You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

📰 Newsroom Update

Billie Eilish is Apple Music’s Artist of the Year for 2024. Learn more >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

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

Hi

I got about 7 or 8 different accounts with apple i.e.
Apple id
itunes account
mobile me
.mac

Is there anyway of merging these into one? or at least some of them?

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.2), imac 24"

Posted on Jan 13, 2010 8:15 AM

Reply
509 replies

Oct 13, 2011 12:04 PM in response to akirasixty9

I find this stunningly stupid. I have an iTunes account, which I must use to create an iCloud acount, but it does nothing useful after that because I need an @me.com account. I then have to create a new @me.com account, despite that fact that I already have one. If I have a typo (since it must be created on the iPhone) I am now stuck with a silly e-mail address for life that I cannot change or delete. Even without the typo, I can't use the naming convention I prefer because it already exists in MobileMe from my old account, which is now useless except for blocking me from using it in my new acount. And even once I get a new me.com account setup, it does absolutley nothing. None of my e-mails, contacts or calendar entries sync, all I can do is start using a useless new email address in iCloud. And forget trying to get anything else done, because the update has now rendered iPhoto useless and has slowed my computer to a crawl. This is very uncharacteristic for Apple and I can oly pray that the scrap the whole thing and start over and that someone thinks about what they are doing and gets it right for attempt #2.

Oct 13, 2011 12:14 PM in response to bpeacock22

@bpeacock22 - As far as how it works goes: It's the same as it was pre-iCloud. You have your iTunes account, and then you have your @mac.com or @me.com address which you use with Mobile Me. Mobile Me has just been renamed iCloud, is now free, and includes additional features. As a Mobile Me customer, you are granted the 25GB storage package through June 30, 2012. Backup data goes to your iCloud account storage or your paired computer's hard drive. iTunes store purchases do not get stored when you backup, but are instead automatically installed / downloaded from iTunes when you restore - so it doesn't matter what account they are attached to.


@woonkie - I just submitted mine. Hopefully they'll listen and be able to implement this option.

Oct 13, 2011 12:23 PM in response to woonkie

Listening to customers should be one of the dynamics of a great company... Unfortunately apple has a habit of not including there existing customers needs in there "upgrades".


It wont let me use my @me account to log into my FaceTime, one of my computers icloud, and find friends, because it's "already in use by another account".. After about 9hr of trying to fix my iPhone, iPad, iMac & MacBook Pro to all work on the same account... It won't work. Every thing is real muffed up.


I don’t think I should have to chose between my accounts (I have 3 now). One of my accounts has 9 year of loyal purchases (it's in the thousands of dollars). and one of the ID’s was forced on me when I opened my @me account a few years ago (did it for the contacts, mac shared screen, etc... Not the email).


I NEEEEEEEEED to be able to consolidate these ID’s so I am comfortable my purchase are backed up.. I shouldn’t have to loose anything because of there shortsighted policies.


There are no other good outcomes. There are those of us who bought into the whole apple idea and now are being punished for it.. Just fix it for us

Oct 13, 2011 12:45 PM in response to woonkie

This problem has been around for years now with no solution. I remember looking into this a year and a half ago and reading old posts at that time with people having the same issue. The thing I really don't understand is why doesn't Apple put out a press release of some kind explaining why it is so incredibly difficult for them to let us merge 2 apple ID's...I mean, really??? I haven't seen any report on why it is necessary for them to do it this way. I would be much more understanding if somebody explained why they can't do it...without an explanation, it just seems incredibly ridiculous that they haven't fixed this.


And the 90 day quarantine on changing your ID's seems even more ridiculous...you can't even do a trial run on the auto download feature with each ID you have because you will get stuck with one ID for the next 90 days. Throw in the rules about not being able to change your mobileme apple ID name, etc. and all this makes upgrading to iCloud like a puzzle.


And then I read some reports of people losing all their contacts when they go to iCloud from mobileme and so I think I am going to wait to go to iCloud to let other people beta test this first. I am in a holding pattern.


Don't get me wrong, Apple is great, this is the only nonsensical thing I have ever experienced with Apple as far as I can remember. Thanks for letting me vent.


UPDATE: Forget iCloud, I'm upgrading my iphone case to this today: http://store.griffintechnology.com/woogie-2 LOL

Oct 13, 2011 3:16 PM in response to akirasixty9

To those who are feeling pressure to set things up on your iOS5 devices because the Assistant is telling you to set up iCloud, you can skip that step. Look down at the lower right corner of the screen and it says "Skip this step" or something similar.


Right now I haven't moved MM to iC, and having set up iC on my phone. That's a project for the weekend, it seems.


Finally, here's the "fuss": In addition to the situation being confusing, if you mess it up, you have a major problem on your hands. Since AppleIDs can't be merged or killed, if you make the wrong choices in setup, when you have no idea what you're doing, you are stuck with your wrong decision. It can't be fixed. In the case of automatic downloads, etc., the wrong choice will render your phone unable to grab updates and purchases for three months. In the case of setting up the wrong account for syncing, you might now have multiple @me.com addresses, both with all your data there somewhere.


It's worth a fuss.

Oct 13, 2011 4:15 PM in response to Kurtz25

Bump.


I have 2 accounts that need to be merged together. I have an itunes account that I have used for years, and separately had set up a me.com account. When I went to the iCloud, I figured that since I was using mobile.me to sync contacts on my mac, I would just swap that over. Now I am stuck with having 2 acocunts, and not even sure what I need to do to have all of my purchases come over to the iCloud.


This seems like a very major oversite on Apples part. Is there some formal statement on this issue?

Oct 13, 2011 4:29 PM in response to Papaeshu

I later found this article, which I think is helpful.

http://appadvice.com/appnn/2011/10/how-to-use-icloud-in-a-family-setting-share-a pps-but-not-contacts


For now, I am going to live with 2 ID's on the iPad, one for my iCloud, and the other for iTunes Store.


It would be great to merge them, and it looks like Apple is working on something to do so:

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/09/apple-icloud-sync-mess/

Oct 13, 2011 4:32 PM in response to bpeacock22

Ok I found this... towards the bottom it says something about this issue.

http://www.apple.com/mobileme/transition.html


"If I use different accounts for iTunes and MobileMe, can I merge them into a single account and use it with iCloud?

No. You cannot merge two accounts into one. However, you will be able to move your MobileMe account (yourname@me.com) to iCloud and, if you choose, you can continue to use a different iTunes account for store purchases and iTunes in the Cloud. Please read this article for details."

The article mentioned can be found below and has a few more details..

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4895

Oct 13, 2011 5:39 PM in response to AvatarAustin

I was able to migrate my MobileMe account to iCloud ok but all my iTunes purchases are under another appleid. In fact it's one of the really old ones that wasn't even in email address format. It's the same appleid as my developer account. I used to be able to set the Primary Email Address for that account to be the same as my MobileMe account but that seems to be broken now. I get the message "Email address is already verified for another Apple ID." when I try.


So yes. Apple, please allow us a way to consolidate all these accounts under one email address.


Please.

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

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.