Toggle Multiple Apple ID’s for Different Country’s iOS 18 and above? Am I missing something?

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Toggle Multiple Apple ID’s for Different Country’s iOS 18 and above? Am I missing something?

I’ve been straddling two countries for years and have been using two different Apple ID’s, each with a country appropriate credit card attached. Apple support continues to suggest that simply logging in and out of the App Store is all that is necessary to keep each geographic specific account updated so apps can update, one can obtain new apps etc.

Am I missing something?

In my experience, this is not at all what happens and the process is incredibly time consuming and results in many lost settings on both accounts, specifically with email settings, but also with other things.

I have found I can not simply log out of the App Store account on my iPhone, but I must completely log out of my Apple account and then either keep or merge all settings… all I want is the latest version of an app I paid for. While this sounds easy, it requires waiting for syncs, losing and then correcting various settings.

Why is this not a bigger deal given so many people work/live/travel and need to toggle accounts? Why shouldn’t toggling countries be as easy as toggling esims?

Please tell me what I am missing here!

Thanks!

Posted on Feb 9, 2025 4:14 AM

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Answer 1

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laurenzana Author

Level 1

20 points

Feb 22, 2025 8:44 AM in response to txomoof

Thanks for the reply! It seems like if we have our ID's connnected to payments in the different countries, paid in the currency of the same country, it should not be so tough to just toggle. I received a reply on Reddit that changed a lot for me and that gets me very close to toggling:

It is possible to go Settings->Name (Apple account screen)->Media & Purchases->Sign Out-Sign in to other Apple ID (with attached payment method).

This gets into the App Store of the other region to add Apps and update installed Apps. It is not necessary to log out of the main iCloud account and lose all the myriad other settings doing this. I never knew this was possible and it works well as of now. It would be nice to be able to choose between ID's and toggle, but this is not too bad.

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Answer 2

txomoof

Level 1

14 points

Feb 13, 2025 4:22 AM in response to laurenzana

Having lived between New Zealand and US as well as having children in Vietnam and the UK, I can tell you the correct answer to what you’re missing is “Lawyers” and “Digital rights management”, with a non-trivial dose of “our country’s laws don’t allow that…”. My experience was similarly challenging, having not only to log out and in to a new account but also stopping all family sharing and content subscriptions (music, etc) and of course stopping Find My…because that’s what happens when you sign out of an appleID. In the end I bought a second device for my NZ appleID. Not ideal but the only way I could keep settings. Now that I’m back in the US full time I don’t have need for it much but whenever I see a post implying “all you need is a vpn” I realize I’m talking to someone who’s not faced a full height DRM wall before (like the one around SkyTV and the Murdoch properties empire.) And for those of who think you can just use a separate ID for App Store and media purchases, uh no. You also gotta change country or region and good luck doing that with active music or apple media subscriptions. See here: Change your Apple Account country or region - Apple Support

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Toggle Multiple Apple ID’s for Different Country’s iOS 18 and above? Am I missing something?

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