Question:

Wes writes: I have determined that I have 2 iTunes Store accounts. One using a local email address and one using my MobileMe address. One is being used on my iPad and the other on my AppleTV. Both have significant activity.

Do I need to worry about this? Should I try to combine them somehow? If so, how would I go about doing that? If not, are there hints about how I handle this situation in iTunes on my iMac?

Answer:

I did some research and while most folks agree there is no way to merge the two accounts, one person said they did have some (unspecified) luck after going to iTunes Support and clicking the “Email Us” link in the Account & Billing section.

Assuming you can’t merge them, my advice would be to adjust your devices so that you are only using one account for purchases going forward. That will make life easier.

For things you’ve purchased in the past, there are two paths you’ll have to take when upgrades/updates to those apps come out:

Updating on your iDevice (iPad, iPhone, iPod touch): When you go into the App Store to update your device will (as usual) ask you to authenticate. Note the email address each time: sometimes it will be one, sometimes the alternate, depending on which account you used to purchase the app you’re about to update. If you sync your iTunes Store passwords for both, this gets easier.

Updating on your Mac: You’ll have to manually flip/flop back and forth between your two accounts when doing updates. It’s pretty simple, though. Just go into iTunes, click on iTunes Store, and then in the upper right corner click your account, and sign in with the alternate. Then go back to “Apps” (the one under Library), and click “Check for Updates.” That should bring you through the process to update everything in the newly-signed-in account.