How to Recover and Reclaim Your Google and Apple Developer Accounts

Created by Glen Barnes, Modified on Thu, 28 Aug at 10:13 PM by Natalie Nguyen

At STQRY, we frequently update your apps with bug fixes and improvements so it is important that the account holder of Google and Apple developer accounts can help us access and accept any pending agreements on your accounts.

However, there could be some reasons, staff leaving for example, which will make you lose access to the Google and Apple developer accounts. In this case, we will need to contact Google and Apple support for help.

Google

Google does not allow changing the account holder of an existing developer account. Therefore, the best approach is to create a new Google Developer account and then contact Google to request an app transfer.

You can find instructions for creating a new Google Developer account and inviting STQRY to the account here.

Once your new account is set up, you can contact Google using this link and send them a message like the one below:

Hello,

My name is [your name]. We have an app published on Google Play. The account holder ([old account holder’s email]) has left our organization, and we no longer have a way to contact him.

We have created a new Google Developer account. Could you please assist us in transferring our app to this new account? The details are as follows:

Old Google Developer Account:
Account ID: [insert ID]
App Package Name: [insert package name]
New Google Developer Account:
Account ID: [insert ID]

Thank you for your help.

Best,

You can reach out to your Customer Success Manager to get the old and new account holder’s email addresses and Developer Account IDs. If you’d like more direct assistance, please contact us at support@stqry.com and our team will be happy to help you step by step.

Apple

If you can still access the account, you can contact Apple via this link. If you're unable to access the account, you should sign up for a new Apple ID or use a current Apple ID temporarily and inform STQRY of the change. We'll then invite the new Apple ID to the Apple developer account. You can use the mentioned link and type the following email when contacting Apple. Then remove any unneeded Apple ID's from the account if needed.

"Hello,
We cannot log in to our Apple developer account since the account holder has left our organization. Could you please assist us in transferring ownership to [New Apple ID]? The Apple developer team ID is [Developer Team ID]. Thank you for your assistance.
Best,"

You can reach out to your Customer Success Manager to get the New Apple ID and Developer Team ID. If you’d like more direct assistance, please contact us at support@stqry.com and our team will be happy to help you step by step.

In both cases, Google and Apple may require some legitimate documents for verification, such as a government-issued photo ID, employment verification documents, employee badges, business cards, or a certificate of registration with the companies registry. Once the ownership transfer process is complete, they will notify you accordingly.

After regaining access, you can consider adding multiple trusted phone numbers to make sure more than one team member has access to the account and reduce the risk of being locked out in the future. More information can be found here.