About account transfers in Apple Business Manager
After the domain capture process starts, personal Apple Accounts using that domain are notified in an email and in a notification on any device signed into the account. For notifications, the device must use iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS 15.1, visionOS 2.0, or later.
See Domain capture process and Domain capture example.
Decide when to transfer an personal Apple Account
There are different aspects users should consider when determining whether or not to transfer their personal Apple Account.
Users may want to keep their personal Apple Account if:
The account is used to store personal photos, iCloud Keychain items, or other personal data.
The account is used to make app, music, or movie purchases.
The account is used with Apple Pay.
The account is part of Family Sharing and provides subscriptions, music, movie purchases, or app licenses to other family members.
Users may want to transfer their personal Apple Account if the account was created to:
Be used primarily on work devices and to collaborate with other people in the organization.
Access services related to the organization, like Apple Business Connect, Apple Business Register, or the Apple Push Notification services portal.
If an Apple Account can’t be transferred
Users are informed that they must make changes to transfer their personal Apple Account if one of the following services is used:
Apple Cash balance
Apple Pay or Apple Wallet cards, including expired and parked cards (cards associated with the account but not provisioned on the particular device)
Apple Store balance
Find My
Family Sharing
Recovery Contact
Health data
Also, the user might be prompted to update the country or region of their account to the one of their organization.
Depending on the account, users may also be presented with only one option: to rename the personal Apple Account and keep using it as a personal Apple Account. For example, accounts for users under the age of 13, which can’t be transferred to an organization, or if users have temporarily disabled their Apple Account in the privacy portal at privacy.apple.com.
If an Apple Account can be transferred
When the account can be transferred and the user chooses to do so, full ownership of the account and associated data is transferred to the organization. The services listed in Access to services using Managed Apple Accounts are also available for Managed Apple Accounts and remain accessible after the transfer.
Transferred accounts get assigned the role of Staff. If necessary, users with the role of Administrator or People Manager can change the user’s role.
If a user wants to keep their Apple Account
If the user decides to keep their account as a personal Apple Account, they may want to transfer services they have been using in the organizational context. See Transfer Apple services to a Managed Apple Account.
Apps and books
Apps and books which have been purchased prior to the transfer remain available. Other content like music, movies, TV shows, Fitness+, Apple TV+, and Apple Arcade won’t be available. Also, existing and active subscriptions can be used but can’t be renewed after the transfer. The Apps & Books section in Apple Business Manager together with the mobile device management (MDM) solution framework offer an easy and scalable way to distribute content in a managed environment.