Q: Deleting an iCloud account that doesn't exist

Thanks!! I can also confirm that this solution works. Too bad I had to spend hours wading through useless official Aople "support" and then combing the discussion boards to find a solution that worked. I am guessing I'll have to do this every time I update the iOS. I'm hoping I'm wrong, but the problem started with the update to iOS 7.

Go to https//appleid.apple.com, click Manage my Apple ID and sign in with your currentiCloud ID.  Tap edit next to the primary email account, tap Edit, change it back to your old email address and save the change.  Then edit the name of the account to change it back to your old email address.  You can now use your current password to turn off Find My iPhone on your device, even though it prompts you for the password for your old account ID. Then go to Settings>iCloud, tap Delete Account and choose Delete from My iDevice when prompted (your iCloud data will still be in iCloud).  Next, go back to https//appleid.apple.com and change your primary email address and iCloud ID name back to the way it was.  Now you can go to Settings>iCloud and sign in with your current iCloud ID and password.

I have read pages and pages about this problem and none have worked on my 4s - I noticed I was missing on "Find My iPhone" and began checking my setup - it seems when the family member whose account this is changed internet providers, obviously the login changed. The login and password worked fine for the last 6 months. The update 4 to IOS 7 is apparently the culprit that has kept me from getting back on Find My iPhone. I can change the login and password (the old one is forgotten, thank you) to the new one, but must do it EVERY TIME I open FIND.... But it helps nothing. iCloud is grayed, which means you have to accept Terms, and I hope Apple is flooded with agreements because I have "agreed" about 20 times, yet every time I go back I have to "agree" again. THEN, I notice I am logged in to FIND. I try to logout and iCloud wants my OLD login and password. Impossible. I cannot delete the account, I cannot even erase my phone without that login. Personally I am NOT an iCloud user, but since the account is under a membership, I guess that's why iCloud took over my iPhone so I would give Apple (and Google) MORE MONEY just to use FIND.

    No one has found a solution that has worked for me. Everything leads back to the OLD PASSWORD which I do not know. APPLE has been absent on all this-- don't they ever read these posts except to tell you to start a new "discussion"? How in the world can I fix this issue - at least get rid of my old iTunes login (and $(&(@ PASSWORD)!!?

I was similarly frustrated, nothing in this forum appeared to work, despite others claiming success...

I was finally able to remove the "old/non-existent" iCloud account through the method of removing the old apple ID from Find My iPhone, Game Center, Find Friends, etc. PLUS turning off ALL the backup options for the iCloud account in settings>icloud. Took all the switches and shut them off (most were already off) - mail, contacts, calendars, reminders, safari, notes, passbook, photos, docs & data. I could not turn off Find My iPhone, as it was requiring the password (the one that does not exist, and I could not recover via any of the channels available)

Then clicked the "delete account" button and it worked. Now running with iCloud with my current appleID.

One note - if you are worried about losing photos, just go to your photo stream, select all the photos (manually - you'd think there would be a select all option, but no) and move them to a new album. There may be some duplication, but at least it's peace of mind that you won't lose photos of your kids or anything.

I'm on iPhone5/iOS 7.0

How were you able to remove the "old/non existent" iCloud account?  Did you use "Settings," "iCloud," "Delete Account?"  If so, it seems to want the password to delete it.

yes - but only after much trial and error with lots of other things folks have tried in this thread. It seems that you need to make sure you are logged out of ANY Apple services that are even possibly using your old iCloud account as a first step. These are:

- Facetime

- Find Friends

- Find iPhone

- Game Center

And, there may be more - I did not have to worry about iTunes or the App Store, but I would not be shocked if those cause issues also.

Then, under settings>icloud make sure all of the switches are set to off and photos and docs and data have "off" written on the line. You may need to click into photos and docs and data and take care of some switches in these menus.

Once everything is turned off and there are no other apps possibly using (or expecting to use) the old iCloud account, it seemed to work for me.

Your experience may vary... good luck.

