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Your Digital Content

What you can take, what you can replace, and what you effectively lose.

Some of the content you've accumulated in Apple's ecosystem is genuinely yours. Some of it was never really yours to begin with. This page will be honest about the difference.

Section 1 — Content you own and can export

This is your data. You created it, or it belongs to you by any reasonable definition. Apple provides export tools for all of it. Take it with you.

Photos and videos

Your iCloud Photos library contains standard JPEG, HEIC, PNG, and MOV/MP4 files. These work everywhere. No DRM. No lock-in. These are your photos.

How to export

Documents (iCloud Drive)

Standard files in their original formats. No DRM. No conversion needed. A PDF is a PDF.

Download from icloud.com/iclouddrive, use iCloud for Windows, or copy from the iCloud Drive folder on Mac. Move to any cloud storage: Proton Drive, a local drive, Nextcloud.

Contacts, Calendars, Notes, Email

Health data and Passwords

Section 2 — Content you can replace but not transfer

Apple Music (streaming library)

Your playlists, favorites, and listening history are tied to your Apple Music subscription. When you cancel, downloaded music disappears.

Streaming music is inherently non-portable. This is the same on every platform. You never owned the music; you rented access. The playlists are the only thing worth saving.

App data and preferences

Apps that sync through their own cloud service (Notion, Todoist, Strava) are portable — your data survives regardless of device. Apps that sync only through iCloud are not. Before leaving, check each app: does it have its own login and cloud sync? If yes, portable. If iCloud-only, export what you can from within the app first.

Section 3 — Content you effectively lose

This is the hard section. It reveals the fundamental difference between buying a physical object and buying a digital license. The situation is worth being angry about.

Movies and TV shows (iTunes purchases)

You may have spent hundreds of dollars on iTunes movies. What you actually have is a license to stream or download those titles within Apple's ecosystem. You did not buy a movie. You bought permission to watch a movie on Apple's terms.

If you keep your Apple ID (free, no hardware required)

You can still watch purchases via: Apple TV app on Roku, Fire TV, Samsung/LG/Sony Smart TVs; iTunes on Windows; apple.com/tv in a browser. Keeping your Apple ID costs nothing.

If you delete your Apple ID

Your purchases are gone. Permanently. Apple does not offer refunds.

Your options

Books (Apple Books purchases)

Apple Books purchases are DRM-protected EPUBs tied to your Apple ID. Same situation as movies — licensed, not owned. Apple Books is not available on Windows or Android. Your options:

Apps (App Store purchases)

iOS and macOS apps run only on Apple hardware. Paid apps you've purchased — including expensive professional tools like Procreate ($12.99), Final Cut Pro ($299), Logic Pro ($199) — are non-transferable. No refunds, no equivalents on other platforms.

A $4.99 app from 2016 is a sunk cost. A $299 professional app you use daily is a different calculation. Factor this into your timeline for leaving Apple hardware.

Section 4 — The approach we don't recommend

DRM removal tools — the legal landscape

Tools exist that strip DRM from purchased digital content: movies, ebooks, and audiobooks. They work by intercepting the decryption process during playback. They produce standard files (MP4, EPUB, MP3) that play on any device.

We are not recommending these tools. We are explaining the legal situation.

In the United States, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) makes it illegal to circumvent DRM — even on content you purchased. The law does not distinguish between personal backup and piracy distribution. Similar laws apply in the EU, UK, Canada, and most other jurisdictions. Enforcement has historically targeted distributors and tool makers rather than individual consumers, but individual risk is not zero. If resulting files are shared, risk increases substantially.

DRM removal tools are also frequently distributed through unofficial channels. Some contain malware. Some are legitimate. The user bears all risk of determining which is which.

Our position: We believe when you pay for content, you should own it. We believe DRM treats paying customers worse than pirates, who receive DRM-free files by default. We believe the legal framework is hostile to consumers. We also believe in describing the law as it is, not as it should be. Adults can make their own decisions with full information. That's what this page provides.

The structural solution: stop buying DRM content

The best way to avoid DRM lock-in is to stop accumulating it going forward:

The bigger picture

When you bought a VHS tape, you owned it. You could watch it on any VCR. You could lend it, sell it, or watch it twenty years later on a different device that hadn't been manufactured when you bought the tape.

When you "buy" a movie on Apple TV, you own a license to stream it within Apple's ecosystem for as long as Apple maintains the service and the licensing agreements with the content owners remain in effect. You cannot lend it. You cannot sell it. You cannot play it on a device Apple doesn't support. If Apple's agreement with the studio ends, the movie can disappear from your library. This has happened.

This is not unique to Apple. Amazon, Google, and every digital storefront work the same way. The difference is that Apple's ecosystem is designed so thoroughly that many people accumulate thousands of dollars in purchases before they realize what "purchase" actually means in this context.

Your photos are yours. Your documents are yours. Your purchased movies are Apple's, and they always were. Now you know. Now you can decide.

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