Can you merge Apple IDs? How to merge Apple IDs without losing data? This guide will tell you all the info you want to know.
Can I merge two Apple IDs?
I have two Apple IDs, not on purpose. Is there a way to merge Apple IDs so I only have one Apple ID?
- Question from Apple Community
Everyone who uses an iPhone is no stranger to iCloud. iCloud provides a convenient way to help us save and sync our data. A user can have two or more iCloud accounts but an iPhone can only be logged into one iCloud account. If you are in the following situation, then you may want to know how to merge Apple IDs.
β You used to share an Apple ID with someone else but now you've decided to use your own account. β You have two Apple phones with separate Apple accounts but now you've decided to phase out the older one. β You've created two Apple accounts to separate life and work but you're tired of switching accounts so often. β Or you accidentally created a new account and have been using it for a while.
Apple ID is associated with purchased items and all important data stored in iCloud. When you decided to use just one Apple ID, you definitely do not want to say goodbye to all of them. How to change Apple ID without losing data? Is there a way to merge iCloud accounts? Just keep reading to find the answer.
Having two Apple IDs can run into all kinds of trouble. Can you merge Apple IDs to reduce all the problems and confusion?
The truth is that Apple IDs cannot be merged. Apple does not provide a way to help users merge two Apple IDs into one. But fortunately, you can take some steps to transfer the data to minimize losses.
β If you want to share purchased items with others, then you can go to Settings > [your name] > Family Sharing to set Family Sharing between the IDs. β If you want to ditch an account completely, you can choose to manually transfer data from one Apple ID to another. However, it’s not possible to transfer everything, which means you need to sacrifice some of your data or content. β Unfortunately, there is no way to transfer subscriptions. You may need to subscribe again. β For the purchased songs or videos, you can use a third-party transfer tool to help you move them. By the way, you can leave apps on iPhone when you switch to another account.
You can refer to the next part to learn more about how to merge iCloud accounts on iPhone or iPad.
When you ask how to merge Apple IDs, you may want to know how to transfer data from one account to another. There are 3 ways that can help you achieve the goal.
First of all, you need to decide which Apple ID you want to continue using. Since you can't transfer purchases to another account, it is recommended that you choose an Apple ID that has the largest purchase volume.
Now, let’s start to see how to merge Apple IDs. To make the steps clearer, suppose you want to transfer data from Apple ID A to Apple ID B. If you want to transfer purchased music, please refer to Way 3.
When you sign out of iCloud or turn off the data sync, you can choose to keep the data on your iPhone. Once you have saved all your data on your phone, you can log in to another account to sync that data. Let’s learn more details about how to merge iCloud accounts.
1. Go to Settings > Select [your name] > Tap Sign Out to log out of Apple ID A.
2. Enter your passcode to turn off Find My iPhone.
3. Choose the data you want to keep on iPhone > Tap Sign Out twice to confirm.
4. After that, you can sign in to Apple ID B and tap Merge to upload data to this account.
Or you can save projects one by one. For example, if you want to transfer contacts from one Apple ID to another, you can go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > turn off Contacts > choose Keep on My iPhone. After you have downloaded all the items you need, you can sign out of account A.
Now you can sign in to account B and turn on the sync.
When you don't have much space available on your iPhone, you can choose to merge Apple IDs on the computer. First download data from Apple ID A to computer and then upload data to Apple ID B.
1. Open a browser and go to iCloud.com.
2. Enter your Apple ID and passcode to sign in to account A.
3. Choose Contacts, Calendars, Photos, iCloud Drive or other protects you need > Select the items you need and save them on computer.
For example, if you want to download contacts, you should choose Contacts > select the contacts you need > click Export vCard… option.
After you have downloaded all the files you need, you can sign in to Account B to upload contacts and all other files. Now when you sign in to Account B on iPhone, you'll find all your files there.
Above are two methods to merge Apple IDs on iPhone. However, none of them can help you transfer purchased items. If you want to transfer purchased music, you can use FoneTool.
FoneTool is one professional iPhone data management tool for Windows users. You can rely on FoneTool to transfer purchased songs from iPhone to computer. In this way, you will have a copy of your songs and you can transfer them back to iPhone at any time.
You can click the download button to get FoneTool and give it a try.
Step 1. Transfer music from iPhone to computer
1. Launch FoneTool and connect iPhone to computer via USB cable.
2. Choose Phone Transfer > Go to iPhone to PC and click Start Transfer.
3. Click the plus icon > Choose the songs you want to transfer and click OK.
4. Click Start Transfer > Select a destination and click Transfer.
Step 2. Transfer music from computer to iPhone
When you want to transfer your songs to iPhone, you can follow the steps below to make it.
1. Choose Phone Transfer and go to PC to iPhone.
2. Choose Music > Choose the songs you exported before.
3. Click Start Transfer. It will not erase any existing songs on your iPhone.
What do I do if I have two Apple IDs?
If you have two accounts, you can find yourself in a rather confusing situation. There is no direct way to merge 2 Apple IDs into one. You can refer to the steps in this guide to transfer data from one Apple ID to another so you can use a single account on iPhone.
How do I transfer everything from one Apple ID to another?
It’s impossible to transfer everything from one Apple ID to another. You can try Way 1 and Way 2 to transfer data stored in iCloud. For the purchased music, Way 3 provides a workaround. However, you cannot transfer subscriptions.
How do I create a new Apple ID without losing everything?
When you log out of your previous account, you can tap Keep on My iPhone to download all data on iPhone. Then you can sign in to your new Apple ID and sync data. In addition, you can backup important data to computer in advance.
Does creating a new Apple ID delete the old one?
The answer is No. It will not delete the previous Apple ID when you create the new one, so you will lose nothing.
How to delete Apple ID?
If you're sure you don't want to use your other Apple ID anymore, you can go to https://privacy.apple.com/, enter your Apple ID and passcode and select Request to delete your account.
That’s all about how to merge Apple IDs on iPhone. There is no official way to merge iCloud accounts. If you do not want to lose the data saved on the cloud, you can first download them on iPhone or computer and then upload them to the target account. For the purchased songs, you can transfer them to computer as a backup.