Migrate content tokens to Apple Business Essentials
In Apps and Books, there are two types of tokens associated with app and book licenses.
Legacy tokens
Legacy tokens are user-based tokens that are associated with the person that downloaded them. That person can do only the following:
Download the legacy token and upload it into their device management service.
Assign and reassign apps they bought to users and devices using their device management service.
Assign books they bought to users using their device management service.
Note: Some Apple Books content isn’t available in certain countries or regions. To learn whether certain Apple Books content is available in your country or region, see the Apple Support article Availability of Apple programs and payment methods for education and business.
Content tokens for each location
Content Managers can download a content token for locations where they have permissions, and they can upload that token to their device management service to assign books, and to assign and reassign apps. Make sure your organization uploads location tokens for all locations where you made purchases or transfers in Apps and Books.
Before you start managing content tokens, check with your device management service developer to learn which solution they support:
A single user-based content token
A single location-based content token
Multiple location-based content tokens
Migration planning
To get started migrating, Content Managers with personal token libraries need to migrate their licenses to a location in Apps. For the best migration experience, organizations need to ensure that during the initial migration to Apps and Books the Content Manager is mapped to a unique location that hasn’t yet been used. This allows all content to migrate properly. It’s recommended that you move all Content Managers at the same time. This can be done by each Content Manager, or by any user with the role of Administrator with access to all accounts.
Note: If a Content Manager account has VPP credit associated with it, the credit remains associated with that buyer. VPP credit isn’t transferred to the chosen location. See Purchase VPP credit.
Assigned licenses versus unassigned licenses
After migration, licenses are associated with the location they migrated to rather than with the buyer’s legacy token. If a Content Manager migrates to a location that already has licenses in it, only their unassigned licenses are moved to the location during initial migration. (This process avoids any disruption to license assignments in device management.) Assigned licenses remain associated with the buyer’s legacy token. After these licenses are unassigned in device management, they can be moved to a location in the Apps section of Preferences.