Change Apple ID Country

Question

Change Apple ID Country

Hi,

Until today, Apple Store was not available in Serbia. In order to be able to purchase storage on iCloud and other things, I have registered my Apple ID to Croatia, long time ago. I have also registered a Family Sharing, and there is also a child iPhone linked via parental control to my iPhone. Altogether there are three adult, one child and a Mac on the Family Sharing.

As of today, Apple Store is officially available in Serbia. I have started changing the Country/Region on all of the phones and the Mac. However, I am not entirely able to change the account country:

What I'm supposed to do in order to completely change Country/Region on all iPhones and the Mac?

Posted on Apr 21, 2020 8:55 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Phil0124

Level 10

216,842 points

Apr 21, 2020 9:07 AM in response to rade_radumilo

You need to cancel any and all subscriptions you may have, and disband the Family Sharing group. The Apple ID must also not have any gift card credit balance.

See here for details: Change your Apple ID country or region - Apple Support

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Answer 2

Phil0124

Level 10

216,842 points

Apr 21, 2020 9:20 AM in response to rade_radumilo

It would also need to be cancelled, and each memeber would revert to their own free 5GB storage space.

If the other family member's Apple IDs are set to Croatia, then you will not be able to recreate the Family Group when you change your Apple ID to Serbia, unless they also change their Apple ID country to Serbia.

Family Sharing requires all members of the family group to have their Apple ID set to the same country.

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Answer 3

Apr 21, 2020 1:40 PM in response to Phil0124

No,

I definitely don't plan to change countries often. :)

However, it is pretty lousy that there is no migration feature. Essentially I have to:

Obtain a HDD capable of storing all the content. (1.5 - 2TB).
Painstakingly download all the content, one user at a time.
Drop down the iCloud storage subscription.
Take out my wife's Apple ID from Family Share.
Change country on her Apple ID to Serbia.
Create a temporary Family Share on her Apple ID.
Move my daughters Apple ID to the new temporary Family Share. (At this point, I am not sure at what moment is my daughters Apple ID supposed to switch from Croatia to Serbia).
Disband the current Family Share.
Switch my Country/Region to Serbia.
Get a new iCloud Storage plan.
Establish new Family Share.
Move daughters Apple ID from the temporary Family Share to the newly created one.
Drop the temporary Family Share on my wife's Apple ID.
Move my wife's Apple ID to the newly formed Family Share.
Painstakingly upload all the content, one user at a time.

I mean, even for something that is done once or couple of times in lifetime, it is still pretty lousy to have to do that.

Regards,

R.

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Answer 4

Eric Root

Level 10

685,221 points

Apr 21, 2020 9:55 AM in response to rade_radumilo

Their iCloud data should be on their devices/computers.

See the Apple Support article(s) below on how to make copies of the data.

Archive or make copies of your iCloud data.

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Answer 5

Phil0124

Level 10

216,842 points

Apr 21, 2020 11:22 AM in response to rade_radumilo

Try, forgot about the optimization.

In which case, you will need to download the contents of iCloud in sections and then back it up to an external device.

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Answer 6

Apr 21, 2020 9:18 AM in response to Phil0124

Ok,

but what would happen to the storage on iCloud that is shared by the entire family?

EDIT:

Actually, just looked into that. I'm supposed to transfer the child's iPhone to another family before I can disband family sharing? How I'm supposed to do that?

Regards,

R.

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Answer 7

Apr 21, 2020 9:27 AM in response to Phil0124

So basically, you are saying if I'm to change country (either by simply changing it in the settings, because it was previously unavailable, or if we actually migrate to another country) my family is to completely lose all the files on the iCloud storage?

That is ridiculous.

Regards,

R.

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Answer 8

Apr 21, 2020 9:56 AM in response to Phil0124

Hi,

But the whole idea of paying for the iCloud Storage was to use the space on it so that the storage on the devices is not used up completely. So, now we are not able to change the country/region because we have been using the iCloud storage for a long time and have more content than available space on the devices themselves?

I understand that it is a very involved process, and as I'm saying I'm trying to do that after years of using iCloud, but this is completely ridiculous.

Regards,

R.

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Answer 9

Phil0124

Level 10

216,842 points

Apr 21, 2020 10:45 AM in response to rade_radumilo

rade_radumilo wrote:

Hi,

... and have more content than available space on the devices themselves?

That is not possible. iCloud syncs data. That means whatever is in iCloud also by virtue of how iCloud works exists on the devices its syncing from. So you cannot have data on iCloud that does not also exist on the devices.

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Answer 10

Apr 21, 2020 11:20 AM in response to Phil0124

Hi,

Not true. There is an option to optimise the device storage. Both iOS and MacOS keep only placeholders, of the files that were not accessed in a long time, on the device in order to free up storage on the devices while the originals are on iCloud. In the case of photos and videos, only preview thumbnails are on the physical device while the originals are in iCloud and are downloaded on demand. As for the files on Mac they are also downloaded when accessed.

In total, currently we have more used space on iCloud storage than the sum of totally built in storage on all three iPhones and the Mac, combined.

EDIT:

That's why I have been paying for the iCloud storage in the first place.

Regards,

R.

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Answer 11

Phil0124

Level 10

216,842 points

Apr 21, 2020 1:18 PM in response to rade_radumilo

Its only to backup the data for the change. You won't have to do it always unless you plan on changing back and forth between Croatia and Serbia.

This is a one time thing only to be able to change countries.

But again, once you change to Croatia, you won't be able to invite the other members to the new Family group unless they also change to Croatia.

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Answer 12

Apr 21, 2020 11:26 AM in response to Phil0124

Yep,

I'll have to jump through so many hoops and basically negate the entire idea of paying for the cloud storage.

Regards,

R.

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Answer 13

Phil0124

Level 10

216,842 points

Apr 21, 2020 9:49 AM in response to rade_radumilo

No, only those which exceed the free 5GB. If they aren't using more than the free 5GB, they should lose nothing.

However you and the family members should download anything you and they have in iCloud so its backed up, before you cancel the subscription.

Yes, changing countries is a very involved change. Its not just changing the store you use. It involves a lot of other changes and should not be done unless it is absolutely necessary.

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Change Apple ID Country

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