You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

💡 Did you know?

⏺ If you can't accept iCloud Terms and Conditions... Learn more >

⏺ If you don't see your iCloud notes in the Notes app... Learn more >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

i need to merge 2 apple id's

i have an old work apple id and a new personal apple id and would like to merge them

iMac, iOS 10.3.2

Posted on Jun 19, 2017 10:21 AM

Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 4, 2017 6:15 PM

OK, I have two ID's as well. My problem stems from having two ID's. When I created the second ID, I really didn't know what I was doing it for in the first place. I was getting my first iPhone (iPhone 4) and I already had an iTunes account and a me.com email address using a different ID (my preferred ID). Thats how I got two ID's. Every new iPhone since then will not "restore" unless I use that "other ID". To say its a pain in the neck is being kind. Everything else goes through my other ID except restore, at least that I can tell.


I don't want to loose my purchases, photos, apps or anything else. Any suggestions how to get down to my one preferred ID and KEEP my stuff I paid for already?


Thanks

12 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 4, 2017 6:15 PM in response to Community User

OK, I have two ID's as well. My problem stems from having two ID's. When I created the second ID, I really didn't know what I was doing it for in the first place. I was getting my first iPhone (iPhone 4) and I already had an iTunes account and a me.com email address using a different ID (my preferred ID). Thats how I got two ID's. Every new iPhone since then will not "restore" unless I use that "other ID". To say its a pain in the neck is being kind. Everything else goes through my other ID except restore, at least that I can tell.


I don't want to loose my purchases, photos, apps or anything else. Any suggestions how to get down to my one preferred ID and KEEP my stuff I paid for already?


Thanks

Jan 12, 2018 5:09 AM in response to gjlynch

It makes absolutely no sense why they won’t allow a person who has two Apple IDs, to merge their accounts. In fact, it’s more evidence for why I’m starting to be convinced of Apple’s greed and disinterest in customer satisfaction.


There are MANY ways for a person to verify their identity and the security of both accounts. They could easily place every purchased item from one account onto the other, and then dissolve the unwanted (old) account. Customers would even pay a fee for it! I thought the Apple designers were imaginative. Come on!!!

Jan 4, 2018 11:54 PM in response to Phil0124

Many of us old-timers created Apple IDs in the pre-iCloud days when all you were asked for was a unique username. (I believe the suggestion at the time was to use your name without a space or your email address up to but not including the domain, i.e., the part before the @ sign.) When iCloud came into being, Apple required that everyone use an email address as an Apple/iCloud ID. There are further complications that I won't go into here, but the result is that there are millions of people who have two or more Apple IDs. Apple has known for years about this problem, but so far, requests to come up with a simple way to merge the accounts, or transfer apps from one to the other so that the old account can be deleted, have fallen on deaf ears at Apple HQ.

i need to merge 2 apple id's

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.