iOS 6 has introduced a bug and many users are affected by this problem. Especially those who bought the item in the US and are outside of the US right now. This bug gives you an error message and does not allow you to download apps or update. The error message is:
Your account is not valid for use in the xxx Store. You must switch to yyy Store before purchasing.
xxx and yyy represent countries and have been used for illustrative purpose. When you replace them with countries, the common errors will be like:
- Your account is not valid for use in the Indian Store. You must switch to U.S. Store before purchasing.
- Your account is not valid for use in the Canadian Store. You must switch to U.S. Store before purchasing.
How to Resolve this iOS 6 “Your account is not valid for use in the xxx Store. You must switch to yyy Store before purchasing.”
- Using your iPad or iPhone, click the App Store icon.
- When in App Store, press Featured tab at the bottom of the screen.
- You will see your Apple ID. Press it and a pop up will show up.
- Press View Apple ID and provide your App Store password.
- Your ID will get either get switched to the U.S. account or the country where the account was created. Otherwise you will see an option to change the Country/Region.
Your account is fixed now. You can try and download or upload apps as usual. If you still have issues, let us know in the comments box below and we’ll get back to you soon.
Did this help you?. Why not like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
Thank you for reading iOS 6 Bug: Your account is not valid for use in the xxx Store. You must switch to yyy Store before purchasing from Survival Guide.

Hi Apurva- Thanks for this workaround/solution. It worked like a charm on my iPad!! Have to try this on my iPhone too. 🙂
Hi Shakeel, I’m glad that it helped 🙂
Thanks a lot – works perfectly for me 🙂
Thanks. It works perfectly
Worked perfectly for me, thanks for the work-around.
I have done every thing and still getting the message. In addition, I am facing problem with the screen of the iTunes Store that it is not shown completely but just have of the screen but when I sign my ID out and then in it will be resolve!! Appreciate your help
Wow! Thank you very much! It has been a very frustrating week since upgrading to iOS 6, but this fix solved my biggest issue with the new upgrade. Thanks again!
I had download ios6 in my ipad3 and now i’m not able to upgrade the apps because there is a message : “your account is not valid…..”.
I tried to follow your suggest and i click the apple store etc. But i didn’t solve the problems.
I switch down my ipad and i tried again but ipad wrote again the message.
Can you help me?
There are 2 places, where the country settings are. One is the iTunes app on your iOS device, which this post talks about. Another is the iTunes application on your Mac or PC. Please check the country settings in the iTunes application on your computer and ensure that the country listed there is correct.
Hi, thanks for you help, but i really need you help again, PLEASE! When I tried to change the country to Brasil appears the message: ” You have a store credit balance”. You must spend you balance before you can change stores.
I didn´t want to spend my credit. Is it possible to change the country without spend the credit that i Bought in Itunes Card in Best Buy in my trip to USA.
Is that any way to change the country/region without spend the credit?
Thank you a lot
Ana
PS: I live in Brazil.
Hi,
I bought my itouch in India, have an apple Id with India as the country attached to it . When I clicked ‘View Apple Id’ , it showed the country as India.
Just to confirm , I changed the country to India. Still the problem exists. Please help!!!
Hi,
Please go to the iTunes application on your computer and sign-in to your Apple account.
Now click on your Apple ID and go to Account Information.
In Apple ID Summary, you’ll see Country/Region listed and you’ll see an option to change country/region.
Update the country/region and sync your iTouch.
It will work!
Ana,
It is possible to change country/region without spending the credit, but you will have app compatibility issues.
For example, those apps which you purchased in Apple US App Store will not work when you switch to a Brasil App Store.
Not an option which makes everyone happy, but that is the way it is.
Depends on what you prefer – you can sell your US credit and shift permanently to Brazil App Store or if you’ve done heavy duty purchases with your US account, you can continue with the US App Store forever. And hopefully Apple will allow keeping purchased apps when moving between Stores.
Hi Apurva,
The country that is attached to my account is already India (The country selected when I created my account).
Note : I am able to update my apps from iTunes in computer using the same id.
Any advices ??
my problem is solved
Wow bro u saved me 🙂
Hello!
I’m in Canada so I should switch to Canada I guess to be able to download the apps.
Just one problem for me, when I go in the “featured” tab, no pop up appears !
Do you have any solution?
“When in App Store, press Featured tab at the bottom of the screen.
You will see your Apple ID. Press it and a pop up will show up”
Ok! I just found the ID stuff at the bottom of the “featured” panel !
I followed your instructions to the letter but I am still seeing the same message. System will not allow me to switch countries. Says I cannot switch due to a balance on the account. I can’t spent the balance either.
Hi… My problem is resolved after I ‘Restored’ my iTouch.
Thanks!! 🙂
THANKS A LOT!!! 😀 NOW IS FIXED!
I bought my Ipad in the US, but moved to Brazil. I have 2 accounts: one in Brazil and the original one in the US. Before this ****up “upgrade”, I could switch between accounts and use the one I wanted. Now my US account no longer works. Every time I try to use it, I get the above message (Your account is not valid for use in the U.S. Store. You must switch to the Brazilian store before purchasing.)
I have tried your proposed solution, but it still doesn’t work.
Any additional ideas?
didn’t work for me – but what worked was going to settings -> itunes/app store. sign out and sign back in and verify that the country is what you want it to be – seems that iTunes on the computer doesn’t always inform the iPhone about the change.
Hellooo everyone !
Thank you soooo much!
It worked perfectly 😀
silly… very very silly on apple’s part…
No working for me. No pop up for password entry after I touch AppleID box. 🙁
I followed your instruction however I’m still getting the error message about needing to switch from the US store to the UK store. When I check, I’m in the UK store.
Hi All,
Those who are still having the same issue. Could you please send me screenshots, so that I can have a better understanding. Please send email with screenshots to buzzdiya@gmail.com
Thank you so much for this fix > I used matts method of going through settings , and it worked >thanks , Apurva and Matt
Hi, I am still facing the same issue although I have followed the above steps. I cannot update my apps as it says account not in this store. Am outside US now and it says I need to use the Emirati store, which basically has not mich in it!!
When i go to featured, apple id and i click on the contry/region where the US flag appears, i get a message that says that I have some balance left and I cannot change the location before using that balance. Could that be the issue?
Pls help !!!
100% what I was looking for – thank you SO much for the guidance! 🙂
Thank you sooo much. It’s fixed now
Thank you very much! It works wonders. I can update my apps now. I can install new ones, too.
Wow – thank you SOOO much! This saved us from spending $120 after the Apple Support people told us we had a virus on the iphone and had to give them that much to get it fixed! Unbelievable that it was such an easy fix. Wanted to warn people if this is what you have been told – NOT a virus!
Thanks again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Virus! Hard to believe that the guys at Apple think so.
It was so funny. lol!!!