Transfer apps bought on another account

I don't think the OP will be back, my friend. 😉

Well, let's hope not......There is a member here who is constantly telling people how to do what the OP asked, but it bothers me everytime I read the advice.......

Well, we're simply not going to help you.

I understand your stance on this matter. However: I am from Norway and live in Japan and therefore have two iTunes accounts (one Norwegian and one Japanese). The primary account is the Norwegian one and I use the Japanese account for obscure language apps that are not available in the Norwegian store. I have on a couple of occasions bought apps on the Japanese store by mistake (ones that are available in both stores - most recent one, iPhoto for iOS) and have been rather annoyed at having to sign into both accounts for updates (as I do not care about keeping the more obscure ones from the Japanese store updated).

Having said this, I second what you say that the OP's reqeust sounds rather fishy and also - as far as I know - would like to tell the OP that it is not possible to transfer an app from one account to another. If the OP is in a similar situation to myself, having accounts in two different countries, then the workaround is to contact Apple and cancel the purchase from the wrong account and repurchase the app in the intended account.

How about this scenario. I work for a police agency that bought 6 iPads for our unit to use for work. We installed many apps purchasing the app for each iPad. Now one of our employees transferred out of the unit and our IT wiped the iPad clean like its a new iPad. The apps we use and that were purchased were purchased under the transferred employees iTunes account not a police account. Is it possible to remove them from his account and place them on a different account for when his replacement is hired so we don't need to buy them all over again for the new employee to use on the iPad. The transferred employee doesn't really have a use for the apps in his new job and doesn't have his own iPad so he wouldn't need the apps anymore?

I have a similar problem but I don't just want to transfer a purchase to a new account but I won't to disassociate them from the old account. My am a special ed. teacher. I few years ago my school got my classroom an iPad. We had no school iTunes account and no one wanted to use their credit card at the time. So I just started buying apps with my own account. Not realizing that down the road the iPad would be as useful as it turns out. Then the started giving me iTunes gift cards to use, and I just kept using my account. Now we are getting 6 more iPads and the school wants to set up its own iTunes account. I want to basically just give these apps to them and never beable to download them on my own account again. I do not want to steal I just want to give it away. It's about $230 worth of apps, basically anything that's education specific. I'm not trying to do anything illegal.

I applaud your generosity and willingness to give up $230.00 worth of iPad apps. Unfortunately, Apple allows no provisions for transferring apps from one account to another. This decision wasn't made by any user on this forum since we are all just other users trying to help other users with technical problems. I'm sure that most users would love to have this ability to transfer purchased content to another ID.

I know that Apple has some sort of iPad in Education progmam as well as the iPad in the Enterprise program. Those programs are designed for users like yourself and PWquick. They have provisions for setting up iTunes accounts to buy apps with multiple licenses and things like that so that these types of situations can be avoided.

Unfortunately, nobody takes the time to look into the programs, the excitement of getting the new iPads up and running takes over, or users simply aren't aware that the programs exist - more often than not that is probably the case.

Even though everything is spelled out in the Apple ID FAQ support site, not very many users are going to take the time to read the entire website and digest all of the information before they proceed to set up an account that is going to be used by other people. Frankly I wish that Apple would post in big giant letters when a new user applies for an Apple ID that purchases can never be transferred to another ID or given away, after they are purchased with that ID. When you sign up to use the iTunes store there is a 45 page document stating the terms and conditions. I would venture a guess that maybe one out of 20 users even reads the first two pages before they hit the - I Agree button - so that they can get started using their new iDevice and download content.

I don't think that there is anything you can do, but try contacting Apple and explain your situation. I'm not betting that they will let you give the apps over to another ID, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

haha dont let these users talk down to you cclloyd, Apples the one whos stealing, isn't it clear?! haha.. you paid for the apps and now are stuck having them on one account, what if you have another apple ID? lets say for example a work phone. shouldn't i be entitled to my digital content no matter what my silly little account name is? So next time stand up for yourself and get your question anwsered by someone who knows, not some little internet cafe geek who has an apple tattoo.

