Can I merge 2 Apple IDs?

Hogwash...if you understand how to manage your own ID, then you know how to gain access to any purchases you have ever made (unless they are no longer available in the iTunes store - which is something Apple has no control over....that's why we recommend backups....)

GB

gail from maine,

I did speak to Apple support and they were unable to reset the password question. They were of little help really and basically told me that it was hopeless to retrieve the songs unless I know the password since the account I had originally set up 7 years ago did not have an alternate email address (the email I provided was a Mac.com account). Basically SOL unless by some miracle I remember the password.

In my case I haven't really lost access. I just want to shift things from an appleid that is not an email address to a different, existing appleid that is my email address - because apple no longer likes the old appleids that they permitted earlier. But I can't. And there is no way to split/merge ownership as anyone with a family knows will inevitably be needed.

I am an older person not all that conversant in operating in the digital world. But to me it is disengenous on the sellers part that music I purchased is unplayable because I have replaced a pc etc. They tell me I have no license. Had I been sufficently sophisticated and worldly enough to know my hard drive would fail, I could have located my licenses and saved them on a back-up device. There might be some workarounds but I suspect the main motivation is to prevent theft of music that takes precendence over straight forward retension of rights. (And the notion of selling the media twice to the same purchaser) It's akin to denying many the right to vote under the guise of preventing voter fraud.

Yes, you are viewing it, not personally owning a copy. This is progress?

Absolutely! Totally agree - this ***** SO much!

This is going to haunt Apple. Similarly, I have loads of music, I have some how had several Apple IDs, I don't know how, but it seems they have sprung up some how. I recently was on the phone as Aplle support managed to wipe 3500 songs, I saw them disappear in front of my eyes with a logout-login action. They were very 'regretful' and arranged for a call to be made to me. lots of fiddling about, but I never got the stuff back. The vast majority of it was from my old music collection originally bought on disc or tape and converted to MO3. I don't have many of the originals any more, some of the stuff was actually quite rare as well.

So that was me getting my fingers burned. Music is different to software. I can get my head around paying a sub for software. But music is mine. As a kid I bought vinyl and played it as often as I wanted ...and so it went all the way up to CDs and even MP3 files on a drive. But now, I feel that I have had my record collection stolen and rented back to me. ...or in my case lost by the ******* who stole it.

This is why you should be backing up your hard drive on a regular basis. If your hard drive crashed you'd be in the same predicament. If your computer was stolen you'd be in the same predicament. If your computer was run over you'd be in the same predicament. Back up, back up, back up. There is no excuse for not doing so if you value your data.

GB

For me, my 1st account kept getting hacked so I made a separate one. I'm not sure why it is so difficult to merge into one account. You can transfer money easier than you iTunes music, it ridiculous, and my iTunes account is more susceptible to fraud!!!! After 10 years as a PAYING and faithful customer this is horrible service!

Tell it to Apple: Apple - Feedback

Cheers,

GB

Merman93? Sorry, accidentally hit the button "Helpful" button not meaning to, now I'm thinking all others have done the same. This is the worst goddamm answer I've ever come across in a support blog. The only thing confusing about how many times you used the word confusing is how the heck you filled two long paragraphs w/ gibberish, skirting the issue, answering nothing, complaining about the password system, find a way to include your Apple TV, and nothing. You PROVIDING NO ANSWER! YOU FINISHED W/ "AT LEAST MY APPLE TV LETS ME... AGAIN WHO CARES! NOT PART OF ORIGINAL QUESTION. YET 13 PEOPLE FOUND THIS HELPFUL? HOW? TRY SHORT, CONCISE, ACCURATE. NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOUR DETAILED DILEMA W/ ONEDRIVE.

.

You call it hogwash then prove his point by saying the purchase can be made unavailable because Apple has no control over whether they will always be available. Apple can go out of business, their servers can crash or be hacked, they can lock you out of your account, they can lose track of what you "purchased". So LesMikesell is absolutely right, you're not buying, you're renting.

I guess you missed the part about "that's why we recommend backups". If you have all of your media in your iTunes Library, it will always be available whether it is still in the Apple Library or not. So, you OWN it. But if you owned a book, but left it in the Library instead of taking it home, and the library burned down, then even though you owned the book, it wouldn't be available to you anymore.

And the backup part is to protect your Library from the vagaries of electronics, accidents, mother nature....

One you purchase your media, if you keep a copy of it, then you will always have access to it.

GB

Yeah, whatever. The guy says you don't own it if someone else has control over it and you can't access it. What he said was not hogwash, if you have a backup you do have access. Though Apple makes the backups virtually useless without their proprietary software, and if you so much as move or rename them they become actually useless. And what is this royal "we recommend" anyway, if you work at Apple say so.