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How-To
Moving iPhone Apps between iPhones Bought with Different Accounts
Thursday, July 30th, 2009 at 2:55 PM - by John Martellaro
It is possible to copy an iPhone app, purchased with one iTunes account to another iPhone linked to a different iTunes account. Without paying for it again. Here's how to do it.
Recently, my wife bought the HP-15C calculator for her iPod touch with her own iTunes account. I wanted to move that app to my iPhone without paying for it a second time. It can be done, but there's a procedure that must be followed. It's actually quite easy.
Step 1. Go to the Mac (or PC) on which the desired iPhone app resides. Launch iTunes. You'll be in, let's call it, the source account.
Step 2. From the iTunes source list on the left, click on "Applications." Identify the iPhone app you're interested in. Option + Drag it to the desktop.
iTunes Applications
You'll see the app with an iTunes icon and the extension ".ipa", an iPhone app.
iPhone app on the Desktop
Step 3. Copy that file to the destination Mac with, say, Apple File Sharing or a Flash drive.
Step 4. Here's the key part. Launch iTunes on the destination Mac. Even if you're already signed in with your own account (no need to logout), from the iTunes Menus at the top, select Store -> Authorize Computer.
Getting ready to authorize second account
A dialog box will come up asking for credentials. Here's where you enter the user name and password from the source account where the iPhone app was originally purchased.
Enter credentials from source iTunes account
What you've done is essentially add a second iTunes account to your Mac, and that authorizes it to have and play music or apps purchased under that account.
Now, remember that app that ends in .ipa that you copied? In the Finder, move that app to /Users/youracctname/Music/iTunes/Mobile Applications. That's where your own iPhone apps reside. A shortcut for this move is to simply drag that iPhone app to the iTunes app icon, and the Finder will do the right thing.
Step 5. Back in iTunes, with your iPhone connected, select the iPhone source, then the Applications tab at the top. Click on the Sync button at the bottom. That will move the app to your iPhone, and it's ready to use in its new location.
With iPhone connected, sync the app
Note that if you don't do it this way, even if you've authorized the Mac with the second iTunes account, if you try to buy the app again, you'll be charged again.
While it's well known that a single iTunes account can only be authorized on five computers, and the authorization you just did counts as one, there is no known limit to the number of iTunes accounts that can be used on a single computer. Because you've used up one of the five allowed authorizations for the source account, this procedure preserves the DRM intended for apps (and music).
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