Why you can't change your App Store country — and how to fix it
If Apple refuses to change your App Store country, the block is one of a handful of specific conditions — and by far the most common is store credit you still have on the account. Here is how to work out which one applies to you, in the order Apple checks them.
Where the setting actually is
Two places, and they behave the same way:
If the option is missing, greyed out, or you get "You must spend your store credit before you can change stores", the account is failing one of the checks below. Apple's own summary is on the Change your Apple Account country or region page; what follows is what those requirements look like in practice.
1. You still have a balance
This is the one that catches most people. Store credit is tied to a single storefront and its currency, so Apple cannot carry it across — it wants the balance at exactly 0.00 before the switch. Not "under a dollar". Zero.
How to check: open the App Store, tap your profile picture at the top right, and look under your name. If there is credit, it is shown there. No line means no balance.
The awkward part is that leftovers rarely match a price. Apps start at $0.99, in-app tiers are fixed, and a purchase larger than your credit does not consume the credit and stop — Apple takes the difference from your payment method and leaves the balance smaller but still non-zero. That is how accounts end up parked at $0.07.
What actually works: the full list of ways to clear an Apple Account balance, or, if the amount is genuinely tiny, what to do when the balance is too small to spend.
Last Cent calculates the exact combination of App Store purchases that spends your credit down to 0.00 — including US sales tax, which is why manual attempts usually miss.
Get Last Cent — free2. Active subscriptions
A subscription is billed in the currency of the storefront you bought it in, so an active one keeps you attached to that storefront. Cancelling is not always enough on its own: a cancelled subscription usually runs to the end of the period you already paid for, and Apple can keep the region locked until that date passes.
How to check: Settings → your name → Subscriptions. Look for anything Active, including the ones people forget — iCloud+ storage, Apple One, Apple Music, a trial you started and never used.
Note: iCloud+ counts. If you pay for storage, cancel it and let it lapse before you try to switch — and make sure your photo library and backups fit in the free tier first, or move them off the device.
3. Pending purchases, pre-orders and refunds
Anything not fully settled will hold the switch:
- Pre-orders — an app or album you pre-ordered has not been charged yet. Cancel it or wait for release.
- Purchases still processing — a charge made in the last day or two may not have cleared.
- Open refund requests — a claim you filed at reportaproblem.apple.com has to be resolved first. And bear in mind that an approved refund can arrive as store credit, which puts you back at problem number one.
- Film rentals in progress, and season passes that are still delivering episodes.
4. Family Sharing
Everyone in a Family Sharing group has to be in the same country or region, because purchases are shared inside one storefront. So:
- if you are a member, you generally have to leave the family before you can move to another country;
- if you are the organiser, moving the account means the group has to move with you or be disbanded — and members under 13 cannot simply be removed, which is a genuine dead end until they are moved to another organiser;
- shared subscriptions (Apple One, Apple Music family, iCloud+ sharing) end for everyone when the organiser leaves, so warn the others first.
5. Payment method and billing address
The new storefront needs a payment method it accepts, and the billing address has to be in the new country. A card issued elsewhere is normally rejected at this step even if it works fine for everything else.
Apple usually offers None as a payment method when the account has no debts, no active subscriptions and no balance — which is the cheapest way through if you do not have a local card yet. If None is not on the list, that is a symptom: something from sections 1–3 is still open.
Fill the address in Latin characters and use a real, correctly formatted local address — postcode formats are validated.
6. Apple Cash and other US-only services
Leaving the US storefront has extra conditions. Apple Cash has to be closed and its balance transferred out first (Wallet → Apple Cash card → the ⋯ button → Account Settings). Apple Card, if you have one, is a US-only product and needs to be handled with Goldman Sachs separately. Apple Arcade and TV channel subscriptions follow the same rule as any other subscription above.
Pre-flight checklist
| Check | Where | Has to read |
|---|---|---|
| Store credit | App Store → profile picture | No balance shown (0.00) |
| Subscriptions | Settings → your name → Subscriptions | Nothing active, nothing in a paid-up period |
| Pre-orders / rentals | App Store → Account → Pre-orders | Empty |
| Refund requests | reportaproblem.apple.com | No open cases |
| Family Sharing | Settings → your name → Family | Not a member of a group in another country |
| Apple Cash (US) | Wallet | Closed, balance withdrawn |
When all six pass, the Change Country or Region screen accepts the switch. If the balance is the one line you cannot get to zero, that is the specific problem this guide deals with end to end.