8 Tips Before You Change Your Apple App Store Country.
For each country, there is an Apple App Store that must meet the requirements of that country. This means that when you move from one region to another, you can change the country in the app store.
It seems logical, but this option has many disadvantages and workarounds that might be better for you in general. So, before you pull the trigger and change your current location in the App Store to something else, there are a few things to keep in mind before changing your country in the App Store.
Is this a long-term step?
If you are only going to stay in your new country temporarily and plan to return, honestly, you shouldn’t waste time changing your place of residence. This is especially true if you are not going to change your current payment method.
Your payment method is tied to the country you live in. You cannot use a payment method from one country to pay for purchases in another. Therefore, unless your current credit card is canceled, you can leave the country or region of the app store unchanged. Everything will work as usual.
If you’re worried about regional apps like Netflix, they just detect your location and change the content available based on that. There is no need to change anything in the App Store itself.
Requirements to change the country of the Apple App Store
If you are serious about changing the region in the app store, you need to do some prep work before continuing. Here’s what you need:
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- Payment method for the target country with a billing address in that country.
- Any App Store credit must be used.
- All current subscriptions must be canceled
- Any active transactions such as digital leases must be completed.
Once you’ve done all this, you’re ready to request a change from Apple, but read the additional caveats before doing so.
You will lose access to purchases
If you change the country in the App Store, you may lose access to apps and content that you previously purchased. They won’t disappear if you’ve already downloaded them to your device, but you may not be able to download them later if you delete them.
This is the main reason why you might want to reconsider changing the country in the app store. It is hardly ideal to lose potentially hundreds of dollars on purchases for no real reason other than arbitrary regional politics.
You can download and unload applications
If you still want to change the region, you might want to download all of your apps to your device. Unfortunately, most of us probably don’t have enough space on our iOS devices to permanently store every app we buy in local storage. Fortunately, you no longer need to uninstall the app to free up space on modern iOS. Instead, you can simply unload the application.
This deletes the standard app data, but does not delete its icon or your personal data, such as documents or game saves. Then you can re-download the app at any time just by clicking on it. The license to use the application also remains on your local device. So this might be one way to keep apps after changing regions. There is no guarantee that this will work indefinitely, though.
It’s also worth noting that you may also not be able to update apps from previous purchases in your area. This is another nail in the coffin of the idea of ??changing countries in the App Store.
Affected by family sharing
If there are people in your family group who do not change the country with you, you will face some problems. All family members must have Apple IDs from the same region.
So if you are a primary member of a family group, or rely on the apps you get from being a member of one of them, changing the country in the App Store will be a major issue. If you leave your existing Apple ID as it is, it won’t be a problem, even if you currently live elsewhere.
You do not have to change the region of your country
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So far, changing the region in the App Store may seem like more of a problem than it’s worth, but you’re moving to a new country so you don’t have a choice? No! It’s important to understand that no matter where you actually live, nothing will change in your App Store.
If you have a valid payment method for the region your store is currently installed in, you can continue to use it as always, whether you live in your original country or not.
If you are about to lose your current payment method and use the one tied to your new country, you might consider changing, but there is an alternative that you should think about first!
You can get more than one Apple ID
Most people probably only have one Apple ID associated with their primary email address. However, you have no reason to only have one Apple ID. Instead of changing your current ID to a new country, you can simply create a new Apple ID for the target country. If you have a ready-made payment method for this region.
Apps with multiple Apple IDs can work seamlessly on the same device. Switching between different identifiers is also easy. It’s as easy as entering your username and password.
So create a new email address for your new Apple ID, download all the apps and content you want on your device by signing into your old account, and then switch to the new store. You may have to go to the old store to update the apps, but it’s just a few minutes of hassle. This is nothing compared to being cut off from your old purchases forever.
Walk the path of least resistance
Moving abroad is challenging and stressful work at the best of times. So why complicate things by changing your fundamental App Store experience with such little benefit? While it makes sense for Apple to offer such a feature, the way it is implemented is far from ideal at the time of writing.
Of course, if you understand the consequences of changing your region and agree with this, then by all means, do not be afraid to see it through to the end. In the end, managing one Apple ID will always be easier than two. There is also a clear possibility that Apple will change some of the more awkward aspects of region change in the future, so the disadvantages listed here may no longer apply when you read this.
However, our top recommendation today is that anyone looking to change country in the Apple App Store should simply create a second Apple ID and run both at the same time. This is the path of least resistance, taken along with all the other things you’ll worry about while driving, it seems like the easiest solution.
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