I had to switch Apple IDs, and some of my previous apps original downloaded from the Apple Store aren't updating anymore (Apple asks me to login to my previous account, which I cannot do now). Is there any way of changing or removing my old Apple ID from an app? Where are these IDs located within the apps?
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2The right to run an application on is stored in the cloud. You will have to uninstall and purchase the applications again. The rights to those applications were linked to your old account.– RamhoundJul 15, 2016 at 11:20
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The old ID owns the apps.– David SchwartzJul 15, 2016 at 11:22
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@Ramhound OK. But how does Apple know that a certain app is connected to a certain account in the cloud? Surely there must be an ID in the app that tells so to Apple...– NVaughanJul 15, 2016 at 11:30
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I am sure there and I doubt it is stored in plaintext. Why can't you just uninstall and purchase the application with the new Apple ID? What do you mean, how do they know a certain application is connected to your account, the application communicates with Apple– RamhoundJul 15, 2016 at 11:36
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Well, I would not like to pay twice for the app. I mean that in the app there must be a "fingerprint"---so to say---by which Apple links it to a certain account and not another.– NVaughanJul 15, 2016 at 11:42
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2 Answers
Regardless of the why you're doing this, my understanding is the Apple ID info is kept in the app's Contents/_MASReceipt folder. Here's an example using Garage Band
$ ls -lg /Applications/GarageBand.app/Contents/
total 8
drwxrwxr-x 27 admin 918 May 12 04:44 Frameworks
-rw-rw-r-- 1 admin 23057 May 12 04:58 Info.plist
drwxrwxr-x 4 admin 136 May 12 04:44 Library
lrwxr-xr-x 1 admin 28 Oct 18 2014 MIDI Device Plug-ins -> PlugIns/MIDI Device Plug-ins
drwxrwxr-x 3 admin 102 May 12 19:06 MacOS
-rw-rw-r-- 1 admin 8 Jan 17 2014 PkgInfo
drwxrwxr-x 6 admin 204 May 12 04:39 PlugIns
drwxrwxr-x 204 admin 6936 May 18 15:56 Resources
drwxrwxr-x 3 admin 102 May 12 05:00 _CodeSignature
drwxr-xr-x 3 admin 102 May 31 14:20 _MASReceipt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 admin 517 May 12 08:50 version.plist
So the command sudo rm -rf $ ls -lg /Applications/GarageBand.app/Contents/_MASReceipt should disassoiciate your AppleID from your target application.
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But, just a wil guess: if OS X or the App Store application recognizes the app, and then sees there's no id, then why wouldn't it disable it just like when it disables it when the id is wrong?– ArjanJul 16, 2016 at 7:20
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My experience is from logging in to someone else's Mac and setting up my AppleID. The apps they "owned" were deleted because, I presume, they weren't associated with my ID. Caveat Emptor.– SaxDaddyJul 16, 2016 at 7:24
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Dissociating the App from the ID will not re-associate it with another ID, it will just break the authorisation. A trip to the App Store will re-associate it, but not to another ID. As I said before... if it was that simple, everybody would be doing it :/– TetsujinJul 16, 2016 at 11:41
tbh, you went wrong at "I had to switch Apple IDs"... you never have to do that. You can change the primary email address. The actual ID itself doesn't even have to be an email address, it's only that for convenience. It also doesn't have to be an address you currently control - that's what the primary email address is for - & can be different to that of the ID itself.
As already mentioned in comments, the apps belong to the ID. If it were that simple to 'unlock' which ID it belonged to, everybody would be doing it... they're not.
Also note that the device itself belongs to the ID that was used to set it up.
Your best way out is either to go back to your first ID, the one you invested money in, & abandon the new one - or to set both up with Family Sharing, so you can access both sets of apps/books/music etc.
Note that accessing an app through Family Sharing on your new ID will not let you access data already created under the old ID.
