migrate Purchases window, verify the primary and secondary accounts and tap Continue.

At this point, you’ll be notified if any of the prerequisites above need to be addressed, such as whether the secondary account is part of a family sharing group.

5. On the next screen, review which items will and will not be migrated. Scroll down and tap Continue.

6. On the Finish Migration screen, tap Migrate.

Sign back in to Media & Purchases everywhere

Once the migration process has begun, it could take “up to a few hours” for everything to get moved over.

Apple says to sign out of the Media & Purchases account on all devices, and then sign back in using your primary account.

What if I’ve made a terrible mistake?

There is a way to undo the migration of purchases between your secondary and primary Apple accounts. Keep in mind that after undoing the migration, you won’t be able to migrate them again for one year.

Learn more: Have your purchases and other data filled up your iCloud allotment? Learn how to free up iCloud storage easily.