Merge apple id's, me.com and itunes account?

normal response!

No practical solution but these guys cant do anything, its up to the top brass to solve this type of problem.

I will send them a feedback using your link, I will ask them how I can use my purchased Iwork (ipad/iphone) with Icloud if the accounts are not the same and how do they suggest that we use the same account if in the transition from .me to icloud I had to use the .me e-mail. Another question is why alow non e-mail IDs for the app store and then only accept e-mail IDs for Icloud when they know these have to be integrated to work.

I was not offended I was intrigued by the "silence i gold" but I did not realise you were talking about your silence.

William M Moldrup wrote:

Sorry that you took offense and wonder who I am because I made a direct response to a specific individual [igmackenzie in Cornwall UK], who took no offense. And, yes, Apple personnel, including CEO Tim Cook are well aware of this issue and the problems underlying these postings. The "silence is golden" statement refers only to my comments, not to anyone else's. Thanks, in advance, for understanding.

In these cases i think the less silence the better. I have never come across a situation where silence was rewarded, its usualy the most annoying and persistent people that manage to get everything done for them!

Yes, aw, again, I know I can authorize 5 computers to play music on any one account and therefore any computer can play songs purchased from more than one account. Everyone seems to think that's what I'm asking, which is understandable I suppose.

I'm asking about more than one account syncing through iCloud WITHOUT a cable, in lieu of "associating devices for automatic downloads," "90 days" and all that. And I seem to have the answer, which is not the right one, Apple. Those of us who have bought music from more than one account DESERVE to have the same iCloud benefits as everyone else.

(Believe or not the apple support guy I spoke to had to LOOK UP the 90 rule, and even after he did, he still didn't seem to understand it. I then scheduled another Express Lane call, but it called and promptly hung up on me. I scheduled yet another, and they never called. That's why I'm here.)

And again, can someone please tell me how not to lose the song info (so it doesn't just say "track 1," etc.) when burning on to a CD? And would I burn those songs, remove them from the library and then re-add them. Or just burn them and re-add them? Is there a way to look at a music library and separate one ID's purchases out?

Thanks so much, anyone and everyone.

Yeah, I won't bore you with the first 3 emails they sent, or my first 3 responses.

I pointed them to this thread in particular with regards to merging ID's

But we all need to go and give them feedback. Suppose they don't read this forum then

Jason

After many hours of reading and finally surrendering to the inability to merge my ID's...I am handling the dilemma by using one ID on my iphone and the other on my iPad.... So now my data, pictures and music are banished to their seperate devices like sending my children to their rooms when they can't get along... Thank God I have a server and use Outlook to manage my email and calendar so I can access them everywhere... Microsoft should be very happy being the step child of this whole thing and ultimately the peacekeeper of my current Apple insanity..

I will add too that I was forced to create a seperate ID when I took a MobileMe class in conjunction with the purchase of my new iMac.... There they told me I had to use a different ID than I had with Itunes....so they forced me into 2 ID's.. (albeit because my first ID wasn't a MAC id.)

Good to hear from you and to see the progression of posts on the multiple ID problems. My silence is simply because I have done enough to be heard, if anyone at Apple is listening.

I've submitted over 5 feedbacks in the past two months to Apple Support, made over 20 posts in the community forums and have e-mailed Tim Cook (the message was delivered and read). Since Wednesday was the official day of Apple Corp. mourning and recognition, I doubt if any focus was placed by Apple employees on all the forum activity between Sunday and Wednesday.

Again, my hope is that enough attention, worldwide, has been drawn to this issue that it will no longer be ignored. Tim Cook has already stated publicly that he is aware of the problem and working on it. I doubt if he needs much more evidence than what has already been received, unless a different and releated problem surfaces. I am the person who originally posted I need not complain further--"silence is golden."😉

I totally agree. My problem is the same as yours. Actually I have a third Apple ID which is how I logged into this forum. If you screw up when trying to turn on iCloud, you should be able to fix things without waiting 90 days.

