change ownership of Personal Apple Developer account

Question

I hope somebody can help here, its an ongoing issue with no obvious solution.

The background

I created my own personal apple developer account back in 2010 to tinker about with iOS development. The company I worked for at that time asked me to write an app as a test to see if we could a) write an app and b) sell it. It so happens both cases were true and the app has flourished into a successful venture.

The issue:

I am leaving this company and we are trying to figure out how I can give them this app, they did after all still pay a salary while I was making the app so I consider it their app really only its tied to me and my personal developer license. I currently forward any funds it makes to them each month.

We contacted Apple and they suggested the company i work for set up a company developer account and then ask for an app transfer. This sounded great and we started the process but then it occurred to me that re-signing the app under a different developer license would effectively kill the existing app on the store. All our ratings would be wiped (and there are quite a few) which is unacceptable. The ratings of an App are extremely important to its success on the store. Apple confirmed that the ratings and reviews do not get transferred across. We stopped.

So, here I am at this block again.

The company I work for even suggested buying my personal account off me so they can run it themselves but I am worried about this, it seems fraudulent as I am the one responsible for contracts on that account and any issue would come back to me. THey wouldn't be able to change the owner "name" on the account either from what I have read.

Any suggestions how we can resolve this?

Thanks Geoff

Answer 1

I have faced this same issue, after contacting apple several times, we concluded that there was not other choice, so we removed the app and re uploaded it a gain on the other account

Not only the rating has been wiped, but also users with old app will not be able to update it when you push a new version to the app store

Its a very tough decision, but we had no other choice

Answer 2

it occurred to me that re-signing the app under a different developer license would effectively kill the existing app on the store.

This is false. As long as you transfer the app like Apple suggests (you need to contact them for this), the company just needs to submit a new version from their account and it will work. You don't lose your ratings, nothing. It all gets transferred to the new account including the iTunes Connect side of things. They can sign it with a different certificate and submit. As long as the app ID is the same as before (which it will be), there is no problem.

It sounds like you have old or inaccurate information, because I know somebody who did a transfer like this, and they kept all the ratings etc.