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

I have the same problem... And it looks like we won't get a solution any soon, I think it's shocking when you consider all the money lost for us.

Bought an Ipod Touch 4th (64Gb) in the UK, spent like £1000 in iTunes/App Store with an English credit card. Moved back to France spent €1000 on other stuff with my French credit card. Never been able to transfer my "English purchases" to iTunes nor update them, basically there's nothing to do but cry.

I hope Apple had fun with my money at least.

My appstore seems to be stuck on the US store, when I log in with my Greek account it says I need to update my payment info - when I try doing that it forces me to enter a US address.. I have tried working around that changing the country linked to the account through apple's portal. It seems to be working from the apple website but then returning to my iphone - same problem. It requires me to enter a US address..

Suggestions?

I have so many apple accounts it's ridiculous.. Apple NEEDS to find a solution for travellers. I change countries all the time, and pretty sure I'm not the only one..

I suggest Apple spends some of that Cash on consultants. They will love working out a solution..

True, Apple should think more about this upgrade process especially on the apps.

I just found out also, once you change your country, example, my Kindle won't be upgraded anymore, since it is not available under my country of residence at this moment. Thus I need to find a way for it to get updated.

Luckily, Apple still support us for not to pay anymore apps that we already purchased, even it is not listed in the purchased list anymore. When I click purchased, Apple will said that you already purchase and it would be Free upgrade.

JSJ

Hm, it looks like there are a couple of different situations described in the thread here... so I'm not sure if this will be helpful for anyone...

My situation:

1. Lived in the States. AppleID 1/ US Email. Credit Card A.

2. Moved to Japan. AppleID 2/ JP Email. Credit Card B

3. Moved to Singapore.

a. Created AppleID 3 with NEW Email. Credit Card C.

b. Swapped emails for AppleID 2 and 3. (I don't know why, but I thought I had to keep the same ID tied to the store I had set up in.)

4. Current set-up

- Apple ID 1, US Email = US Store

- Apple ID 2, NEW Email = JP Store

- Apple ID 3, JP Email = SG Store

After some iOS5 update, when I went to iTunes, I couldn't see the items that I had purchased in Japan, so I didn't even know which apps had updates.

On my iPhone, I could see them but couldn't update them. i.e. I could get my updates from AppleIDs 1 and 3, but not ID 2.

Anyway, the following seemed to work for me (maybe just tonight?!) *This is just a workaround, it doesn't solve the problem long-term 😟

1. On Mac, signed in with AppleID 3 / JP Email (local as of now).

2. On iPhone, signed out of AppleID 1 / US Email (my default on phone) (Settings > Store)

3. Still iPhone, signed in with Apple ID 2 / NEW Email (the apps I couldn't access).

4. Went to App Store on iPhone, and started updating my apps one by one. Oh, it will prompt you to enter your password at this point, and strangely, it's for the JP Email for me at this point, not the NEW Email that is tied to the JP store ID..

Note: It didn't work when I did "Update All".

So, I don't know if this is working because I'm signed in to the email address I had used while I was in Japan on the Mac, OR if it is working because I'm signed in to the ID tied to the Japan store on the iPhone. Probably the latter?

I hope some people can get your paid apps back at least... good luck.

Following up my previous post, I managed to get about half my apps as described, then it stopped working. It doesn't seem to differentiate between paid or free apps, so I don't know what's the criteria here.

Now I've signed into my NEW Email both on my computer and my iPhone, and some of the remaining apps are being downloaded.

For a couple of them, I got the message "The app is not available in the Singapore store" even though I'm clearly signed into the Japan store. Still, I guess it's good I managed to recover and update about 80% of my apps.

Sigh. I have to figure out a better way to do this.

I think this is our certain Right to have access to the software we once bought... There is no excuse to remove the software I have already bought because I have moved to another country and force me to buy them again. I don't know how long such issues will last but this is not a proper customer service.

I had been reading a book that I had downloaded in UK. I had read the book until half. Now I want to access that book but after the latest update, I can not have that book. The book is not even available for sale in US market. I had hundereds of Apps that I already had paid. Why shall I pay again to download them from US Store? I think, If I have paid for the app as a customer that by the time of purchase I had been a resident of UK, I must get the service regarding to that particular media no matter where I try to access my software.

It is mind boggling that Apple don't recognise that thousands of people must move countries for their work.

If, as in my case, the move is likely to be pretty permanent, then one closes off all old bank accounts and starts a new one - with new Vietnam VISA Credit Card - in their new country.

I have just done this having moved from Australia to Vietnam only to discover (too late) that:-

1. I cannot use my Vietnam Credit Card to down load music from iTunes.

2. I cannot use my Vietnam Credit Card to subscribe to Match.

3. I cannot revert to my Australian account and use my Vietnam Credit Card!!! (Now cannot get another Australian one as I no longer live or work there)

4. Worst of all. Apple support can do nothing to help!!!

An iTunes account should be an iTunes account no matter where you live. As long as Apple get paid for what you buy, what is the problem?

I can understand that Apple may have concerns about software Piracy which is everywhere in Vietnam, but it is a nonsense when I have 5 colleagues here (who were lucky enough to have kept their old Australian accounts and still have Australian Credit Cards) They can use Match and download music in Vietnam, but I cannot. Yet we are all in Vietnam??? And wether Apple block music downloads from Vietnam is not going to make the slightest difference to overall Piracy in Vietnam. These guys here are ingenious at Piracy.

