Store accounts, code and keys
First, keep the Apple Developer membership paid and find out whose name is on the app in each store. Then set up your company's own Apple and Google Play accounts and ask for the apps to be transferred to them, together with the source code and the signing keys. We start with an $8,000 audit that takes 1 to 4 weeks: you learn what your company controls, what is missing, what can be recovered, and get a fixed quote for the work that follows.
For businesses whose customers or staff depend on the app.Audits are $8,000, in 1 to 4 weeks.
What Apple, Google and the law say
Each fact links to its source. This is general information, not legal advice.
Apple calls this person the Account Holder. They renew the membership, accept Apple's agreements and approve banking changes. Only the current Account Holder can hand the role to another employee who can sign for the company.
Source: Apple Developer
Apple moves an individual's account to someone else only in narrow cases, such as the holder's death. The practical route is to move the app itself into your company's own account.
Source: Apple Developer
During an Apple transfer the app stays available and keeps its ratings and reviews, and users keep getting updates. The old account's Account Holder starts the transfer and yours accepts it.
Source: Apple Developer
Apple's help pages describe no self-service route. Contacting Apple Developer Support is the only documented path, and Apple states no timeline.
Source: Apple Developer
Users, ratings, reviews and subscriptions go with the app. Someone has to sign in to the original account to start it, and Google prohibits buying or informally taking over a developer account.
Source: Play Console Help
Both stores ask an organization for a D-U-N-S number, which is free in most places. Apple charges 99 USD per membership year; Google Play charges a one-time US$25 fee.
Sources: Apple Developer, Play Console Help
An app that isn't enrolled in Play App Signing and loses its signing key can't be updated again, and Google can't recover the key for you.
Source: Android Developers (Creative Commons Attribution 2.5)
In the US, copyright starts with the author, and transferring it takes a document in writing signed by the owner. Code an outside contractor writes doesn't become your company's on its own. Have your lawyer check your contract.
Source: U.S. Copyright Office
Find out whose name is on the app.
Open your App Store and Google Play listings and read the seller or developer name. If it is a person or an agency, the account isn't yours yet.
Keep the Apple Developer membership paid while you sort this out.
If it lapses, new customers can't download the app and nothing can ship. People who already have it can keep using it.
Set up your company's own developer accounts.
Get a free D-U-N-S number, then enroll the company with Apple and Google Play, using someone who can sign contracts for the company.
Ask for the apps to be transferred to your accounts, not for a password.
On Apple, the holder of the old account starts the transfer and you accept it. On Google Play, someone has to sign in to the old account.
Collect the keys and secrets that go with the app.
The Android signing and upload keys, whether the app uses Play App Signing, the Apple push notification key and any subscription shared secret.
Get the source code, and a signed document that says it is yours.
Have your lawyer check whether your contract assigns the code to your company.
Move everything else the app depends on.
Servers, cloud accounts, Firebase, analytics, the domain and the email addresses the stores use. A store transfer doesn't move them.
Plan for a few bumps after the move.
Users may need to sign in once more, push notifications need new keys, and Apple Pay needs a new merchant ID.
What it costs
For one app and one codebase, in 1 to 4 weeks. Larger apps are quoted higher. The audit is paid on its own; the transfer, recovery or maintenance work it recommends is priced separately. Prices are for remote work. On-site work is quoted separately and priced higher.
How the audit worksEvery store account, key, secret and outside service the app depends on, and whose name is on each.
What you would need to ship an update today, and what can and can't be recovered from what you have.
The order to move the accounts, keys and services, and the bumps your users may notice.
For the transfer work or maintenance that follows, if you decide to go ahead.
Usually you don't move the account; you move the app. Your company enrolls its own Apple account, and the Account Holder of the old account transfers the app to it. If the account already belongs to your company, its Account Holder can hand that role to another employee who can sign for the company.
Apple's help pages describe no self-service route; contacting Apple Developer Support is the only documented path, with no stated timeline. On Google Play, someone has to sign in to the old account. The audit shows what you can reach and what your options are.
Not if the Apple membership stays paid. On both stores, a transfer keeps the app's users, ratings and reviews.
Not automatically. In the US, copyright starts with the author, and transferring it takes a signed written document. Whether your contract does that is a question for your lawyer. This is general information, not legal advice.
Yes. This page is about getting control of the accounts, the code and the keys. If you also need a new team to run the app, see "Our developer left. Who can take over our app?" The same $8,000 audit covers both.
A short note is enough. We reply with whether we can help and what the first step costs.