Is it possible to move Suica to a different iCloud account?

Apple Pay PASMO, Apple Pay Suica, FeliCa, NFC, PASMO, Reader Question, Suica

asking for a friend but is there a way to remove a PASMO from one iCloud account, and move it over to a different iCloud account? My friend is a bit of an idiot and noob with iPhones.

This is a tricky question and even if possible, why bother? Most people would just add a new Suica•PASMO to iPhone which is very easy to do. Up until the big Mobile Suica reset on March 21 it wasn’t possible to migrate the Suica card anywhere else except a different device with same iCloud account. However, it is now possible to move the same Mobile Suica card between Android and iOS. PASMO doesn’t allow this yet because Mobile PASMO hasn’t received the same backend upgrade. If we were assigning version numbers Mobile Suica would be v2.0, Mobile PASMO would be v1.5. In Mobile Suica 2.0 the card ID, the Mobile Suica account email used for system ID, is independent of Apple Pay and Google Pay systems. Let’s take a look at how it might work.

Here is the Mobile Suica transfer path going from iOS to Android.

  • Requirements: Mobile Suica account, ID registered email and PW, latest versions of Suica App (iOS) and Mobile Suica App (Android) installed on both devices.
  • Step 1: remove Suica from Wallet on iPhone (this parks the Suica card on the Mobile Suica cloud server)
  • Step 2: on the Android device launch Mobile Suica and sign in with the same ID and PW
  • Step 3: follow the screen prompts to add the Suica card from the server to the device

One of the crucial points about Android is that the receiving device must have a valid Japanese SIM inserted, otherwise Suica will not transfer. In theory here is how the process might work going between different iCloud account devices:

  • Requirements: Mobile Suica account, ID registered email and PW, Suica App 3.0.3 or later (iOS) installed on both devices.
  • Step 1: remove Suica from Wallet on iCloud A device, sign out of Suica App or delete the app, restart device
  • Step 2: on the iCloud B device launch launch Suica App, tap [機種変更] (Transfer from Android) and sign in with the same ID and PW
  • Step 3: Tap [+], and (if the theory is correct), you should see the Suica card with balance on the server, add to Wallet

Remember, this is only a theory. It has not been tested by me, or anybody else (or at least I have yet to find anybody online who has tried). It is certainly not officially supported by JR East, for security reasons. I say don’t bother, it’s very easy to add Suica and PASMO to any iPhone 8 and later or Apple Watch Series 3 and later.

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