I moved country, changed iTunes stores and now my Apps can't be updated!?

Once every year I check if Apple did change their processes when shifting an account from country to country - based on my profession I did and do change countries often and don´t have the time to go through all the time wasting processes and I´m too lazy filling out all the information once again!

Sharing my experience: I think it´s safer to keep a credit card from the originating country and just change the shipping address. And so in a way beating a non-working system.

Downside:

• I won´t be able to download/purchase country-specific content (e.g. app from a local mall)
• Maybe I won´t benefit from a cheaper price on media (e.g. US to UK)

Upside:

• I keep all my content and
• it´s well organised within its bubble
• Maybe I benefit from a cheaper price
• I still can use an App not available in my new country

In my case the advantages did outweigh the disadvantages...

...it seems no one at Apple´s decision making circle did move his account to another country...

Apple is a US company where the complexity horizon ends at its borders (more and more so if I think of my iPhone troubles I have with the changing phone networks living within half a mile of the border).

With the number of people having clicked on this problem I wonder why Apple didn´t already come up with a solution...

Use https://www.apple.com/feedback/ to tell Apple how you feel. A similar issue exists for shared apps in Family Sharing. I can download a copy of any of the apps that my children buy, but I cannot update them unless I either know their passwords, or I delete and reinstall. 😕

tt2

As previously given, all iTunes and App Store content is tied to national stores. Switch back to the UK store and you should be able to redownload/update all of your past purchases from that store.

See Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy for a recommended way to backup your library.

tt2

I have the same problem, I moved from Singapore to The Netherlands, had around 1000$ worth of movies and I don't know for how much worth of CDs purchased and it is all gone now. Of course I can log in back to Singapore store but I cancelled all my bank accounts there and have no payment options anymore. So that is not easy.

Changing back to the Singapore store would be possible but it would require me to disconnect the family sharing and I will have to cancel and reinstate my music membership, add back all the playlists and stuff.

It is not acceptable at all, I certainly hope that Apple is addressing this issue soon.

I have tried google music in Russia! They are not allowing my fami to use the subscription as they are in India! Now on my iPad i wanted to buy Some movies but you thanks to google I recalled the problem and started to search in this forum. I think if we pay and buy something then they must allow us to use it anywhere we want!!!! C'mon we are the owner of the particular song/movie which we've bought!!! You (apple) are a giant company and making "user friendly" experience was Steve's ideas from the very start!! Just give us what we bought and what we bought!!!!!!

YOU can make some dif columns in i saying that "the content you've bought in different App Store" and provide those purchases to us!!! I mean why not???? We PAID YOU!! I am not gonna make any purchases unless you change your policies!! I think such policies will make people to go for downloading free stuffs from different sites then buying at your store and even not getting the rights for a LIFETIME!!! Does any of apple dude even check our issues!????

You (apple)

We are fellow users, these are user-to-user forums, Apple are not here.

I think if we pay and buy something then they must allow us to use it anywhere we want!!!!

You can use it wherever you want, all you are being stopped from doing is redownloading or streaming content - which you are not guaranteed to be able to do even if you don't move countries, any item can be removed from a country's store by the rights-holder (or, potentially by Apple due to, for example, copyright or store terms violations) at any time, you are only guaranteed one download of any item (the store's terms advise you to backup your downloads).

YOU can make some dif columns in i saying

?

What i meant is that particular song and movies should be with us anytime!! That's the reason we are buying From apple! Or else we can download TOTALLY FREE and then "load" this content to any device we want!! They have to make some policy changes otherwise they should be selling to particular nationalities only! If their counr doesn't support then warn them before buying!! second thing regarding columns- Like in purchased, "all purchased, purchased remain in the Russia/US/UK/Australia, purchase valid globally like columns! So that users can get idea to take backup for those particular contents!!

It is not up to Apple.

Apple has absolutely no say whatsoever where the media can be made available.

The rights holders of the media are the ones that get to determine this.

Media rights and distribution is a complex legal mess. Trying to go around these regulations could potentially be considered Piracy.

Apple cannot do this if they want to be able to keep selling the content in their iTunes Store.

Apple and many other online media stores must abide by these rules if they wish to sell content from the media owners.

Do you go to your physical music or movie store in your country and demand that a particular item be available in their store because you bought in a store in the U.S.? That is distribution rights differences. Somethings are available somewhere, and they may not be somewhere else.

You can do whatever you want to do to get your music or other media if you need to. The fact is Apple must follow the content owners rules if they wish to keep selling their media and this will not change.

I could update my former Apps on my iPhone but couldn't do so on my Mac, what I did to solve the issue was just go to App store in Mac > Update and scroll down and change the former country's flag to new country. it is works.

This really is total rubbish.

I've purchased a number of MacOS applications from the UK Apple Store. Now I am in Australia, App Store on my Mac shows zero purchases.

I really feel ripped off. I have purchased those applications, I should be able to download them. There is no acceptable reason for this not to be the case.

The fact this has been a problem for over 5 years and Apple have done nothing about it really speaks volumes about their consideration for their users.

Sure they have great staffing in sales and support generally, but simple usability problems like this really kill me. The App Store region switching is massively, massively annoying.

An Application is not subject to the same sort of DRM as music - please fix this.

All iTunes and App Store content is tied to national stores. Pricing and availability vary by region. Scroll down to the bottom of the featured page and click the flag icon. Switch back to the UK store and you should be able to redownload/update all of your past purchases. Having said that, yes, dealing with previous purchases across more than one account or store should be much easier.

tt2

Thanks for the advice turingtest2 - I appreciate your helpfulness, and I did get this far.

The point is however, if the software is available in both regions, and it has been verifiably purchased, Apple have a record of what is licensed to me, whether it has been bought in £GBP or $AUD - why couldn't simply download it?

I clearly, clearly possess the licenses for these software products. I have a license for Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. These all show up in the UK App Store. They do not show up in the Australian App Store.

That means I'll have to change my App Store, change to a fake UK address, once a week or once a month to get application updates.

The same for XCode, iMovie, and Garage Band. Applications which are free, like Microsoft OneDrive, Slack, Amazon Kindle - none of them will update or refresh if new versions arrived, unless I spend a good several minutes waiting for the "Checking for updates..." spinner to complete.

I can install duplicates of the free software, but not of the licensed software - so I'm basically stuffed.

This is total BS. I moved to NZ from the UK and have lost hundreds of quids worth of movies and music, including all the kids classics they loved. The kids are gutted I'm absolutely livid. No wonder people turn to more questionable sources. RUBBISH!!!!