I have spent the last few days trying to figure out exatly what the impact is with changing country and card details on my Apple ID to a new location.
I changed from Ireland to the UK, and then I realised all my purchases were no longer in the 'apps in the cloud' section meaning I couldn't redownload easily!
I subsequently talked to senior advisors in Apple and they informed me it was not a big deal and I could download the apps i've paid for already in the Irish store for free. (including both the Mac App store and iTunes store/iOS store)
So all though not great I was happy enough with this solution, while I live in the UK I can redownload what I need for free on demand and when I move back to Ireland I can change it back and all my purchases will be there again, they also confirmed it doesn't affect other Apple ID services like iCloud.
Updates are still confsuing me though, I was told that iOS devices would recognise updates and show new updates in the store (which they do!)
I was also told that iTunes would not allow updates of apps purchased in the old store but I could sync back updates done on my iOS devices… This was the case until I installed iTunes 11.0.4 tonight when for some reason it let me update all my apps in iTunes with no problem?!
So my question, did something change in 11.0.4 and now I can get updates for alll apps (old store and new in iTunes)?
and what about Mac App store – will I get updates for my apps from the old store in that?
Thanks!
Best Answer
If you change your region for your Apple ID and iTunes store account, there is no guarantee that the apps you had paid for and downloaded will still be downloadable since you are literally shopping in a different store with different app availability.
Now, common apps like Evernote and Apple's apps are generally available in all of the countries, but many smaller developers focus on one or two countries and the switching process can mean you lose apps.
Is there a specific app you have found that is available on the new store, yet your account will not download? If so, I would contact the App Store support team to ensure your switch was properly executed on the server side.
Look for the icon like below that's about 2/3 of the way down the page currently.
It's possible they are rolling out changes in preparation for the announced iOS 7 changes where moving VPP purchases becomes easier or perhaps it's just a bug. One thing's for sure, not everything that changes gets announced, is permanent or immune from a rollback if it doesn't work as planned.