Changing Apple Accounts on a Mac

You may need to sign out of an existing Apple Account on your Mac and sign into a different one. This is particularly common if your organization is moving towards Managed Apple Accounts to facilitate collaboration and access to company resources and you're unable to convert your existing Apple Account into a Managed one. This guide will detail the steps to copy your business-related files to your computer, sign out of your current Apple Account, and sign into a different one.

1 - Copy files to your Mac

Before you begin, open a new Finder window and look for the destination "iCloud Drive":

Click on this destination to view all the folders and files you have stored in iCloud:

Look through your files and copy anything work-related to a safe place. This could be your organization's cloud storage like Dropbox, or a different local folder on your Mac, like your Downloads folder. Make a note of any files you've shared with your teammates for iCloud Collaboration - you'll need to share them again after this process is complete.

2 - Sign out of your current Apple Account

Open System Settings and click on the item in the left sidebar with your current Apple Account. Scroll down to the bottom and look for the Sign Out button:

While signing out, you'll be asked if you'd like to keep copies of your data:

Uncheck the boxes for any data types that aren't work-related and click Continue. No data will be removed from your current Apple Account, we're only making sure extra copies of that data are removed from your Mac. 

Once finished, you should now have an empty Apple Account login page:

3 - Sign in with your new Apple Account

Enter your new Apple Account and follow the prompts to get signed in. If this is your first time signing into the account, you may be asked to update your password and set up MFA. You may be asked if you want to merge your current Safari data (or other data types) with your Apple Account - we generally recommend selecting Don't Merge, but the choice is yours to make:

Congratulations, you're now signed in with your new Apple Account.

4 - Move your files into the new account's iCloud Drive

Open a new Finder window and click on iCloud Drive again - you should see a fresh folder:

Move any relevant business files you had copied earlier into this folder. Once added, these documents will be stored in your new Apple Account and available to share with your team. 

IMPORTANT REMINDERS

• When changing Apple Accounts like this, you'll need to share your Keynote/Pages/Numbers files with your collaborators again to make sure your whole team is editing the right version of the file (associated with your new Apple Account).
  
  
• If you need to continue to use email, contacts, and calendars from your previous Apple Account, you can add your old Apple Account as a secondary account in System Settings. Scroll down to the section labeled Internet Accounts and click Add Account: