HEScruggs

Q: How do I merge two ITunes accounts?

How do I merge two ITunes accounts?  I clicked on the "how to merge two accounts" and it directed me to create a new account and then provided no direction as to how to merge the two existing accounts.

Posted on Aug 12, 2014 6:10 PM

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Q: How do I merge two ITunes accounts?

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  • by alex_h1,

    alex_h1 alex_h1 Aug 15, 2014 1:37 PM in response to HEScruggs
    Community Specialists
    Aug 15, 2014 1:37 PM in response to HEScruggs

    Hello HEScruggs,

     

    Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.

     

    You cannot merge multiple Apple ID accounts into one.  See below for more information.

     

    I have multiple Apple IDs. Is there a way for me to merge them into a single Apple ID?

    Apple IDs cannot be merged. You should use your preferred Apple ID from now on, but you can still access your purchased items such as music, movies, or software using your other Apple IDs.

    If you are wondering how using multiple Apple IDs relate to iCloud, see Apple IDs and iCloud.

     

    Frequently asked questions about Apple ID

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5622

     

    Take care,

    Alex H.

  • by ed2345,

    ed2345 ed2345 Aug 15, 2014 4:15 PM in response to HEScruggs
    Level 7 (24,709 points)
    Aug 15, 2014 4:15 PM in response to HEScruggs

    As noted by Alex, Apple does not provide a way to merge accounts.  Anything purchased from the iTunes Store is perpetually associated with the account from which it was originally purchased.

     

    However, you can put all the content into one library.  (I bring this up because that is what many people on this forum are really asking about when they as about merging accounts.)  Pick the library you want to use and add all missing content to that one.  If your content includes any "protected" content from the iTunes Store, you will have to authorize to the account(s) from which the content was purchased.

  • by denisedelbando,

    denisedelbando denisedelbando Nov 11, 2014 6:51 PM in response to ed2345
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 11, 2014 6:51 PM in response to ed2345

    hello ed2345.

     

    how do we merge accounts?

  • by ed2345,

    ed2345 ed2345 Nov 11, 2014 7:19 PM in response to denisedelbando
    Level 7 (24,709 points)
    Nov 11, 2014 7:19 PM in response to denisedelbando

    Hello Denise,

     

    As noted above by Alex, "You cannot merge multiple Apple ID accounts into one."

     

    However, you can put all the content into a single iTunes library.  Pick the library you want to use, and add all missing content to that one.  If your content includes any "protected" content from the iTunes Store, you will have to authorize to the account(s) from which the content was purchased.

  • by cathyfromantigo,

    cathyfromantigo cathyfromantigo Apr 21, 2015 10:13 AM in response to HEScruggs
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 21, 2015 10:13 AM in response to HEScruggs

    HAve this same question.. Seems apple will take the same credit card on different accounts but wont let u merge previously purchased content from different but same user.. Burning all my content to disk backup and transfering it to "Android Phone " if I paid for it , it should be excessable over any accounts!

  • by ed2345,

    ed2345 ed2345 Apr 21, 2015 5:48 PM in response to cathyfromantigo
    Level 7 (24,709 points)
    Apr 21, 2015 5:48 PM in response to cathyfromantigo

    cathyfromantigo wrote:

     

    HAve this same question.. Seems apple will take the same credit card on different accounts but wont let u merge previously purchased content from different but same user.. Burning all my content to disk backup and transfering it to "Android Phone " if I paid for it , it should be excessable over any accounts!

     

    Cathy,

    Sorry, what is your question?

  • by Cards48,

    Cards48 Cards48 May 3, 2015 4:22 PM in response to ed2345
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 3, 2015 4:22 PM in response to ed2345

    "Pick the library you want to use, and add all missing content to that one.  If your content includes any "protected" content from the iTunes Store, you will have to authorize to the account(s) from which the content was purchased."

     

    Can you please clarify how we can "add all the missing content" to the new preferrred account? Since these were itunes songs purchased through the Itunes store, I am not understanding how we can download them from the store while using itunes which is now tied to our new account.

