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

The problem is that Id Apple site doesn't work when you try to change email address :|

Guys,

Just be careful when following this official document.

This is what I done and when you setup the iCloud first it will setup your iOS device with that account, i.e. setting > store will have this address ID and not the ID you may want.

So when you follow step 2 to sign out and then use the preferred iTunes login as soon as you turn on automatic downloads you will get an error.

This device is already associated with an Apple ID. You can auto download purchases on this device with just one Apple ID every 90 days. You cannot associate this device with a different ID for 90 days.

So please beware, these "official" instructions from Apple are also flawed as I've found out.

I have emailed an support request to apple to have my 90 days reset based on using their literature, but failing that I will not be able to get automatic downloads until January 2011 - way to go Apple.

I will post if I get an answer / 90 day reset from Apple

Regards

Jason

yap and in my case apple has made it impossible to use the same account for both itunes and icloud as my itunes account is not an email and only IDs that use email are valid for icloud.

(we need merge fast)

Using two apple ID's is certainly working for me. What I did was just follow the instructions during iOS 5 setup after the update and before/during restoration. I logged in to iCloud with my Mobile Me account, as instructed by the guided setup tool. In the background, iTunes seemed to automatically link my store account to my iPhone based on the fact that this account was used on the PC I was syncing with. Everything else just worked. The other nice thing is that we get 25GB for the next 9 months or so, which means Apple didn't just take our money and walk away. It would be nice to merge my account so I could log into iTunes with my @me.com address, but I see no real need for this to happen after having used both accounts for the past 24-hours-ish.

Setting up both accounts on an iPhone 4S which isn't being restored from a backup may require an extra step, but it seems like Apple was prepared for us and took the steps necessary to ensure a smooth transition. 🙂

The one thing worrying me now is iTunes in the Cloud. I'm hoping that this service won't complicate things if I choose to use it.

You should be able to change an old Apple ID to use an email (though NOT an @me.com email) using "Manage your account" link on this page:

https://appleid.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/MyAppleId.woa/

Also, from what Jason says above, it sounds like when setting up an iDevice, you should first enter the ID you want to use for iTunes in the Cloud, then change your iCloud ID on the device to afterwards. Hmmmm, though, this may trigger the creation of an iCloud account for your iTunes in the Cloud ID, and who knows what kind of a mess that might end up causing.

Apple have got themselves into quite a silly, and confusing, situation here.

@n3nto - I believe you can turn your iTunes account into an email account by going to appleid.apple.com and chosing to manage account. This is what it will tell you to do if you try to log into iCloud with a non-email account.

Ok i'm a little happier now - it would seem that the guy earlier was right, there is two different things called the same thing. Here's what I did.

Sign into me.com and setup iCloud.

Go to your iOS5 device and choose mail, contacts from settings there you will see all your options which are synced to icloud.com

then

go to settings > iCloud and sign in with your apple ID.

this bit is for purchases, photos etc - if you're already signed in delete it and sign in again

Once you have logged in it will ask you if you want to merge the data with iCloud choose yes then it seems to work.

be aware that you can only have 'find my iphone location services' active on one account at a time however you can access you iPhone from either account to remotely wipe etc..

@ Luke - Beat me to it on the first point.

On the second, I found that following the instructions on the iPhone itself and choosing the option to use two apple IDs (there is one there) did not lead to the same problem. I think this may be what is missing from the official document.

I've spent 3 days in back and forth with Apple, being sent around in circles between live chat, iTunes Support, and general Apple support.

I didn't get beyond the iTunes CSR cutting and pasting premade answers, a request to escalate the issue was ignored twice, and I got more cookie cutter responses that didn't address the problem.

In short, their CSRs are hopelessly overwhelmed right now, probably because they got little preparation for the iCloud launch.

After all, people with Apple IDs and additionally MobileMe accounts are so rare, it wasn't worth planning ahead for the extremely remote chance that we needed to be using iCloud. *roll eyes*

I couldn't agree more. There may be some technical issues, but that's what engineers are for - and Apple engineers in particular I would think smart and creative enough to solve this problem. It's a big deal. Apple always says they are all about the user experience, simplifying, making our lives easier. Well, here's the perfect chance to demonstrate that! Help us! Sad thing is, this seems more likely to affect long term, loyal customers...

I think I ended up in the same trap. This stinks. JUST LET US MERGE ITUNES AND MOBILE ME ACCOUNTS INTO ONE ICLOUD ACCOUNT!!!!!!

Seriously, I don't see what the huge fuss is about. Under settings/iCloud I logged in with my mobile me account, which syncs my contacts, calendars, etc. Then under settings/Store i logged in with my itunes account that I use to buy all of my media. Sure it's still a minor annoyance to have two separate accounts, but it doesn't seem any worse than before iCloud.

I can try to give you an idea what the huge fuss is about (although the simple fact that it is a hug fuss should be enough)...

(1) I hate having to keep track of "which account" I'm dealing with - as far as I'm concerned, I'm me and Apple is Apple, and my ID is my connection to Apple and its services. Having to have two ID's and two passwords to be used in specific ways/settings is more than I want to have to think about.

(2) As an example of the potential complications, consider that I was trying to update 3 iOS devices and 3 Macs that I own to iOS 5 and updated OS X Lion. In the process of trying to follow the guided steps on my iPhone and MacBook, it sounded like I needed to use my MobileMe account to use iCloud so I entered that. Then it informs me that because I did that, I can't use my iTunes account on that device for 90 days to be able to use the auto update feature. If I could just correct it, it would be less severe, but now I feel like I have "one more thing to deal with" which is not what I'm looking for.

(3) There was a point in the past where I had an issue and went back and forth with Apple support to try to fix it and (a password reset problem as I recall) and it was all thoroughly complicated by the fact that I have two accounts (not my choice - was forced by having had iTunes then signing up for MobileMe).

These are just a few quick examples of why it's a pain. And it seems so unnecessary! I'm me! Let me have one account!

Question for people having problems: When you go through the "additional setup" on the iOS device, did you see and choose the option to use a separate account for iTunes store purchases vs. iCloud?

Did you follow the normal upgrade path, or did you shift/command+click and manually choose to apply a software restoration package you downloaded from iTunes or elsewhere (whether because you just felt like it or to try to work around errors 3200 & 3002)?

I'm wondering if that's broken for some individuals or if they just didn't make the option prominent enough. Either way, I agree that things are not as easy as they could be without the option to merge. I also agree that when things work properly and you follow the instructions carefully, things are no worse than they were before. If anything, they are better because of the new features.

The fuss is about the fact that Apple ID can no longer just be user names, they have to be emails. And for those of us with MobileMe, it won't let us use that @mac.com or @me.com email address. So effectively iCloud is on one account and purchases are on another. So the question is, how will back up and purchase management work? It is absolutely ridiculous!