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

If you have two Apple Accounts with multiple digital purchases between them, Apple now has a way for you to consolidate the accounts by migrating content from one account to another.

As noted by Stephen Hackett of 512 Pixels, Apple today published a support document that provides instructions for moving purchases from a secondary Apple Account to a primary Apple Account.

Apps, music, books, TV shows, and movies that have been purchased on a secondary account can be migrated to a main account, which is useful for people who have separate accounts for iCloud and for making media purchases.

Apple says that to migrate purchases, the primary email address, phone number, password for both accounts is required, neither account should be shared, and two-factor authentication must be turned on. When the migration takes place, the Apple Account that's signed in for use with ‌iCloud‌ will be the primary Apple Account, and the Apple Account signed in for Media and Purchases will be the secondary Apple Account.

To go through the process, you'll need to sign in with two different accounts on an iPhone or iPad, one for ‌iCloud‌ and one for purchases. There are several steps to go through, such as making sure that both accounts are set to the same country, and ensuring the secondary account does not have a remaining balance.

If you're interested in merging accounts, you should go through the checklist that Apple has outlined, and read through Apple's info on what happens during an account migration and how to undo it.

The actual merging process can be done by opening up the Settings app, going to Media and Purchases, tapping View Account, and then choosing the Migrate Purchases option. After migration, the secondary account can no longer be used for purchases, and you will need to sign in with the primary account on all Apple devices.

When combining accounts, all payment methods associated with the secondary account will migrate to the primary Apple Account, and subscriptions will also transfer over. The secondary account's Up Next queue in Apple TV will also migrate over and replace content from the primary account, as will any podcast library data.

Migrating Apple Account purchases is not available in the European Union, United Kingdom, or India at the current time.