{"id":39261,"date":"2023-05-03T14:33:39","date_gmt":"2023-05-03T18:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=39261"},"modified":"2025-04-08T10:10:24","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T14:10:24","slug":"multiple-apple-id-accounts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2023\/05\/03\/multiple-apple-id-accounts\/","title":{"rendered":"Multiple Apple ID Accounts"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Gruber<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

The problem I was running into [here<\/a>] was a bug that resulted from the fact I have split<\/em> Apple ID accounts: one account for iTunes and App Store purchases, and a separate account for my Apple ID.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Everything is simpler if you only have one Apple ID that you use for both iCloud and iTunes\/App Store purchases. The reason I never switched to using my mac.com iCloud account for everything, including purchases, is that there’s never been a way to migrate old purchases from a different account. And I’ve bought a lot of music, movies, and apps over the years using my other account.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

This situation I ran into — seeing a promotion for a three-month Apple Arcade trial despite the fact that I pay for Apple One (which includes Arcade) — is just one of those glitches. Most Apple One subscribers don’t have split accounts, so they never saw the unnecessary promotion.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

I have multiple accounts, too. One started with iTunes purchases. Another was created for .Mac\/iTools. Another is for the developer program and was initially based around a person number and a name, but it eventually became a true Apple ID tied to an e-mail address. I don’t want to merge them, but I worry about Apple increasingly assuming that everything on the device is signed into the same account.<\/p>\n\n

Glenn Fleishman<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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In hindsight, Apple should have, somewhere in the last 10 years, offered a consolidation option. I and so many people I know have split accounts for historical reasons…and the fragile rigidity of the Apple ID and purchasing system and records.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

And it’s not just purchases, since iCloud data is also locked to an account. A lot of people also use a separate account to share data and purchases in a family, due to longstanding limitations of Family Sharing.<\/p>\n\n

Adam Chandler<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Many millions of us have two accounts who had iTools back in the day. Amazing that apple has offered no way to merge them yet.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

John Gordon<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I’ve had LOTS of issues over years from having split accounts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Kirk McElhearn<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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For me, it’s even more complicated. Not only do I have two Apple IDs, but they are in two different countries. It is impossible for me to move my main Apple ID to the country in which I live. Because reasons.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Alex Brooks<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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I agree that having split Apple accounts can sometimes be a pain, my path for having this is the same as [Gruber’s]. But I enjoy the security via obscurity aspect of it, my iCloud email is unknown (I never use it for email), and my iTunes email is at my main domain but obscure. Makes phishing almost impossible—and after all my iCloud account is probably the most precious of them all.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n