For a company that prides itself on being user friendly, this Apple id / iTunes account / moble.me id / iCloud account / thing, has me ready to pull my hair out!

I was forced to create a new account for mobile.me, as my Apple-ID is an old styled one without “@“, not an actual email address... Stuck here with the same issue.

The fact that this are two separated accounts in their database should not be an absolute block for transferring the stuff from one account to another. I would be more than happy to close one of the accounts, or create a new one consolidating the two.

discovered another useful tool to manage this horror story of multiple apple IDs. mostly helpful for somebody that catches the goof early enough.

If your primary email address is stuck to your secondary apple ID, (often you won't even know, because it is possible to DETACH the email but you can not re-attach as a primary email to a different apple ID), then there is a workaround to at least get email notices going to the proper email.

so in my case, i could not use my primary email as a new apple ID because it was assigned to my non-email apple ID. I MOVED my primary email address to my secondary ID and added an ALIAS email to my primary apple ID.

i discovered today that I was able to use 'email plus' to add my primary email to my primary apple id, here is how:

say your apple id is fred@company.com but you are not allowed to add fred@company.com to your apple id as the primary email. This is most likely because you have a secondary apple id that once-upon-a-time you had fred@company.com as a primary email. you can delete the email but it's still LOCKED to that account.

the workaround is this: using an "address TAG" you can effectively assign your primary email to your primary apple id, and here's how: an address tag is also refered to as sub-addressing in some systems.

send yourself a test email to make sure YOUR service works with tags; some use minus ➖ while most use plus ➕.

set your primary email *and* apple id to: fred+cloud@company.com

you will have to use the signin fred+cloud@apple.com but it will be tied to your tried and true primary apple id. you shoud also be able to assign your primary email (fred@company.com) as a secondary email on your primary apple id as long as you delete it from any others first.

the benefit of this solution is two fold:

1) email notices associated with the primary apple ID will deliver to your normal email account w/o having to set up an alias.

2) find my friend or other email-based services will tie your primary email address to your primary apple id so you can use just ONE apple id on all your devices.

hope that helps somebody out there.

in MY case, i decided to SPLIT my services

1. all cloud services moved to my secondary apple id that is my mobile me address

   added my primary email to my secondary apple id so find-my-friends works properly

2. my iTunes stays with my PRIMARY apple ID but now has the primary email address with the tag format or alias, so my purchase receipts etc still deliver to my primary email address.

so it's kludgy and stoopid that it's needed but it's a decent workaround especially for those of us with priceless non-email apple IDs.

I host my email for my domain with google apps so i have to use the + tag in my case.

Doesn't help me. One day several months ago, i accidentally changed my primary iTunes Apple ID from myname@earthlink.net to mynamew/middleinitial@mac.com. (I was done with earthlink and did not realize this situation with me.com or mac.com ID's already existing automatically. ) I did not mean to type my middle initial into the email address.

At any rate, mynamew/middleinitial@mac.com is a NON-EXISTENT email. I don't own it; its emails don't reach me or anyone else. (It happened by accident - I MEANT to type myname@mac.com (which is my primary email) and accidentally put the middle initial in. Which is why the system accepted it - had I typed in myname@mac.com it would have said it was already in use.) And because it ends w/mac.com in a now me.com world, it's useless. (I still use myname@mac.com interchangably with myname@me.com, but it was grandfathered in before mobile me.)

MEANWHILE, my primary ID for all things OTHER than purchases is myname@me.com or myname@mac.com. So I now had to put another email as the primary email to this original iTunes purchase ID. I tried my mobile me aliases,but the system recognizes them as aliases to my me. com account and won't accept them as the contact for mynamew/middleinitial@mac.com.

And because my new itunes ID looks so similar to me primary email with just the middle initial hidden in there, I am constantly getting confused. *****.

