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I agree with the article's conclusion that as bad as this manual merging process is, Apple trying to offer an automated account merge would be a nightmare. The

I agree with the article's conclusion that as bad as this manual merging process is, Apple trying to offer an automated account merge would be a nightmare. They don't provide any backwards compatibility when adding even minor new features to apps like Notes or Reminders that synchronize through iCloud. If you update your iPhone but not your Macbook, new notes created on the phone may be silently ignored on the Macbook, or mysteriously vanish into the void if you perform one of the bulk operations that replaces the canonical list of existing objects with the older software's limited accessible subset. I also know from experience that changing your Apple ID email address (which is permitted) will leave many iCloud services confused and trigger sporadic strange pop-up messages about your account status for years. I would not trust a merge button that needs to deal with disparate photo libraries (any of which may have existing byzantine compatibility baggage from the upgrade from iPhoto to Photos), Notes, Reminders, and all of the other services to leave a well-used account in a reasonable state.

arthurcolle 5y ago
It's non-deterministic because they don't care about it, because caring about or not caring about it are treated equally - there are no forces that make them need to care. There is no profit motive. I have an iPad signed into an account I created on the fly to try to "start from scratch" - I didn't realize that there would be no way to have interoperability with another 15 year account I had with Apple. Of course, now that that's the case - I just have to deal with some nonsense restriction that's imposed because of some risk-averse lawyer sitting in a corner office. Glad I can still torrent movies, cheers to Bram Cohen for advancing the field and denting the absurd DRM culture that's developed.
- lozenge 5y ago
  "caring about or not caring about it are treated equally - there are no forces that make them need to care" I find this assumption that large organisations like Apple are rational, perfectly optimised economic actors very odd. People would never apply it to a government but give it to a nepotistic dictatorship like Apple without a second thought. Apple has a culture problem re regressions which is only hurting them and not benefiting them.
madeofpalk 5y ago
Two years after I moved countries, my credit card expired from my home country, so I wanted to use my new UK card, which requires changing your Apple ID country. Changing your Apple ID country requires cancelling all your subscriptions, including Apple Music, which deleted my entire music collection (even my previously uploaded iTunes Match library). When faced with the prospect of starting from scratch, i just moved to Spotify.
- cassianoleal 5y ago
  Why not just download the songs from iTunes Match, then reupload after the switch?
  - madeofpalk 5y ago
    My fault, I just didn't think about the process that much - I wasn't thinking about "cancelling Apple Music", more about just changing card/countries. I figured it would keep my library around, just deactivated. I actually did end up attempting to restore backups where i had downloaded everything, but as soon as I signed in with my account it just deleted everything from my local library again. I had been using windows more and more and I didn't care so I switched to Spotify and am better for it.
  - bellyfullofbac 5y ago
    Man, that sounds like it would work, but what an annoying workaround for a stupid problem on their side - which I guess has to do with music licensing in different jurisdictions. Makes me think of this scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyVZFm7P0CQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyVZFm7P0CQ I was just going to make this comment, but it's funny how stuff "in the cloud" has jurisdictions. I'm reminded of a Saudi Arabian guy I sat next to on a plane from Austria to Turkey. He couldn't get iTunes on his iPad to play stuff because... he was in the wrong region. Serves him (and his girlfriend) right, they came on board the plane as the last 2 people carrying six large shopping bags as carry-ons.
- fumblebee 5y ago
  I also had to change my Apple ID country once — the system blocked me because I had credit left on my account after applying a gift card. The amount remaining on my account? 4 cents.
robertoandred 5y ago
That's why they warn you when you open Notes or Reminders and give you an opportunity to not upgrade so all your devices are compatible with each other.
PostThisTooFast 5y ago
BS. Apple created this scenario for millions of people by suddenly requiring that Apple IDs be E-mail addresses. Then they made it even dumber by requiring that the E-mail addresses actually function. Requiring people to use an E-mail address as their user ID isn't just amateur-hour and a monumental security blunder; it's also a giant pain in the ass. As usual, Apple doesn't fix the problem by reversing its blunder. Instead, Apple doubles down on it and huffily refuses to provide any solution to the problem it created.

arthurcolle 5y ago

It's non-deterministic because they don't care about it, because caring about or not caring about it are treated equally - there are no forces that make them need to care. There is no profit motive. I have an iPad signed into an account I created on the fly to try to "start from scratch" - I didn't realize that there would be no way to have interoperability with another 15 year account I had with Apple. Of course, now that that's the case - I just have to deal with some nonsense restriction that's imposed because of some risk-averse lawyer sitting in a corner office. Glad I can still torrent movies, cheers to Bram Cohen for advancing the field and denting the absurd DRM culture that's developed.

lozenge 5y ago
"caring about or not caring about it are treated equally - there are no forces that make them need to care" I find this assumption that large organisations like Apple are rational, perfectly optimised economic actors very odd. People would never apply it to a government but give it to a nepotistic dictatorship like Apple without a second thought. Apple has a culture problem re regressions which is only hurting them and not benefiting them.

madeofpalk 5y ago

Two years after I moved countries, my credit card expired from my home country, so I wanted to use my new UK card, which requires changing your Apple ID country. Changing your Apple ID country requires cancelling all your subscriptions, including Apple Music, which deleted my entire music collection (even my previously uploaded iTunes Match library). When faced with the prospect of starting from scratch, i just moved to Spotify.

cassianoleal 5y ago
Why not just download the songs from iTunes Match, then reupload after the switch?
- madeofpalk 5y ago
  My fault, I just didn't think about the process that much - I wasn't thinking about "cancelling Apple Music", more about just changing card/countries. I figured it would keep my library around, just deactivated. I actually did end up attempting to restore backups where i had downloaded everything, but as soon as I signed in with my account it just deleted everything from my local library again. I had been using windows more and more and I didn't care so I switched to Spotify and am better for it.
- bellyfullofbac 5y ago
  Man, that sounds like it would work, but what an annoying workaround for a stupid problem on their side - which I guess has to do with music licensing in different jurisdictions. Makes me think of this scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyVZFm7P0CQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyVZFm7P0CQ I was just going to make this comment, but it's funny how stuff "in the cloud" has jurisdictions. I'm reminded of a Saudi Arabian guy I sat next to on a plane from Austria to Turkey. He couldn't get iTunes on his iPad to play stuff because... he was in the wrong region. Serves him (and his girlfriend) right, they came on board the plane as the last 2 people carrying six large shopping bags as carry-ons.
fumblebee 5y ago
I also had to change my Apple ID country once — the system blocked me because I had credit left on my account after applying a gift card. The amount remaining on my account? 4 cents.

robertoandred 5y ago

That's why they warn you when you open Notes or Reminders and give you an opportunity to not upgrade so all your devices are compatible with each other.

PostThisTooFast 5y ago

BS. Apple created this scenario for millions of people by suddenly requiring that Apple IDs be E-mail addresses. Then they made it even dumber by requiring that the E-mail addresses actually function. Requiring people to use an E-mail address as their user ID isn't just amateur-hour and a monumental security blunder; it's also a giant pain in the ass. As usual, Apple doesn't fix the problem by reversing its blunder. Instead, Apple doubles down on it and huffily refuses to provide any solution to the problem it created.