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How do I merge Apple subscriptions and music library under a new email address?

I recently moved and had to change my email address pretty much everywhere. Right now, my Apple subscription is under the new address, but my Music library seems to still be associated with the old email. Consequently, there is a large number of songs in my library I'm unable to access. ("This item is not currently available in your country or region.") I have an active iTunes Match subscription, but no Apple Music subscription. How do I get everything under the new address? Thanks.


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Dueling Email Addresses

4 replies

When you moved did you create a new Apple Account. The correct way to achieve what you wanted to do from the start is to change your email address on your Apple Account, that way everything included in the previous account remains unchanged.

Change your Apple Account primary email address - Apple Support


Given that it is too late now with subscription under your new Apple Account, the only other option is to Migrate the account, and there are some limitations that would need to be reviewed. It would not be possible to migrate if there is a Music Library associated with the old and new account. You would not be able to merge those songs, the migration is just for moving the previous Music Library to the new account.

Migrate purchases from one Apple Account to another Apple Account - Apple Support


The other solution would be to move everything over to the new account. Apple has no formal entire account merging or transferring process. The things below will help you in doing ongoing or one-time transfer of as much as possible from one account to the other. In February, 2025 Apple started allowing purchases to be migrated to a different account. This is not available in all countries. If you do wish to migrate purchases, Apple has several lengthy and detailed articles about doing this, including limitations:

- Purchases can be migrated from a secondary to a primary Apple Account to consolidate them. (This feature isn’t available to users in India.) —> Migrate purchases from one Apple Account to another Apple Account - Apple Support

- Learn about what purchases and associated content can be migrated between two accounts. —> About migrating Apple Account purchases between accounts - Apple Support

If you cannot migrate your purchases, or wish to share already purchased items, look into using Family Sharing to continue to be able to use items purchased with one Apple account with other Apple accounts, and for some data sharing features.

- Family Sharing - How Family Sharing works - Apple Support

- Set up Family Sharing - How to set up Family Sharing on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac - Apple Support


You can use various iCloud sharing features for some ongoing data sharing.

Share folders with iCloud Drive --> Share files and folders in iCloud Drive on iCloud.com - Apple Support


Read How to use Shared Albums in Photos on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Vision Pro - Apple Support about how to share photos.


Sharing music playlists —> How to share an Apple Music playlist on your iPhone - Apple Support


While Apple’s purchase migration documents say you cannot transfer iCloud data, you can probably still do that as a separate process. The next section may sound tricky but it lets you merge some things on a device where you have already signed in with an old account but want to use a new account and incorporate data that is already on the device from the old account. Incidentally, the data will then propagate to other devices using iCloud with that new account. (I haven't tried this with a computer but it may also work with a computer account signed into an old account.)


If you have signed into the first Apple account on a mobile device (but maybe also on a computer?) then fortunately when you sign out of that account it asks you if you wish to retain the data from the old account on your device (toggle the ones you want to on What happens after you choose Sign Out But Don't Erase - Apple Support ). If you keep data on the device then when you sign in with the other account it will merge this data with the account signing into the device. You can later delete individual items from the old account that you do not want. Similar information can be found in this post: I have 2 apple IDs i want to merge them h… - Apple Community , and a step-by-step in this User Tip: How to “unshare” an Apple ID - Apple Community . Note that only content physically present on the device such as contacts, photos and videos will be retained. Meta data such as a game play scores that are tied to a specific account or are only on a vendor's Apple Account-specific database remotely will not be retained. Also turn off storage optimization before doing this. With Optimize Storage, smaller, space-saving photos and videos are kept on your device while all of your original, full-resolution versions are stored in iCloud. Make sure photo optimization is turned off so the full quality versions from the old account are actually on the device before merging the content into your new account. https://support.apple.com/HT205703 You can turn optimization back on again once you are fully using your new account on the device.



I get the impression that what you did was create a new account. The easiest way to have done this would have been to simply change the email address on the old account. That may still be the easiest way of dealing with this but you won't be able to use your new address since you have already used it to create an account. The support article Change your Apple Account primary email address - Apple Support outlines various methods for changing the email address (Apple ID) you use for your Apple Account while retaining everything in your account.


Change your Apple Account primary email address - Apple Support

- If you remove an email address that isn’t an iCloud email address from your Apple Account, it can’t be associated with another Apple Account for 30 days for security reasons. After removing an email address from your account, notify anyone who might contact you on Messages, FaceTime, or other Apple apps using that Apple Account email address. After 30 days, another user might be able to associate that email address with an Apple Account for Messages, FaceTime, and more.


From: How to delete your Apple Account - Apple Support

“Can I use the primary email address for my deleted Apple Account to create a new Apple Account or with another existing Apple Account?

No, once your Apple Account is deleted, you can’t use the email address that you used with it to create a new Apple Account for as long as Apple retains the one-way hash of the email address. For third-party (non-Apple) domain accounts, the one-way hash is deleted after six years. For other accounts, this is retained according to Apple's retention policy, which is reviewed regularly. In addition, you can’t use that email address with another existing Apple Account except as a rescue email. Also, if your primary Apple Account email address is with a Custom Email Domain, it can never be reused to create an Apple Account after your Apple Account is deleted, even if the domain ownership changes.”

Apple may retain addresses for an even longer period if so required by law —> Legal - Apple Account & Privacy- Apple


Thank you for the thoughtful responses. I guess I will just call Apple and see what they can do for me. I certainly didn't intend to open a new account; I thought I was just changing the email address. And for what it's worth, Family Sharing is part of the problem because my late husband set it up and he's no longer around. Maybe I'll see what they can do about closing his account while I'm on the horn with them. Anyway, thank you again.