Merging Two Apple ID’s

In technical by lisa@lisabeaney.co.ukLeave a Comment

Merging Two Apple ID’s

Well, I have been having a bit of a “tidy up” on my machine with the sheer number of email accounts that I seem to have accumulated over the years. We have stopped using Google Apps (a whole load of things that can now be deleted) and I wanted to simplify my Apple setup.

Like lots of people I have ended up with two Apple id’s (from memory at some point Apple  wanted you to have a mac.com address to use their chat program…) It could never see an easy way of merging the two but I have found a method of doing it that (at the moment) seems to have worked.

It isn’t the most straight forward and there is the possibility that you will lose some documents / photos so PLEASE make sure you have everything backed up before you start but if you are feeling brave this is how I did it….

I have an iPhone, iPad, iMac and Macbook pro…. I have ended up with two different Apple Id’s. One that I have used historically for purchases, calendar and contacts and one that I use for email
OldAppleID – My old account with all my purchases
NewAppleID – My new account with Email

1. If you are using itunes match make sure you download all your music to your local machine (in my case my imac) – YOU WILL NEED TO RE-SUBSCRIBE so depending on how far through your year you are this may cost you more…
2. Back up each iOS device to a local machine using itunes.
3. Copy any documents from your icloud drive to your local machine (keynote presentations etc)
4. Copy any photos that you want to keep from your photostream to your local machine.
5. On all the devices you use on icloud open the applications and let them all sync (this will make sure that everything is up to date before you start)
6. Choose one iOS device to use as your source device. (I used my iPad)
7. On this device go to settings, icloud and then sign out. You will be warned that documents and photos will be deleted… it is ok to carry on at this point !
8. This next bit is critical…. You will be prompted about the other data on your device; if you want to keep it on the device or delete it. You MUST select keep on device….
9. Then, sign back in to icloud (under settings) using your new apple id. If you are asked if you want to merge the data on your device with icloud say yes ☺ Your data will all then be uploaded to your new apple id. You may get several prompts (one for each application ie contacts, calendars etc) You now have a copy of all your data on your new icloud account
10. Verify that your data has been copied to icloud by logging in using your new apple id through a web browser.
11. Next check that the data all appears on your device (have a look at calendar, contacts etc)
12. For other iOS devices you will need to sign out of icloud but choose to delete the data on your device.
13. Sign in to your new account and all your data should copy down to your device.
14. On your Mac/Macbook under preferences sign out of your old icoud account and sign in to your new one.
15. Open itunes. Again you will need to sign out of your old account and in to your new one.
16. At this point you will need to re-subscribe to itunes match if you use it.
17. Connect each iOS device and backup to your machine using itunes. When prompted choose to transfer purchases to itunes (you may lose all your paid for apps otherwise !)
18. When itunes match has finished scanning your music on your machine you will need to re-download any that you wish to store locally on your iOS devies
19. Last but not least…. When you open find my friends you will find that you don’t have any ! You will need to re-add everyone from your new Apple ID.
This has worked for me (so far !) but I can’t guarantee it will work for everyone…. And you may lose data if you are not very careful.

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