That's the problem. A lot of iPhone users don't have the password on old iCloud accounts or Apple IDs that were linked to the phone by prior owners. If you don't have the password, you can't unlink the phone from iCloud account.  Apple advises that iO7 security "features" assure that this happens. So be forewarned, if you buy a used iPhone make sure the iCloud is off and the Find My iPhone is also off. And that no iCloud account is on the phone. Otherwise, when you activate the phone...even if you restore it to factory settings...the phone will link to that old iCloud account when it connects to the Apple activation server.  It's a bad situation.

Been working on this for 4 hours! This is the only thing so far, in ALL OF THE OTHER SUGGESTIONS with this issue that's worked! Thank you thank you thank you!

OK! Finally.. this is what worked for me.

1. I deleted the 'find my iphone' app.

2. Opened settings

3. Opened Icloud

4. Turned off all buttons to off.

5. Deleted icloud account

6. I was then able to add my NEW account details and password.

Everything seems to work fine.

it works!!!!

but i still need to key in the old acc iCloud password, when I enter my old password, it works! so then i just turn off: Find my Ipad  ->  delete acc -> add my new acc

Thanks a bunch  LUViNGMAMA XD

Worked FInallyyy HApppppppy gALL

Same problem for me -- I read through all of these, tried everything including 90 minutes on the phone with Apple Support.  No success yet.

In Apple's defense -- the "toughness" of turning off "Find My iPhone" is to protect phone owners when thefts are rampant; Apple is trying to make it impossible for a thief to disable it, so stolen phones can be tracked.  So if you bought a "used" iPhone with iCloud still on it -- it might be a stolen phone. 

My case is perhaps the most extreme: 

  -- my son's iPhone was stolen

   -- via some "social engineering" the thief got into the iCloud account and took it over:

        -- changed email, password, security questions

       -- turned off Find My iPhone

   -- we have been unable to regain control of that iCloud account by any means, including begging Apple support

   -- the thief totally owns the iCloud account & Apple ID

   -- The stolen phone is now replaced and has a new iCloud account/AppleID.  But:

   -- The hacked AppleID was shared in our family, including my wife for iCloud.  She had "Find My iPhone" turned on.

My wife is completely unable to remove iCloud from her iPhone.  We've tried everything in the posts above.  Making it worse, the "Settings"-->"iCloud" screen even shows the thief's email address !  Every thing on that screen is disabled, includiing Find My iPhone On/Off.  Hit "Delete" and it asks for the iCloud password -- but we don't know the thief's new password! 

Any ideas?

Perhaps there is some way to establish ownership of the phone with Apple?  Via the carrier (Verizon)?  We bought it from Verizon and still have the phone -- shouldn't Apple allow us to reset iCloud?

--Mr Churlish

Unfortunately, neither Apple or the carrier will do anything for you. None of the "ideas" in this thread work. As soon as the phone connects to the network...either wifi or carrier's...it associates itself with the iCloud account.  And, you can't even reset the phone to factory settings without the iCloud password.  I even tried sending emails to the former owner and she never replied.  You can try to access the iCloud account by using multiple passwords until it becomes locked. Apple will send the iCloud account owner an email asking for the account password to be reset, but in our case, the owner never reset it. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it sounds as if you need to activate a new iCloud account. I hope there was nothing in the old account that was sensitive.

The email on mine was incorrectly typed and never verified.  Find My iPhone was on so I could not delete the account. 

To Fix:

1. went to game center and put in the incorrect email and clicked forgot my pw
2. clicked use security questions, thankfully they were correct
3. reset the invalid apple id password
4. back to iCloud to delete the bad Id, had to do it twice because it took once to turn off find my iPhone and once to delete the iCloud account
5. went back to set up iCloud used the correct email and pw and all is good.

This was noted in one of the posts but from the computer and I did not have access to the computer.

I had all the problems listed here, could not get rid of old email address, etc. I corrected it buy going into "find my iphone" where the old email address was also. I backspaced thru the old email and entered the correct email and password, then it allowed me to turn off find my iphone.  Was now able to delete that account and enter correct info into icloud. Reading enough threads finally got the solution  Thanks all for posting