How to download past purchases from old Apple ID without waiting 90 days to switch back to new Apple ID?

Question

On my old laptop, I used a shared Apple ID to purchase music on iTunes. It was a little tedious because it was connected to my sister's bank account, so I had to send her money before each purchase I made, so that her account wouldn't overdraw.

That laptop died, and now I have a new one with a new Apple ID connected to my own bank account. However, some of my purchased songs were lost, so I temporarily logged into iTunes with my old Apple ID to re-download them. Right when I was about to download, iTunes warned me that I would need to associate my new laptop with the Apple ID, and that after you associate a device with your Apple ID, you can't associate that device with another Apple ID for 90 days.

I really don't want to be stuck on my old Apple ID for 90 days, is there a better way to do this?

Answer 1

There is no way to lift the 90 day hold without contacting Apple support. You might not get much traction there, but it's worth a try.

• https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204074

Turning on iTunes Match, Family Sharing, or Automatic Downloads, or when you download past purchases on your computer, iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, that device becomes associated with your Apple ID.

You can avoid most of this by having a backup (eliminating the need to download past purchases) and the other items are easy to not inadvertantly turn on.

Answer 2

I had the same issue due to the family now using a single itunes match account, with each of us having our own previous Apple IDs with downloaded music. I wiped one of the old computers not realising it was the only copy of my daughter's downloaded music. So a solution:

Install/open itunes on a spare machine anywhere that doesn't need it routinely - pc/mac - login with the Apple ID you wish to download the music for, then download all the previous purchases. Copy the downloaded files to a usb/shared drive/any other shared resource and drop them onto iTunes on the computer that has the iTunes match ID logged in. When you try to play them, you'll need to authorise the computer to play the music. Sync to the cloud, which matches them with iTunes match. Delete the local copy in iTunes of the files then redownload them from the cloud, which associates them with the iTunes match ID. Simple! (well not quite, but yes is effective)

Answer 3

You could install OS X in VirtualBox on your Mac, and login to your old Apple ID on the virtual Mac, and thus bypass this restriction. VirtualBox has functionality for sharing folders between your host Mac and the guest Mac (the virtual machine) so you could copy out the purchases that way. Kind of heavy duty, but it would solve your problem.