Merge Apple accounts - possible?

[jinkster]

I have a @me.com account for emails - remember MobileMe, I paid for that back in the day.

I have a hotmail.com address for iTunes movies, music etc. Can I merge everything to @me.com address? I’ve tried before with no luck. Anyone more successful than me? Thanks

[thebraketester]

I dont think its possible, or it certainly want last time I looked into it (wife has same thing as you annoyingly)

[Dracoro]

I had the two for years, any it annoyed me but they don’t allow merging and I doubt ever will (the issue has been around for years).

So, I decided to bit the bullet and give up on my old iTunes account and use the same iCloud account.

Things that you have to sacrifice or allow for:
1. Subscriptions - I had some (not many) so did the switch when one of the annual ones was about to expire. The rest (i.e. Apple Music I just cancelled and restarted anew)
2. TV/Film purchases - had to sacrifice these, however there were only 2 so no hardship
3. Purchased music - I had a load (but not too many) and many of these remained on my Mac and uploaded OK to iCloud Music library anyway (most don’t have DRM so OK)
4. Made a playlist of AppleMusic that I added (as well as old purchases), so once using new Apple Music sub, I could re-add them. A bit of a ballache, but only an hour or two to sort. Sort your Apple Music added list BEFORE you do the move, print it out or something. I made a playlist then exported to CSV so I could open in spreadsheet. You will also have to wait for it all to sync up properly from your Mac etc.
5. All your “purchased” apps (even if free) will still work however will no longer be properly updated, BUT will/may get all sorts of messages to log in to authorise but fails (as it’s linked to your OLD ID). As with music, make a note of ALL your non-out the box apps and once moved, remove them all and re-add them under your “new” ID. Again, a bit of a pain but only an hour to sort. I took screenshots of my iPhone in case there were any I forgot (and meant I didn’t re-download apps I deleted ages ago).
6. Make sure (with all the above) that you sign out of your iTunes account on devices used and log in using the iCloud one.

A couple of benefits.
1. When I signed up again for Apple Music, I got the “new user” benefit of 3 months free
2. I had Apple TV+ on free for a year (iPad purchase a year ago- this was about to expire anyway, prior them announcing extension), however as I bought a new iPhone a couple of months ago, I got another 12 months free as my sub was for my old ID
3. It can be somewhat cathartic process as you clear out some apps/music that you don’t want anymore anyway.

I’m glad I did it, a bit of work but prefer it all being a bit simpler now and all consolidated.

Good luck.

[NoTreadLeft]

I don’t think it’s possible to merge accounts, but you could set up a “family” with both of your accounts in it and then enable purchase sharing within that group. That would make everything you bought in your hotmail account available to your .me account.

[Dracoro]

NoTreadLeft said:

I don’t think it’s possible to merge accounts, but you could set up a “family” with both of your accounts in it and then enable purchase sharing within that group. That would make everything you bought in your hotmail account available to your .me account.

Doesn’t that mean the hotmail account is the “parent” account that does the sharing.

As per my earlier reply, a lot of this will come down to how much purchased content the OP has and how much they want to preserve/keep......

[jinkster]

Thank you for the help. I don’t have music but do have apps and quite a lot of movies/ tv shows purchased on Apple TV so don’t want to “forget” those sadly.

[Dracoro]

Your old account doesn’t die.

How many apps are paid ones? If all/most are free, then you can easily just remove and add again.

So you could still do the moving to one, but keep the AppleTV signed into your hotmail account, or try the sharing thing and you can be signed in as your iCloud account.

[camel_landy]

You might want to wander into your local 'Genius Bar' and ask them too...

M

[NoTreadLeft]

Dracoro said:

Doesn’t that mean the hotmail account is the “parent” account that does the sharing.

As per my earlier reply, a lot of this will come down to how much purchased content the OP has and how much they want to preserve/keep......

No. Each individual account within the family can decide whether to share purchases with the family or not. In addition you can nominate one account through which all purchases can go (the OP might want to keep this as the hotmail account so that all purchases stay associated with that one account).

This is independent of the Organiser account, although I think by default the Organiser account will be the Purchaser account.

It’s all pretty flexible, although I’ll concede that it sounds a bit confusing!