Consolidation of Apple IDs

[NovaScotian]

Through assorted online misadventures (often called idiocy), I've managed to get three Apple IDs, which can be a substantial PITA. Is there any way to consolidate them into one?

[NaOH]

The Apple support document addressing this says you can't consolidate them.

Quote: Originally Posted by Article HE37 I have multiple Apple IDs. Is there a way for me to merge them into a single Apple ID? Apple IDs cannot be merged. You should use your preferred Apple ID from now on, but you can still access your purchased items such as music, movies, or software using your other Apple IDs.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HE37

[agentx]

Overall you are not alone and is a complex issue to correct...in fact impossible....as it is the way the Apple Eco System works that puts up barriers and also lack of clarity to end user how everything should work. Personally I feel there was not enough detailed information available to Users/Admins at the time of iCloud release/MobileMe transition which ended up confusing the hell out of people and causing a lot of Apple ID chaos.

The key thing to putting things right is to STOP any purchasing with multiple accounts and choose a "Master account" to become your primary purchasing ID iTunes/App Store/Mac App Store. Ideally choose the one which has most of your purchases on. The old IDs will still be needed for updates/re-downlaoding etc but there is no way round this unless you want to buy the content again with your Primary ID.

I do not really want to go into the "hacking" route to put things right as it would require Jailbreaking your iOS devices and modifying Apple .app/ipa files which where purchased on other IDs(cough not legal).

But i would like to go into my view on removing the DRM of your purchased "music". I personally feel it is OK to remove the DRM now or try and re-download those purchased tracks in non DRM formats. This however will not work for Books, Movies etc.

Announcement of FairPlay restrictions removal
On 6 January 2009 Apple announced at the 2009 Macworld Conference & Expo that they had reached an agreement with major record labels to sell all music on the iTunes Store free of DRM restrictions. Eight million tracks were available with FairPlay restrictions removed from that day[29] with the remainder of the music store to be DRM-free by the end of March 2009. However, movies, books, and television shows purchased from the iTunes Store still contain FairPlay restrictions.[30]

I have had to/and do jump through hoops managing Apple IDs in Home User/Couple/Family/SOHO/SMB and each one has different methods to achieve the goal of simplification. Now if you can explain where you are at, then i might be able to help with a "best case scenario" for your needs.

[NovaScotian]

Sorry to hear there's basically no cure for this. I find myself avoiding the store whenever possible if the software is also available directly from the developer. I've only ever bought one song there and that was for my wife's iPad. I'm a confirmed Dropbox user -- I don't like use or trust iCloud. I preferentially come here to Hints or go to MacScripter with problems, always avoiding Apple's online forums which I find awkward to use.

I love my iMac and MacBook Pro but don't like dealing with Apple Corp at any level except their hardware store which is where I bought the iMac, iPods, iPad, and MBP I own.

[agentx]

First things first you sound like you are in great shape then as you have not purchased much content.

Can i explain how we do things in our household.
I had my own paid MobileMe account which went back many years. I did all my purchasing through this one account. iTunes(not much have vinyl ;-)/Apps/Mac Apps etc. This is now the "master purchasing account" for my family. Yes i get the bill for everything and kids have to ask to buy things but my partner can buy what she wants as she has password and can authorise kids ;-). Then each person has a separate iCloud account which is in use for Mail, Contacts, Calendars, iMessage, Find my device etc. We share certain calendars between us as well so we all know what is going on.
This works very well indeed and it means we can buy certain non-commercial Apps/Content and use/view/listen on any of our Macs, iPad, iPhone, iPods etc.

The rule of thumb
At home: You need to buy one license of an App per iTunes account and can then use that App on all of the iOS devices you own or control and synch with that iTunes account.

Business/EDU/anywhere else: You need to buy one license of an App for each iOS device if that device is used by multiple users or one license of an App per user if that user is using multiple iOS devices.

I still come across many households who end up buying a game 3 times even though they could use one master account.

iCloud is an excellent free service for Lion+/iOS5+ that provides a robust IMAP email service, Contact/iCal sync that works very well, iMessage, Find my Device etc and there will significant expansion in the future. iCloud "file services" currently are not in like Dropbox....but i have a feeling it will be in the future.

Secondly you WILL need to use App Store/Mac App Store more in the future and certain things will be reliant on using a purchase enabled AppleID....it is the path of Apple....cough NDA on Mountain Lion...

all the best.

[NovaScotian]

With rigid sandboxing and signing prominent features of Mountain Lion, it's a pretty sure thing I won't go there until I'm absolutely forced to do so. I'm still running Snow Leopard on my MBP because I don't want to give up Rosetta just yet, though I do own the upgrade. I do a lot of scripting and I can readily imagine that that will become a morass of dialogs asking permission to talk to an app with no easy way to say "Always allow".