Apple's Confusing Family Plans

It started out simply enough, Apple released iTunes Music in January, 2001 and I started purchasing music digitally. I have always hosted my own email server, so that gives me a bunch of flexibility when it comes to email addresses. So, like every service I subscribe to, I gave Apple a unique email address to identify me, let's call it "itunes@mydomain.com". No issues, I merrily purchased a bunch of music using that account.

In July 2002, Apple released their .Mac email service and I signed up and got my "robuser@mac.com" email address. At this time, there was no connection and so I now had two email addresses that Apple knew me by: "itunes@mydomain.com" and "robuser@mac.com". All of my iTunes purchases were affiliated to my itunes@mydomain.com account, but now I had an official Apple email account!

Then along came the iPhone App Store in July, 2008 and at the same time Apple launched MobileMe, their replacement for .Mac. To make the transition easier, and to prevent conflicts, they gave everyone who had an "@mac.com" email address the same address but now "@me.com". Now I had three email addresses Apple knew me by: "robuser@me.com", "robuser@mac.com" and "itunes@mydomain.com". They also then released the concept of an Apple ID at this time and they designated my Apple Email, robuser@me.com as my new Apple ID, meaning I could purchase Applications in the App Store and they would be associated with that Apple ID. Apple also configured my "itunes@mydomain.com" as an Apple ID as well, since it already had iTunes purchases associated to it. For good measure, Apple aliased "robuser@mac.com" to be the same Apple ID as "robuser@me.com". So, I now had two official Apple IDs. Yay? I should have known this would come back and bite me... Looking back, I wish Apple had immediately recognized the potential issues and offered to combine purchases into a single Apple ID, but they didn't, and still do not. Then in iOS 5, Apple launched iCloud, so guess what they did? They again gave everyone another alias, so now I had "robuser@mac.com", "robuser@me.com", and now "robuser@icloud.com". All three being effectively the same account.

Since I had been purchasing music from iTunes using my "itunes@mydomain.com" account, I set up my iPhone to use that for purchases, but used my "robuser@icloud.com" as my personal account. So, that meant none of the purchases I was making were actually associated with the Apple ID that I was using 0n my iPhone to tie other things like Calendar, Reminders, Notes, and all of my personal preferences. Instead, I kept making all of my purchases on the original Apple ID: itunes@mydomain.com.

The history of the separation of your Apple ID and iTunes Store accounts are as follows.

The Name History of the "Media & Purchases" Settings Section

The settings section for your store/purchases account has gone through several names over the years, tied closely to what Apple was calling its services at the time.

1. "iTunes Store" / "Store" era (iOS 1–5, roughly 2007–2011) In the very early days of the iPhone, there was a simple "iTunes" or "Store" entry in Settings. The App Store didn't exist until iOS 2 (2008), and iCloud wasn't a thing yet, so there was no concept of a separate iCloud vs. store account — it was just your iTunes Store login.

2. "iTunes & App Store" (iOS 6 through iOS 13, roughly 2012–2019) This was the most long-lived name, and the one most people remember. When iCloud launched with iOS 5 and Apple introduced a separate "iCloud" section in Settings, the store account became distinct — sitting below iCloud in Settings as its own row labeled "iTunes & App Store." Forum posts and Apple documentation from 2013 through 2019 consistently reference this exact path (Settings > iTunes & App Store).

3. "Media & Purchases" (iOS 14 onward, September 2020 to present) With the iOS 14 release in fall 2020, Apple reorganized Settings. The top-level Apple ID section now consolidated iCloud and the store account under one profile page, and the store account was renamed "Media & Purchases" — accessible at Settings > [Your Name] > Media & Purchasesrather than as a standalone row. Apple community forum threads confirm users noticed this change when upgrading to iOS 14 and that "iTunes & App Store" disappeared as a standalone item.

Bonus — the overarching "Apple ID" → "Apple Account" rename (2024) In 2024 Apple also rebranded the Apple ID itself to "Apple Account" across all platforms. This doesn't change the "Media & Purchases" label, but all Apple Support documentation now refers to the parent identity as Apple Account. You may see both terms used interchangeably depending on iOS version.

