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

ARrrrrggghhhhhh!!!!  Just upgraded to new iOS and iCloud and read all this....same problem here.  9 year old iTunes account under old e-mail address.  Come on APPLE!!!!!!

I feel like adding to this as a kind of petition. I have the same problem - two IDs, purchases spread across both requiring frequent flipping between them to update, purchase & sync etc.

There NEEDS to be an option to merge accounts.

So,,,, we get 3 phones in the mail yesterday and as of now, none are setup.. Why? Well, no sooner did we start the authorizing process when a problem arose.. Enter Apple ID!!!!. Well our Apple ID was/is a single word.. Unacceptable to IOS5, ICloud, IApple, