how to merge two apple ids

Merging Apple accounts (IDs) or transferring data is not officially supported. Read the links below for things you may need to do to transfer as much as is possible and to share some others.

Apps and media bought with one ID are permanently associated with that ID. Look into using Family Sharing to continue to be able to use items purchased with one Apple ID with other Apple IDs, and for some data sharing features.

- Family Sharing - What is Family Sharing? - Apple Support

- Set up Family Sharing - Set up Family Sharing - Apple Support

Share folders with iCloud Drive -->Share files and folders in iCloud Drive on iCloud.com - Apple Support

Read How to use Shared Albums in Photos on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac - Apple Support about how to share photos.

If you have signed into the first ID on a device then fortunately when you sign out of that ID, do not erase the device, then sign in with a different ID, it asks you in most cases if you wish to merge the data from the two IDs on your device. Say yes and later delete individual items from the other ID that you do not want. Note, in How to save apps and progress on one Appl… - Apple Community a Community Specialist says, "you will not be able to transfer the meta data from one Apple ID to another. Once you switch to another Apple ID the information associated with the old Apple ID will be gone except for physical content on the device like photos and videos."

Sign out of iCloud on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, or Mac --> Sign out of iCloud on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, or Mac - Apple Support

If another Apple ID is signed in you may need to enter the password for that ID to sign out of that ID first.

Click on this link to learn how to 'Sign in with your Apple ID' --> Sign in with your Apple ID - Apple Support

Many, many years ago I was able to merge my two Apple IDs. As long as all your iTunes and App Store purchases were in the same account it was at least possible. I don't know if this is still the case and I don't remember my specific steps. It did involve making a backup of the folder "$HOME/Library/Mobile Documents"(using "Terminal.app" there are many hidden folders that you can't see when accessing this folder the more common way, i.e clicking on "iCloud Drive") and replacing the contents after logging in under the Apple ID used for my purchases. I know many of these apps don't sync in the same way as before. Essentially, anyone with an "iTunes" account and a "MobileMe" account could have ended up with this problem really without any mistakes being made.

To accomplish the merging, one needed an advanced unix shell ability. If you know what "grep, sed, and awk" are, you might be able to figure out how to accomplish this, but don't expect much help, even I, who accomplished this, at the time did not recommend anyone try it. You won't need "grep, sed, or awk", but most UNIX people have heard of these, even though they may never of had to use them. If you have never at least heard of "grep, sed, and awk" you probably don't have near the expertise to accomplish the task.

(My memory is that the newer Apple databases made this process much harder, instead of invisible essentially flat files contained in the iCloud Drive, the data for apps like Notes moved to more advanced database servers. I accomplished my merging before the upgrades of many of these iCloud apps.)

Also, remember, it is always possible to change your Apple ID on an Apple ID account. So if you simply no longer use an email account, you can create another one that is even perhaps an alias of an existing mail account. For instance, if you have your own domain like "HarryPotterAlive.com" you could have "iTunesAppleID@HarryPotterAlive.com" forward mail to "Rubeus.Hagrid@HarryPotterAlive.com" so at least all your apple mail goes to the same box. (Note: at the time of this post "HarryPotterAlive.com" is an available domain.)