I'm from India and have an apple one subscription in India. Recently visiting US for a short term. I'm unable to install any of the US specific apps from the app store and it says not available in your region. And if try to change my region in settings, it says this will deactivate all my apple one subscriptions. Is there a way i can use this US specific apps till i return back to India without deactivating all my subscriptions ?
iPhone 12, iOS 17
Easy answer? No.
To change to the US in order to download US apps there's a long list of requirements in this article Change your Apple ID country or region - Apple Support
You would have to cancel your subscriptions and wait for them to expire. If you subscribe to Apple Music you would lose all your playlists when the subscription ended. You would have to have a mailing address in the USA and then likely have to have a US credit or debit card billed to you at that address, or else join a Family Sharing group where somebody was willing to make you part of their Family group.
As mentioned above, not easily.
Alternative (1): buy a new, refurb, or used iPhone in India or in the US, use a second Apple ID, use that for your travels, and sell it when you are done.
If you should decide to keep it, some caveats: the iPhone warranties are not international, and the US models are eSIM only. And many US carriers will require a carrier lock.
Alternative (2): buy an iPad, use a second Apple ID, and load the necessary apps there.
You may find it very difficult to use the create an account solution for many of the same reasons you would find it very difficult to change the account settings on your account. Buying a new device won't help you get around that. Apple does its best to prevent users who are not actual residents from creating accounts in other countries to get around licensing restrictions. Hence a lot of things such as telephone numbers and addresses will only be acceptable if they correspond to US address formatting. Then there's the whole payment method issue.
So I will be able to freely change region if i don't have any apple related subscriptions ? This kind of sucks as it disincentivizes people who pay more and get subscriptions. I think i should rather end my icloud subscription and move to google one as i hardly use apple tv or music as it has poor Indian content and it was predominantly for icloud that i got the subscription. Thanks.
You won't be able to change regions with a Google One subscription either. All subscriptions must be cancelled and you you want to change regions before the subscription period ends, you will need to contact Apple directly to have the subscription removed immediately.
Of course you should not have an Apple One subscription if you do not use Apple TV or Apple Music.The 50Gb iCloud plan is only 99 cents/month (US).
But how can apple dictate my google subscriptions ? And icloud only subscription in India is expensive at approx 3$/ month. So i can't keep changing my subscriptions for short periods i visit US. My only concern is will I be able to freely change region/ country if i don't have any apple linked subscriptions ? If US specific address and card is a non issue for me.
App store restriction on region specific apps