It is incredibly frustrating that iTunes is so obstructive and runs like a Police State ..... very much like Vietnam in fact. It is more stupid when they have not found some solution for people who wish to use their service and cannot because of this apparenetly stupid practice of locking users in to one country.

Having moved from the Netherlands to Norway I am in the same boat. Got a response from an Apple support rep outlining how ..

When you change countries, you will no longer receive app update notifications on your iOS device or in iTunes for the apps you purchased in your original country. However, you will still be able to download those applications again for free if they are present on your new country's store (even if they are updated). You will not be charged and the download will not appear on your Purchased page. If the app is not available in your new country, you will not be able to download it again.

.. which is exactly the behaviour I'm seeing.

After manually searching through the store for eternities trying to find the outdated applications iTunes keeps mentioning, I eventually gave up and wrote a small Ruby gem which assists with finding outdated applications. It's called App Store Emigrant. Background information, installation instructions and usage notes available at the link.

Nice work!

I'm curious if the not-being-charged-again also applied to iTunes music. Anyone know?

I moved from Argentina to Uruguay and get the same problem. Today I found a workaround to get the update through iTunes software:

1. On iTunes Store, select your account info;

2. Click on change country or region;

3. Select the original country (Argentina);

4. Click change, continue, mark the contract and agree;

5. It will take you to the original country store;

6. On the 'Review Payment Information' don't chage anything;

7. Click in the house icon and from there you can see all your purchases from the original country;

Now, the best part (at least worked for me):

8. If you click in Applications (on the left side bar) and select application updates, they will show up;

9. Click on "Download all Free Updates" and the magic happens!

If you try to update a single application, it doesn't work and take you to the original store.

*Probably it is a bug of iTunes (I'm using version 10.6.1.7 on Windows 7 x64)

Sorry if I committed some spelling errors.

I hope this information is useful for you

I discovered now that you can skip steps 4, 5 and 6 from my previous post.

Click in change country is enough.

Steps from 7 to 9 will work.

I changed the country to Brazil in iTunes account and with this method I have access to Uruguay and Argentina previous purchases!

Holy mackerels, that's fantastic. I can confirm that this works on OSX Lion (10.7.3) with iTunes 10.6.1.6 (64-bit) too. Bug or not, I like how this does not require one to confirm any country changes, modify payment information or whatsoever.

Thanks for sharing!

hi i live in canada and all my apps ive bought them here but when i traveled to paris i wasnt able to acces my canadian app for updates .. now im planning on moving to luxembourg so im scared to loose all my apps that ive bought here.. HELP :S

@Carlavidal69, Well, You've not able to get the purchased Apps that you had already recently purchased from another Location or another store so you will need to re-purchase the apps that you've already owned.

I have also got the same issue as this thread when i switch country my Purchase List apps are gone as well i have spend over $700 on my previous location and i also have been contacting Apple iTunes Support that they have noted me that i may not able to recovery all the previously purchased apps from the previous location because iTunes support specific locations for some apps. (I didn't even get any warning messages upon switching location)

I strongly advise Apple to bring an option for Traveller it would be a great option for the users while they are travelling so their datas or anything that wouldn't be lost.

– Sulaiman

Guys, i have the same problem here when i left US and come back home to Indonesia. My US credit cards was expired a few months ago, so i cannot update apps anymore through iTunes, iPad or iPhone. I agree with Steven that it wouldn't be a big problem (for now) if any of my previous apps (free or paid) were gone due to unavailability in the iTunes Indonesia. But cannot update purchased apps due to policy, it's a different story. It's so NOT user-friendly. I cannot imagine how desperate someone would be when he/she keep moving from country to country.

So, when i wanted to switch my iTunes country with the same account, i contacted iTunes US representative through email. After explaining the issue, following are some information given that users must know before switching to different iTunes country: (i highlighted the part no. 5, which is specifically related to the topic)

_____

1) If you have store credit, you must use the credit before you can change countries.

2) You will need to download all purchased content. In addition, rented items must be past their 30-day expiration. For more information on rentals, please see: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1657

3) You must provide a payment method, such as a credit or debit card associated with a valid billing address in the new country. An iTunes Store Gift Card issued in the new country is also an acceptable payment method.

4) Content purchased from the iTunes Store is country-specific. If you wish to upgrade any of your iTunes Store content to iTunes Plus, you'll need to do this before you change countries. The content you purchased while your account was set to the previous country will not be eligible for upgrade once you've changed countries.

5) After you change countries, you will no longer receive application update notifications in iTunes for the apps you purchased in your original country. However, you'll still receive update notifications on your iOS device for any applications installed on it. In addition, you'll be able to download previously purchased applications again for free if they are available on your new country's store. You will not be charged and the download will not appear on your Purchased page. If a previously purchased application is not available in your new country, you will not be able to download it again for free.

6) If you have an iTunes Match subscription, you can't change countries until the subscription has expired.

7) If you have purchased a Season Pass, you cannot change the country associated with your account until that season is done airing and the last episode of the season has been added to the iTunes Store.

______

Then, I complained that Apple should start to make a mainstreaming "universal"-type policy for all kind of condition, such apps purchasing, updating, and using internationally. The representative politely asked me to send another feedback about this issue. Perhaps, if a lot of Apple users experience this and give feedback to Apple, soon, they will change the policy in the future.