
How hard can it be to move our developer account to our new not-for-profit? - Khaine
https://ar.al/2020/01/02/dear-apple-a-little-help-here-how-hard-can-it-be-to-move-our-developer-account-to-our-new-not-for-profit/
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tzs
> We also tried setting up a new developer account for Small Technology
> Foundation and moving Better over to it but we cannot since Better uses
> iCloud and apps that use iCloud cannot be moved between developer accounts.

This reminds me of another Apple account problem, which also either involves
iCloud or at least people became aware of because of iCloud.

Once upon a time, long before there were app developer accounts or iCloud
accounts, there was the iTunes music store. A lot of people made iTunes
accounts to buy music.

Then the app store was added, and those iTunes music store accounts also
became your app store account.

Then iCloud was created. iCloud accounts were separate from iTunes account. So
if you used iCloud and iTunes, you ended up with two accounts--one with an
@mac.com or @icloud.com or @me.com ID for your iCloud stuff, and one with your
regular non-Apple email address for your ID.

Later, they largely dropped the distinctions between iTunes and iCloud
accounts. Someone new to Apple products only needed to make one account and
they could use it for music, movies, apps (the traditional iTunes stuff) and
for cloud storage, Apple email, keychain and calendar sync (the traditional
cloud stuff).

For those of us whose iTunes account predated iCloud, we had to keep using
both because there was no way to move your iTunes content to your iCloud
account or vice versa.

Invariably at some point you'd be prompted for your account credentials and
would provide the "wrong" account (it is not always clear _why_ you are being
asked for credentials), and end up with some apps on your iCloud account and
some on your iTunes account, and so you would then need to switch between the
accounts when you wanted to do updates for everything.

For years people have asked for some way to merge their pre-iCloud iTunes
account and their iCloud account, and the answer has always been that you
cannot do this.

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Legogris
Previous discussion on more recent post on the same incident from same blog:
[https://ar.al/2020/01/13/apple-says-no-and-what-that-
means-f...](https://ar.al/2020/01/13/apple-says-no-and-what-that-means-for-
the-future-of-better-blocker-following-our-move-to-ireland/)

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mcny
How does it normally work when one company acquires another? For example, I
still see LinkedIn under LinkedIn Corporation, not Microsoft. Is that because
technically LinkedIn is a separate company that Microsoft owns? Are there
cases where Apple has changed publisher name for existing apps? Is there a
standard operating procedure for this?

~~~
social_quotient
Tons of paperwork must be submitted to the App Store, then you wait.
Constantly getting the feeling this might not happen without abandoning your
user base. The mental torture is what’s gets me... they should just have 1 or
100 clear steps and you know when it’s done, it’s done.

It’s frustrating to the point it’s a topic we raise with our customers during
the initial requirements gathering phases of app development. I’ve seen our
startup clients go through this all the way to one of our clients that’s a
30Bn publicly traded company.

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blackdogie
I always thought you could transfer apps between developer accounts. Something
along the lines of these steps [https://support.appmachine.com/hc/en-
us/articles/36000001228...](https://support.appmachine.com/hc/en-
us/articles/360000012284-Transfer-your-app-to-another-iOS-Developer-Account)
Am I missing something ?

~~~
coder1001
"we cannot since Better uses iCloud and apps that use iCloud cannot be moved
between developer accounts."

from the article.

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londons_explore
Why do they need to change the company name on the app store at all?

Just leave the old one there? No harm to users, apple, or them.

~~~
rcruzeiro
That would work until Apple shuts down your developer account for belonging to
a defunct company.

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junipertea
Why not give existing users a promo code to unlock the republished app? Like
the games tend to do.

~~~
masukomi
because apple doesn't allow promo-codes for apps? because apple doesn't let
developers know who their users are?

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vasco
Their products look like a regular 2 person for-profit product dev shop and
they even mention the app pays for their rent. Weird definition of not-for-
profit.

~~~
rcruzeiro
Nonprofits can still pay salary and they are likely employees of their own
company.

~~~
marcus_holmes
Yeah, the only restriction I'm aware of is that they can't pay dividends to
shareholders.

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zprunger
why can they not transfer the app ownership from the old account to the new?
Apple supports that IIRC

~~~
rcruzeiro
It's actually on the post. If your app included the iCloud entitlement, it's
not transferable.