Yep, I'm in the same boat:

1. Apple ID for iTunes
2. Apple ID for iTunes that's my .Mac address (since the screen shot in sign in shows "Example: steve@mac.com", so a new iTunes Apple ID was created...thus I have DRM purchases in 2 accounts)
3. Apple ID named the same user name as iTunes #1 used on Apple site/discussions/store
4. Apple transitions .Mac email address to .me address, but can use both interchangeably
5. Apple ID #3 converted by iCloud to username.me.com email address
6. Apple ID #5 is the ID on my iPhone but names it username@mac.com
7. iPhone will let me sign into iTunes on the phone using username@mac.com but not just Apple ID #1, thus any purchases made by it go to the Apple ID for iTunes #2
8. iPhone's Find My Friends app will not work because it will not recognize my Apple ID #5 (says it's already in use) and it won't let me use Apple ID #3 because it's associated email is username@me.com which is the email address for Apple ID #5 that states it's named username@mac.com
9. I cannot combine the MobileMe address with the Apple ID for iTunes or my #3, but can use it for iCloud

This whole thing is a cluster... This has all the markings of the MobileMe start up. I can only hope it gets fixed because for now, I have to open 2 separate accounts to use my iTunes content, I can't use certain apps together on my iPhone for having duplicate Apple ID's and finally, I have no idea from each instance what I'm signing into or which account I'm purchasing for.

It really has made me put a halt on purchasing iTunes content.

Poorly handled, Apple!

boysmom; ouch on the middlename issue.

so you are saying that your primary iTunes apple id is firstmi@mac.com which doesn't exist; well that doesn't have to be a big problem; my iTunes id doesn't even have an @ so obviously not an email, i recommend keeping them separate for safety sake anyhow.

strange, however because when you change an email address in your appleid, it goes through a verification process which would obviously fail. do you not have a 'delete' option next to the email address? (or a 'change' button?) very very strange indeed.

suggestion to add a .me alias into your purchase account: maybe if the alias is not active: eg. delete the alias you wish to use or add it AFTER you add as a secondary email on your purchase account. Then add in the alias and use 're-send verification.

I empathize completely, Andrew, as my situation is almost identical to yours. I have written to editors at Macworld magazine, David Pogue of NYT, several posts to this forum under a different name, even an e-mail to Apple CEO Tim Cook. All my responses have been received, but I am waiting for a (gracious) public announcement by Apple that we will soon be able to merge accounts into the one we prefer if we wish to do so.

For those in our situation I hope the solution and resolution comes soon--before the end of the year. My only work-around is to revert to USB syncing devices since everything that you have on a computer in iTunes will still sync to your devices regardless of how many accounts were originally used for purchasing.

it is a mess. I had a .mac address for years and when they created me.com i wanted to stick with .mac for posterity but apple goofed bigtime on that one; the .mac addresses OFTEN FAIL as a login though they SOMETIMES work. dumba$$es .

if you already converted your #1 clean id to icloud @me that's too bad 'cause it's irreversable. you are stuck with two (or more) DRM accounts at this point. I caught this before being tricked so i have only ONE DRM account.

you really want to use an @me for iCloud and find-my-friends et.al however you can ADD a secondary email into that account.

me: i have non-email apple id for iTunes, an @mac/@me (with the exact same prefix as my non-email appleid) that i use for all iCloud/mobileme/findmyfriends.

I have a REAL email i use @mylastname.biz and that email is used as a secondary email in my @me appleID

pair of 9s and boysmom may both be able to use this hint i've posted before:

use the email TAG option to add your REAL email into an appleid account.

example if myname@mydomain.com is 'TIED' to some appleid so you are screwed, add (even as your primary id if not me/mac), myname+itunes@mydomain.com and you can simplify your life by still using just ONE email but attached to BOTH apple IDs.

(still won't be the SAME email login because you will have to login with the 'tagged' email address but it's logical; use myname+itunes@domain.com for your iTunes purchases.)

make SURE you add as a secondary email into your iCloud email your PRIMARY email so friends don't have to learn a NEW email to find-my-friend.

-awr