Changing country in App Store

[Saltire]

I have an iphone that some time ago when Thailand started to roll out their apps, forced me to change country/region from UK to Thailand.

I have no subscriptions and no payment method as I don't buy apps, so it was easy and I didn't lose any access to all my UK/USA apps so I left it on Thailand.

Now I have an APP from OMRON (to record blood pressure from their meter) that won't upgrade as it is again in the wrong country.

What I want to do is change the region back to the UK, do the app update, and change region back to Thailand.

Anyone see any problems with this? These things make me nervous!

Also I believe a VPN can sort this permanently, anyone recommend a free one just for this purpose?

 

 

Edited November 28, 2021 by Saltire

[Pinetree]

If you have an i Tunes account with your phone registered,. I see no problem with this.  Just go to the i Tunes website  and register.  Its free so no issues there. 

Free VPNs are usually not much good.  I use Surfshark, which is the cheapest I have found and very reliable.  I have dropped Express VPN; expensive and gives me connection trouble.  

Edited November 28, 2021 by Pinetree

[JamesE]

My solution is to have two Apple accounts one with my Thai number and one with my home number. I typically log in for day-to-day use with my home number account but if I need an app that is only available in the Thailand App Store I'll log out and then log in with my other account. Once I've downloaded the app I'll switch back and everything works as before, including the new app.

[Saltire]

11 hours ago, JamesE said:

My solution is to have two Apple accounts one with my Thai number and one with my home number. I typically log in for day-to-day use with my home number account but if I need an app that is only available in the Thailand App Store I'll log out and then log in with my other account. Once I've downloaded the app I'll switch back and everything works as before, including the new app.

Great idea, I will try that thanks.

[WilliamG]

20 hours ago, Pinetree said:

I have dropped Express VPN; expensive and gives me connection trouble.  

Mine NEVER gives any trouble at all, and for $99 a year is very good value.

[Pinetree]

16 minutes ago, WilliamG said:

Mine NEVER gives any trouble at all, and for $99 a year is very good value.

It dropped out on me twice just as the lights were about to go red on a F1 race, including the last one.  That is totally unacceptable and i cancelled it immediately.  It also doesn't work with some UK based websites, such as my bank and Lotto. Surfshark does work .  Horses for courses I guess. 

Edited November 29, 2021 by Pinetree

[JamesE]

24 minutes ago, WilliamG said:

Mine NEVER gives any trouble at all, and for $99 a year is very good value.

Yikes! That's expensive. I get Surfshark for < $25/year. I keep Vypr as a backup (it doesn't work as well with my mobile providers) for about the same. Both own/manage their own servers.

[WilliamG]

1 hour ago, Pinetree said:

It dropped out on me twice just as the lights were about to go red on a F1 race, including the last one.  That is totally unacceptable and i cancelled it immediately.  It also doesn't work with some UK based websites, such as my bank and Lotto. Surfshark does work .  Horses for courses I guess. 

I do not need VPN for Nationwide, Barclays, Wise or Revolut banks.

The National Lottery can 'see through' VPN use, and even if you did win, they would not pay out because you are not physically in UK, or did not set up a Direct Debit in UK previously.

[Pinetree]

5 minutes ago, WilliamG said:

I do not need VPN for Nationwide, Barclays, Wise or Revolut banks.

The National Lottery can 'see through' VPN use, and even if you did win, they would not pay out because you are not physically in UK, or did not set up a Direct Debit in UK previously.

rubbish, I have won a couple of times, good amounts,  and they have paid out each time. 

[WilliamG]

2 hours ago, Pinetree said:

rubbish, I have won a couple of times, good amounts,  and they have paid out each time. 

Anything over £50,000 you have to be there personally.

[Pinetree]

27 minutes ago, WilliamG said:

Anything over £50,000 you have to be there personally.

And? 

If you win, you go to collect it. People on holiday have been known to win large amounts, they just wait until they get home then claim the prize. they have 180 days to claim. 

Edited November 29, 2021 by Pinetree

[WilliamG]

3 hours ago, Pinetree said:

And? 

If you win, you go to collect it. People on holiday have been known to win large amounts, they just wait until they get home then claim the prize. they have 180 days to claim. 

And show them your passport. 

[Vince]

On 11/28/2021 at 12:09 AM, Saltire said:

I have an iphone that some time ago when Thailand started to roll out their apps, forced me to change country/region from UK to Thailand.

I have no subscriptions and no payment method as I don't buy apps, so it was easy and I didn't lose any access to all my UK/USA apps so I left it on Thailand.

Now I have an APP from OMRON (to record blood pressure from their meter) that won't upgrade as it is again in the wrong country.

What I want to do is change the region back to the UK, do the app update, and change region back to Thailand.

Anyone see any problems with this? These things make me nervous!

Also I believe a VPN can sort this permanently, anyone recommend a free one just for this purpose?

I wonder why omron would put a geolocation restriction on their app? 

Have you considered contacting omron support? 

[Saltire]

Yes they are very helpful in both the Thai FaceBook messages and their corporate USA web site. Both tried many solutions but in the end said they could not change the licensing for it to work in Thailand.

They say they will kill the old one which I use daily I'd be fine continuing to use it with no support.

Wonder why the old one worked fine for me - I bought the machine in the UK and a friend brought it over, app installed no problem.

 

[Vince]

1 hour ago, Saltire said:

Yes they are very helpful in both the Thai FaceBook messages and their corporate USA web site. Both tried many solutions but in the end said they could not change the licensing for it to work in Thailand.

They say they will kill the old one which I use daily I'd be fine continuing to use it with no support.

Wonder why the old one worked fine for me - I bought the machine in the UK and a friend brought it over, app installed no problem.

You "should" be able to defeat geo location using a VPN if it does an active lookup. It might do a lookup and store the result at some specific time (i.e. on installation or upgrade). 

If so, connecting to a VPN in, say Britain, then reinstalling *might* trick it into rechecking and finding itself in Britain. 

Alternately you may have some timezone or other location setting in your phone it's checking. You would need to change it as well. 

That's what I'd try. You will want to back up every thing and maybe try it on spare phone first.