IPhone – Is it possible to have the two AppleIDs tied to different services

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I have two AppleIDs, for path dependent reasons. (I used a non-email one that got converted to a gmail address for iTunes purchases back in the nether times, and I have a me.com one from when mobileMe existed.)

  • The one that was just a user name and now a gmail email address is linked to:
    • iTunes Store purchases
    • iOS app purchases
  • The one on me.com is linked to:
    • MacOS (OS X ) app store
    • AppleTV and AppleTV+ (because I recently bought both a new phone and A-TV, so they gave me a free year; this does mean I have two one-year offers)
    • Apple Arcade (same; both new phone and A-TV)
    • iCloud, and thus my iPhone syncing, cloud backup, iMessage, etc.

For a long time, I have had my iPhone, while "controlled" by the me.com AppleID, do its purchases via the gmail-based AppleID.

I get that this is a mess, but I'd like to bring some order, if possible, because on both my computer and phone, I have to sign-out on one account and sign back in on the other, in order to shift between use/purchase on Apple TV and, say, the App Store. That is, if I'm signed in to the Me.com ID to watch TV+ on the computer/phone, and I then want to go buy an app or a music track, I have to switch to the gmail ID. This is a point of friction that I'd like to eliminate or lessen, but I'm not sure it is possible.

(I had been hoping to get two years of free TV+ out of my recent upgrade purchases by stacking the offers [is that possible?]. Would be willing to consider "burning" one of them if it's possible to consolidate all to one media purchasing ID.)

I have added both IDs to Family Sharing (where the me.com ID is the organizer), but when signed into iTunes under the me.com ID, the computer/phone does not "see" the purchases associated with the gmail ID.

What methods, if any, exist to allow me to continue with the scheme above (two IDs, linked to different services) while eliminating the friction having to sign in and out to use the services? If that is not possible, what do people suggest would be the "simplest" way to make this all easier?

Best Answer

To answer my question, after contacting Apple support--

  1. One cannot have two Apple TV+ promotions going on the same Apple ID, or on two Apple IDs that are part of Family Sharing;
  2. One cannot change the Apple ID that used for the Apple TV+ Promotion.

If you want to change the ID associated with a service, at least when you start via a free offer, you can cancel and re-sign up with the ID you prefer.

In my case, since I've got two offers going, the "best" thing to do to transfer over is to redeem the offer while signed in to Music.app, TV.app, or whatever, on the account one wants associated with the subscription.

So make liberal use of that calendar app.

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