If you are asked to transfer your Apple Account or keep it as a personal account

If your Apple Account uses an email address that is owned by an organization, you may be asked to transfer your Apple Account to a work or school account or keep it as a personal account by updating your email address.

Update your Apple Account

When a business or school requests that all Apple Accounts using an email address associated with their organization should be managed, you will begin to receive emails from Apple and notifications on devices associated with your account with available options.

You will be instructed to either transfer to a work or school account or keep your Apple Account as a personal account. Not all accounts are eligible for transfer. If your account is ineligible for transfer, you will not see that option.*

Transfer to an Apple Account for work or school

When the account becomes managed, you benefit from streamlined collaboration features and simplified enrollment into management, and your organization benefits from consolidated account management. Your organization will also be able to help recover your account if you forget your password or lose your trusted device.

If you choose to transfer your account, the following also applies:

• Any photos, keychain items (such as passwords), or other account data will also be accessible by your organization.

• Apps or Books purchased in the App Store or Book Store will remain associated with your account.

• You will lose access to any iTunes Store purchases such as music, movies, and tv shows.

• Subscriptions will not renew after the end of the current billing cycle.

Learn more about how to view your purchase history for the App Store and other Apple media services

Consider transferring your Apple Account

If you originally created your Apple Account to use for your business or school needs, you may wish to transfer your account to a managed account.

Below are some examples of situations to consider when transferring your account:

• You don’t use the account to store personal photos, documents, keychain items (such as passwords), or other personal data.

• You use the account primarily on work or school devices to collaborate with others within the organization.

• You use the account primarily to access services for the organization, including Apple Developer Program, AppleCare Enterprise Portal, Apple Business Connect, Apple Business Register, Apple Push Notification services portal, or other business-focused services.

Supported software versions for account transfer

In order to transfer your account, you must be signed in with your Apple Account on a device with supported software installed. This includes:

• macOS 15.1 or later

• iOS 18 or later

• iPadOS 18 or later

If you don’t have a device with a supported software version installed, you can also complete this process by signing in to account.apple.com using your Apple Account.

Keep your Apple Account as a personal account

If you choose to keep your Apple Account as personal, you need to update the email address that you use with that account. You'll use the new email address to sign in to your Apple Account and Apple services like Apple Music and iCloud. Your account password does not change.

When you update your email address, the following also applies:

• People you share with will see the new account name in Messages and other Apple services.

• You retain access to all data and purchases associated with your account.

• The organization won't have access to your data.

Consider keeping your account as personal

Below are some examples of situations to consider when keeping the account as a personal Apple Account:

• You use the account to store personal photos, keychain items (such as passwords), or other personal data.

• You use the account to make music, movie, or tv show purchases in iTunes.

• You use the account for Apple Pay.

• You use Family Sharing with the account and share subscriptions or purchases with other members of your Family Sharing group.

Update your email address

You can update the email address you use with your Apple Account to an email address that is not owned by an organization, or you can create an @icloud.com email address.

Learn how to change your Apple Account primary email address

If you don’t transfer your account or update your email address to keep it personal

After your organization begins the process to require all Apple Accounts using the work or school email address to be managed, you will have 30 days to take action.

If you don't transfer your account or update your email address within 30 days, your Apple Account will be updated with a temporary username that includes @temporary.appleaccount.com. For example, john@example.edu will be updated to john-example.edu@temporary.appleaccount.com. Apple will notify you by email with the new temporary username.

After 30 days, sign in with your temporary Apple Account email address and change your Apple Account primary email address.