  • by roaminggnome,

    roaminggnome roaminggnome May 3, 2015 4:38 PM in response to Cards48
    Level 10 (96,879 points)
    May 3, 2015 4:38 PM in response to Cards48

    You can store content from many different sources and iTunes account in one library.  You can copy it from wherever it is now to one computer.

     

    You can redownload it from iTunes into one computer.

     

    Download past purchases from iTunes in the Cloud - Apple ...

  • by JonahFalcon1,

    JonahFalcon1 JonahFalcon1 Oct 24, 2015 12:35 PM in response to alex_h1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 24, 2015 12:35 PM in response to alex_h1

    Hahaha. "Cannot be merged". More like "WON'T" be merged. Apple doesn't WANT people to merge accounts, despite every other tech company in the universe allowing you to.

  • by ckfromnycity,

    ckfromnycity ckfromnycity Nov 23, 2015 6:12 AM in response to HEScruggs
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 23, 2015 6:12 AM in response to HEScruggs

    This is what I am going to do. I have a similar problem with purchases on my business account which I want to move to my personal account.

     

    All my personal email is in my me.com address.

    All my purchases, contact, calendar, etc. are in my business account.

     

    I want to keep my personal email address and my business purchases, contacts, etc.. I can export and re-import my calendar and contact from one to the other.

     

    I will create a family share with my personal account and add my family, plus my own personal account as one of the family member. This way the purchases I made with my business accounts with be shared. And I will use my personal account only from now on.

  • by Krazykenny06,

    Krazykenny06 Krazykenny06 May 1, 2016 4:30 AM in response to HEScruggs
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iTunes
    May 1, 2016 4:30 AM in response to HEScruggs

    I'm having an interesting predicament. My girlfriend has two AppleIDs, she wants one for the App Store and one for iCloud... She doesn't want to loose her pictures from the iCloud one. That's the only reason she still has it. When I try to add her other appleID to it it won't associate to it because it's already an appleID. Is there any why to move the pictures and stuff to the newer primary account without loosing all the pics? When I signed out of her old one it took all the pics off and it was blank. She doesn't know the password for her old email either. i know I can download them off iCloud onto my PC but she has over 20gb of pics lol

  • by armenjosephchak,

    armenjosephchak armenjosephchak Jul 25, 2016 6:45 PM in response to HEScruggs
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jul 25, 2016 6:45 PM in response to HEScruggs

    Yeah, I asked apple about this a couple of times.  Seems like even though I have a single iCloud account which knows about my 2 different email addresses, my iTunes accounts are associated with "each" email address. Seems like a simple database merge problem, but, no, Apple wants to be a prickly pear about this.  I have a bunch of purchases "here@yahoo.com" and a bunch of purchases and my iCloud account on "There@mac.com".  If I accidentally associate a iTunes gift card to one account they can't even transfer the amount of credit to the other account so I can consolidate my gifts and purchases. 

     

    I'm sure there's some really difficult situation that causes this.  Maybe they keep older iTunes accounts on a green screen AS400 machine from IBM in a dark room in Cupertino -something silly and anachronistic like that-and iCloud is on their modern hosting platform which would have convert old EBCDIC to UNICODE or something.  Oooo.

     

    Really apple, Siri on MacOS Sierra Beta just told me that you have 115,000 employees...but none of them can solve this simple 1980's database transform and merge problem...and its not like you can't dip into your cash hoard and make customers happy for a couple hundred thousand dollars.

     

    I've mostly given up and go through this very NON-Apple-simplcity way of dealing with it.  I log in and out of accounts on any device when I need to get to the other account.  Then I check in every year or so and write one of this ridiculous missives.

  • by phillipscc,

    phillipscc phillipscc Aug 8, 2016 11:37 AM in response to armenjosephchak
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 8, 2016 11:37 AM in response to armenjosephchak

    Too many employees and no Jobs I guess...