Before Family Sharing existed, there was no official mechanism for households to share purchases while maintaining separate accounts. The common workaround was simply for an entire family to share one Apple ID — signing all their devices into the same iTunes & App Store account. This was unsupported, messy, and created problems: messages, call history, photos, and contacts all cross-contaminated across devices. Apple's terms of service never explicitly blessed this approach, but millions of families did it anyway because there was no better option. This is where a lot of the "two Apple ID" complexity stems from — people eventually tried to untangle this by creating individual iCloud IDs and keeping the shared account just for the "iTunes & App Store" section, which directly connects back to the Media & Purchases history discussed earlier. This is the fundamental issue for millions of people using Apple's ecosystem.

The problem with a shared purchases Apple ID

Two words: Apple One

Not too long ago, I decided to go "all in" on Apple Music. That means spending hours "liking" songs and building playlists and helping Apple Music figure out what I like and, more importantly, what I don't. The problem was that all of my son's music and preferences were in my Apple Music account, along with all of my wife's music and preferences. Why? Turns out Apple Music pays attention to your Media & Purchases setting to determine the logged in account NOT your iCloud Apple Account. Since my son and my wife were sharing the Media & Purchases account with me, their preferences were "infecting" my preferences, making it impossible for me to get good information about my own preferences into Apple Music.

No problem. I'll just remove both of their devices from the common purchases account, leave it with me, and then they'll establish their own preferences associated to their Apple Accounts.

It Didn't Work

When I did this on my wife's phone, setting her Media & Purchases account to her own Apple Account, nothing available in Apple One (notably Apple Music) worked any more. Apple Music just offered her to purchase a subscription. Yet, we're all in a Family Account together and Apple One should be sharable! I checked the Terms and Conditions for Apple One and sure enough, it's able to be shared across your established Family account. Then why wasn't it working?

There are TWO settings that have to Match

I had changed her Media & Purchases setting to be her own account. That way her purchases are tagged as her and Apple Music will keep her preferences separate from mine. That's the logical place to set it up. However, there is a SECRET second setting: Settings > Family > Your Apple Account > Purchases. This second area needs to ALSO be your PERSONAL Apple Account and NOT the shared account. Once I had changed this one to her Apple Account, it then saw the Apple One subscription and her preferences started to work. I also had to reboot her phone to get it to be recognized. If you're doing this at home, you MAY need to also "log out" of the shared account under Media and Purchases, in order to change it back to your personal Apple Account.

What Apple should do to correct this

Ultimately, this is a huge problem for millions of subscribers. The fix is simple, provide a one-time "merge" option for Apple Accounts. I would immediately merge my "itunes@mydomain.com" into my "robuser@icloud.com", which would permanently associate all purchases from the former into the latter and DELETE the former account. This would also have a side effect of giving me back one of my restricted 6 Family Accounts, since right now in order to share purchases I have to make the "itunes@mydomain.com" account one of my Family members.

I hope that someday Apple tackles this problem. I understand how we got here (I just described it), but the ecosystem is mature now and it's time for Apple to clean this up.

Update:

Thanks to Claude I just found out that in early 2025, Apple DID provide a merge capability, there are some caveats, but I thought I'd mention it here:

Apple finally added purchase migration in early 2025 (launched February 2025) to solve the decades-old two-account problem. However, the migration itself has significant complications that directly affect Apple Music.

The primary Apple Account's music library data, personalization profile, social profile, and Apple Music Replay in the Apple Music app will migrate back to the secondary Apple Account during migration. If the secondary Apple Account had no music library data, personalization profile, social profile, and Apple Music Replay prior to migration, then this will remain associated with the primary Apple Account instead.

A critical blocker discovered by users: You can't migrate purchases if both the primary Apple Account and the secondary Apple Account have music library data associated with each of them. Even though there is an Apple Support article that says the secondary account music library will replace the first, if both accounts have a music library, the migration will fail and cannot be completed. Michael Tsai

Additional migration limitations relevant to Apple Music:

All subscriptions except iCloud+ are cancelled during migration and must be manually resubscribed
Personalized recommendations in Apple Music do not migrate — personalization starts over
The secondary Apple Account can no longer be used for Media & Purchases after migration is complete
Migration can only be initiated on iPhone/iPad — not available on Mac
The migration can only be undone once; after undoing, you cannot migrate again for one year

So, at least there's something now.

How to Fix Family Sharing to support Apple One and individual Music Preferences