How to transfer an app to another developer account

Apple lists the criteria. Neither account can be in a pending or changing state, and both must have accepted the latest paid and free agreements; if you accepted Apple’s EU Alternative Terms Addendum, the recipient must accept it too. The app needs at least one version released to the App Store, cannot be on pre-order anywhere, and cannot be in a status such as Waiting for Review, In Review or Pending Developer Release. In-App Purchases must be Approved, Ready to Submit, Developer Removed from Sale or Rejected, and their product IDs cannot clash with any in the recipient’s account. Apple Arcade apps cannot be transferred. Because the app leaves your account, Apple advises backing up all its information first.

Several features need work before or after. For auto-renewable subscriptions, generate an app-specific shared secret and share it with the recipient, who updates their servers and then generates a new one. Turn off TestFlight by removing all builds and testers, and remove Xcode Cloud data. With Sign in with Apple, generate a transfer identifier for each user through Apple’s endpoint and ungroup grouped apps. Push certificates stay valid until they expire, after which the recipient uses its own; keychain sharing works only until the next update, and users sign in once more. The Apple Pay merchant ID does not transfer, and featuring nominations cannot be moved, and apps in a Game Center group are removed from it, so document nominations for the new owner before the transfer; see how to get featured.

Both accounts must be registered and active: you can sign in to the original, and the target’s registration is complete. A new target account costs the US$25 registration fee, which Google’s support can refund for the original account if you close it after the transfer. You need the registration transaction ID of both accounts: search the account owner’s email for “developer registration fee”, or find the Google Play Developer transaction under Activity in Google Payments, and enter the ID in the format Google’s help page shows. Paid apps and apps with in-app products need an active payments profile on the target; if its default currency differs, apps with only in-app purchases are unpublished until you check prices and publish again. Update integrated services yourself: Google Analytics, Cloud projects, Firebase links and ad SDKs such as AdMob.

All users, statistics, data, comments, ratings and subscriptions move with the app, along with past policy declarations and, under Android developer verification, the registered package names and their keys. Orders from before the transfer stay in the original account, so refunds for them go through that account or the API; earnings, estimated sales and bulk export reports stay too, so download what you need. Promotions do not move, though issued promo codes should still work. Test groups do not transfer, so closed tests must be recreated and testers may need to opt in again. If you are in the 15% fee tier, a transferred app’s earnings for the year count toward both account groups’ first $1 million; see App Store and Google Play fees.

A new owner inherits the reviews and users; bringing in new people is the next job. Censuus ranks apps by the real visit traffic they draw, and adding your app is free on the submit page. Sponsorship raises placement and adds a followed link to your website; details are on the sponsor page. For the full plan, see how to market an app. We do not promise downloads or store rankings.