Change country - impact on OS X

[Lunapple]

Dear all,
I recently moved from Asia back to Europe. In Asia I no longer have a bank account nor credit card. Consequently I also have to change the country of my Apple ID in the App store.

To my shock and surprise I however learned I would no longer be eligible for upgrades of my software like OS X, Pages, or Keynote when changing the country in the App store.
The only solution given by Apple is to buy the software again.

According to Apple this has to do with copyrights. I do understand this for 3rd party content like music. However these software is made by Apple and licensing rights are owned by Apple. So why pay Apple twice for the same goods?

Apple also refers to the terms of sale in the iTunes store. If you take trouble to read the T&C's Apple is likely correct on this account. But why does this also apply for the OS X, which is not purchased through the App store but was already installed on the Mac when I bought it.

How to deal with this problem and transfer between countries without having to buy again all Apple products?

Thanks!

 

[harryb2448]

G'day and welcome to the forums.

Did you buy your Mac new and is it Lion or Mountain Lion? If not, you do not 'own' the operating system as this stays with the account of the original purchaser. This is the reverse of what used to happen when passing the original system install discs to the new owner.

 

[Lunapple]

@harryb2448. Thanks for the reply. Yes, I did by the Mac new with Mountain Lion.
Thanks,
Nathan

 

[harryb2448]

Can you get into your App Store account at all?

 

[mockney]

Same thing happened to me when I moved to Australia. All my existing apps were on my UK Itunes account and I was unable to change my original Itunes account from the country of origin. i.e I could not change it from .co.uk to .com.au.

What annoyed me with that was I am then unable to update any of my existing applications only new ones purchased with my new Australian Itunes account.

So after a few phone calls to the Apple helpline I ended up doing the following to solve the problem.

Created a new email account called paul Itunes@blahblah .com.au
Created a new Itunes (Australia account) with new credit card for future purchases

To solve the problem of my existing apps not upgrading there is a setting within your itunes account that in effect removes any payment methods. Therefore you can set this as you no longer have a valid card in that county. This means the account is still open and active (but you cant make any further purchases) and you can then go ahead an upgrade your old apps using your old Itunes account. (I think from memory where you input your credit card details you have the option to select none).

Its sounds like hassle but in practise its really not a hassle at all and at least you are still able to keep all your existing software up to date.

 

[bobtomay]

I empathize with ya, sounds like a pitb.

 

[Lunapple]

@harryb2448: no more credit card for my original country
@mockney: thanks for the advice. I think I will follow your suggestion. But I had some hopes Apple would have a more straightforward solution for its global customers.