old iCloud storage on iPhone to go new iCloud id on Mac

I have have to create a new Apple account how do I get all information from my old account which is on my phone to my Mac and the new id?


MacBook Air 13″, macOS 15.7

Posted on Jan 30, 2026 9:14 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 30, 2026 10:34 AM

bonemj wrote:… I have a hard drive handy. I just want to log on to get data from old account as only some information can be accessed via web login

If you sign in to your old account on our Mac, then all the information at iCloud.com will be copied to your Mac. If you have a lot, it could take awhile. HOWEVER, if you have Optimize Storage turned on, then everything won't be copied to the Mac-- just pointers for files and low resolution images. So-- you can't use Optimize. The reason I asked about the hard drive is that, if you don't have enough room on your Mac's internal drive, you will have to use the hard drive to hold the data.


iCloud Photos behaves differently than iCloud Drive-- are you interested in both? You can make a copy of your iCloud Photos Library on an external drive this way:

Backup iCloud Photos with an Optimized Mac - Apple Community

For Photos, this drive must be formatted like it says above.


As for iCloud Drive-- you'll need to drag stuff from your iCloud Drive folder to the external drive. When you switch to the other account, you can drag that stuff back to the iCloud Drive folder.


I'm way less sure about stuff like messages and calendar, etc. All that should be on your Mac, and it should copy to iCloud when you switch, unless you've been swapping stuff in and out.


This might be useful:

About migrating Apple Account purchases between accounts - Apple Support


What do you think?


4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 30, 2026 10:34 AM in response to bonemj

bonemj wrote:… I have a hard drive handy. I just want to log on to get data from old account as only some information can be accessed via web login

If you sign in to your old account on our Mac, then all the information at iCloud.com will be copied to your Mac. If you have a lot, it could take awhile. HOWEVER, if you have Optimize Storage turned on, then everything won't be copied to the Mac-- just pointers for files and low resolution images. So-- you can't use Optimize. The reason I asked about the hard drive is that, if you don't have enough room on your Mac's internal drive, you will have to use the hard drive to hold the data.


iCloud Photos behaves differently than iCloud Drive-- are you interested in both? You can make a copy of your iCloud Photos Library on an external drive this way:

Backup iCloud Photos with an Optimized Mac - Apple Community

For Photos, this drive must be formatted like it says above.


As for iCloud Drive-- you'll need to drag stuff from your iCloud Drive folder to the external drive. When you switch to the other account, you can drag that stuff back to the iCloud Drive folder.


I'm way less sure about stuff like messages and calendar, etc. All that should be on your Mac, and it should copy to iCloud when you switch, unless you've been swapping stuff in and out.


This might be useful:

About migrating Apple Account purchases between accounts - Apple Support


What do you think?


old iCloud storage on iPhone to go new iCloud id on Mac

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