About migrating Apple Account purchases between accounts – Apple Support

Now THIS is a true “finally.”

For years, I’ve thought that if Apple were ever going to allow the merging of a media-only Apple ID with a primary one, it would have happened a decade ago. I had long since given up hope that they would ever dedicate resources to this.

Recently, I’ve been dealing with an awful macOS bug where the App Store won’t stay logged into my secondary “media” Apple ID. When I called Apple Support, several specialists were surprised that it’s even possible to use two different Apple IDs. That’s how far back this issue dates. The last time Apple even allowed the creation of an Apple ID dissociated from an @mac, @me, or @iCloud address was so long ago that most of their support team is too young to know it was ever possible. Wild.

I’m overjoyed that I can finally end my 15+ year nightmare of managing media purchases under a separate account. Maybe you’re in the same boat.

If so, be sure to read all of the fine print. There are several conditions, and I’ve seen multiple reports on Reddit about common bugs. I haven’t done the migration yet because you can’t if you’ve purchased anything with one of the IDs in the past 15 days, and I just bought an app a few days ago.

I’ll report back once I go through with it. This might be one of those things where it’s worth waiting a month or so to let the rest of the internet (and Apple) work out the bugs.

About migrating Apple Account purchases between accounts – Apple Support:

You can choose to migrate apps, music, and other content you’ve purchased from Apple on a secondary Apple Account to a primary Apple Account. The secondary Apple Account might be an account that’s used only for purchases. You’ll need access to the primary email address or phone number and password for both accounts, and neither account should be shared with anyone else. Learn more about how to migrate purchases.
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