Apple Quietly Gave Your iPhone a Helpful New Feature

This week, Apple quietly gave iPhone and iPad users a long-awaited new ability — for the first time, you can migrate app purchases (such as music, movies and books) from one Apple Account to another.

This is a big deal for people with two separate Apple Accounts, using one as a primary tied to their iCloud account and one as a secondary for in-app purchases. This way, you can consolidate the two and just make your life that much easier.

There is a little bit of a catch, however. You can only migrate app purchases from the secondary to the primary Apple Account, and not vice versa. Also, the secondary Apple Account can’t be part of a Family Sharing group.

Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

How to migrate purchases between Apple Accounts

As explained on an Apple Support page, there are a couple things you need to know and do before migrating purchases.

First, you need to know the email address (or phone number) and password for both accounts. You must then sign into both accounts on the same iPhone or iPad, which you can do in Settings.

You need to 1) turn on two-factor authentication for both accounts, 2) make sure both are set to the same country for purchases and 3) make sure there isn’t any balance remaining on the secondary account.

When you’ve checked those boxes, you’re ready for migration. (Check out Apple’s Support page for more detailed information on doing any of the above steps.)

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap your name (at the top).
3. Tap Media & Purchases.
4. Select View Account. (You may have to sign in.)
5. Scroll down and select Migrate Purchases.

From here, you’ll need to review the information for both accounts and then follow the on-screen steps to complete the migration of purchases to the primary account. When complete, you’ll see “Purchases Have Been Migrated.”

After the migration, you’ll no longer be able to make purchases using that secondary account. If you’ve been using that secondary account for services like Apple Music or Apple TV, you’ll need to sign out and then sign in using the primary account.

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