PWQuick wrote:

The apps we use and that were purchased were purchased under the transferred employees iTunes account not a police account.

That means that the transferred employee owns the right to use the apps. Other individuals do not have that right. I suggest that, in the future, you purchase all apps using the agency's Apple ID.

OCxLove wrote:

...you paid for the apps...

Haha, no that's not true, haha. The purchaser merely purchases the rights to use the apps haha.

OCxLove wrote:

what if you have another apple ID? lets say for example a work phone. shouldn't i be entitled to my digital content no matter what my silly little account name is?

Haha, that's a different issue and haha, yes, you are entitled to use the digital content no matter what silly name you use haha. I have two Apple IDs and I routinely use apps from both on my iPod, my iPad and my iMac haha.

OCxLove wrote:

So next time stand up for yourself and get your question anwsered by someone who knows, not some little internet cafe geek who has an apple tattoo.

Haha, what Internet cafe do you hang around" Haha, you misinformed geek haha.

Philly.....Two Thumbs Up!! Haha!

There's a more practical reason why one might want to transfer apps purchased on one Apple ID (AID) to another Apple ID.... the App Store.

In the Updates section, you can update the apps that were bought on the AID that you're currently logged in with... but the apps purchased with the other AID can't be updated. In order to do so, you have to log out and then log back in with the other AID.

In some cases, apps bought with one AID won't run if I'm logged into the App Store with the other AID. Again, I have to switch logins in the App Store before I can run that app.

Remember too that a lot of the mess with mutliple AID's is Apple's fault in the first place. When MobileMe was first released, many users were forced to create a new AID, even if they already had an existing one.

I understand the need to combat piracy but Apple has smart people working for them. I'm sure they could figure a way to let us merge ID's if they truly had the will to do so.

Every app is tied to a specific Apple ID.

If paid apps + multiple iOS devices configured with same apps, you need to look into the Apple VPP program: http://www.apple.com/business/vpp. This allows for a bit more flexibility when signing apps with a specific Apple ID.

For iOS devices like a lab or local check-in/check-out environment you can leverage Apple's free Configurator program to setup and mass-deploy up to 30 devices at a time: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/apple-configurator/id434433123?mt=12. A good write-up on how it works is at: http://krypted.com/iphone/managing-ios-devices-with-apple-configurator.

For larger scale deployments or where you are dealing with personal / BYOD situations authorizing via personal Apple IDs, you want to leverage a 3rd party MDM provider, like MobileIron, AirWatch, etc. To get a taste of what that looks like you can try out the Meraki MDM service for free at: http://www.meraki.com/blog/2012/03/100-free-mobile-device-management-in-2-easy-s teps. This offers a great insight into the different capbilities you get with a larger enterprise class MDM. Most of these services can checkin/checkout app licenses across any number of devices, leveraging discounted VPP codes to authorize/deauthorize devices with your organization purchases.

Not aware of any automated means of transfering licenses bought with a personal Apple ID to a different organizational ID. May want to call AppleCare directly on that to see what they can do: http://support.apple.com/kb/HE57

Keep in mind that educational insitutions can save up to 50% on iTunes buys through signing up with the VPP program: http://www.apple.com/education/volume-purchase-program

Another simple reason why I'd like to transfer apps bought with my personal Apple ID to my wife's personal Apple ID: I did purchase a lot of games to let our kid play with them on my own iPad.

Now that my wife has got her own iPad, we would like to move all those apps for the kid from my iPad to my wife's one without having to pay twice for the same apps.

I don't want the apps to stay on both iPads. I simply would like apps to move from my AID to my wife's AID, and therefore "migrate" from my iPad to my wife's iPad.

At the end, why should I pay twice for something that only one is using (i.e. our 4yo kid)?