As someone who spent the greater half of a decade living abroad, let me tell you: changing your Apple account's country settings can be a hassle. Few modern fates are worse than losing access to your photos, documents, movies and books simply because you decided to pick up your stuff and move across the ocean. Luckily, you can take several steps to protect your purchases and personal information before changing your account's country settings.

As a rule, you should always re-download your purchased content before making major changes to your account settings. This logic is especially true when changing your country's account, as content isn't universally viewable in every region. Before making any changes, download all the apps, music, streaming video and books that you want to access onto your devices. Importantly, you likely won't be able to transfer this content between devices once it is rendered inaccessible, so make sure you have what you want available before making any changes.

Next, make sure you have a valid payment method, as Apple will ask you to add a new payment method before confirming any country changes. To learn what payment methods are available for your upcoming location, check the guide on Apple's support page.

If you are unable to add your new payment method, you may need to wait until you are physically in your new country or region. Once there, you will be able to create a new Apple Account under your new location settings.

Luckily, Apple now allows you to transfer digital purchases between accounts .

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