Apple Music guide
Transfer your Apple Music library
to a new Apple Account.
There is no official way to move your library to a new account. That's not the whole story. The steps below are how you can still get it done.
An Apple Music library lives inside one Apple Account.
Sign into a different Apple Account and Apple Music shows you that account's library, likely empty if it's a fresh ID. There's no merge tool, no native "move my library" button, no export on iOS.
That's true if you don't use Hezel, which captures every song, playlist, and music video in your library, then re-creates it under whichever Apple Account you're signed into.
One iPhone. Two Apple Accounts. Hezel.
- An iPhone running iOS 18 or later, signed in with your current Apple Account (the one with the library you want to keep).
- Access to the new Apple Account (the one you're moving to).
- Hezel for Apple Music, installed on the iPhone.
- Active Apple Music subscriptions on both Apple Accounts at the moment of restore.
Your library follows you.
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Turn off iCloud sync for Hezel
Open Settings → [your name] → iCloud → Saved to iCloud → Show All. Find Hezel in the list and toggle it off.
This is an important step. Hezel's iCloud sync is a feature, but during an Apple Account transfer it would whisk your backup away to the cloud the moment you switch accounts, leaving you with nothing to restore from. Off until done.
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Make a fresh backup of your current library
Open Hezel. Tap Back Up Now. The snapshot captures everything in your Apple Music library: every song, every playlist, every music video, and the order songs were added. The whole thing takes seconds.
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Sign out of the current Apple Account, sign into the new one
Settings → [your name] → scroll down and tap Sign Out. Confirm. Then sign in with the new Apple Account and let iOS finish the swap.
Open Apple Music with the new Apple Account. You'll see whatever library that account had, likely empty if it's a fresh account. Don't worry about it. Your backup is still on this device, untouched, sitting inside Hezel.
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Restore the backup
Open Hezel. Find the backup you just made and tap it, then switch to the Restore tab.
Hezel works out what's missing in the new library and offers to put it back, song by song, playlist by playlist. Once it's done, turn iCloud sync for Hezel back on if you want. Your backups will start syncing under the new Apple Account from this point forward.
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Install Hezel on both iPhones
Download Hezel from the App Store on both devices. It's free. You'll use the old iPhone to export the backup and the new one to receive and restore it.
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Make a fresh backup of your current library
Open Hezel on the old device. Tap Back Up Now. The snapshot captures everything in your Apple Music library: every song, every playlist, every music video, and the order songs were added. The whole thing takes seconds.
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Export the backup from your old iPhone
Tap the backup you just made on your old device. Next tap the Share button, then Export Backup. This packages your library into a single
.hezelfile — songs, playlists, music videos, and the order songs were added.AirDrop it to the new iPhone.
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Import the backup on the new iPhone
When the new iPhone receives the file, open it — Hezel handles the import automatically. Tap Add Backup to save it to the app.
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Restore your library
Tap the backup, then tap Restore. Hezel works out what's missing in the new account's library and offers to put it back. Each track re-streams from the new account's subscription.
One thing to know: if the new account is in a different region, some songs may restore as a different regional version of the same track.
Same steps. Different reasons.
The transfer is the same regardless of why you're switching Apple Accounts. A few of the most common reasons:
Changing App Store region
Studied abroad, got an account in another country, now coming home. You cancel, change region, resubscribe, and the library is gone.
New iPhone, new Apple Account
Got a new iPhone and decided to set it up with a new Apple Account rather than restoring from the old one? The new account starts blank. Bring the library across once and you keep years of curation without dragging the rest of it with you.
Setting up a new Apple Account
New iPhone for a partner or child, fresh Apple Account, but you want to start them with a curated library: yours. Make a backup on your phone, AirDrop the file, restore on theirs.
Honest about the edges.
Hezel doesn't save audio files, and it doesn't move audio at all. It moves the references, and Apple Music plays it from the new account.
Preserved
- Every song in your library, exactly as added
- Playlists, including collaborative ones
- Music videos
- The order songs were added (recently added)
Doesn't carry over
- Apple Music play counts (stored with Apple, tied to that Apple Account)
- "Recently Played" history
- Replay statistics for the new account
- Songs delisted from Apple Music's catalog since you added them
- Purchased iTunes content (use Apple's purchase migration for that)
- Songs you uploaded yourself (mp3/m4a) with a Mac
Things you might be wondering.
Can I transfer my Apple Music library to a new Apple Account natively?
Do I need Hezel Ultra to do this?
What if I already cancelled Apple Music and my library is gone?
Will this work if I AirDrop the backup to a different iPhone?
Will I lose my play counts and recently-played history?
Will my purchased iTunes songs and CDs I imported transfer too?
Take a backup first. Switch second.
The hardest part of this transfer is starting before you cancel. Once your old subscription is cancelled, the library can disappear within days, sometimes faster than you'd expect. The backup is the entire game.
Hezel for Apple Music
Free to download. Free for the transfer itself. iPhone only.
Last verified against iOS and macOS 26.4 in April 2026.
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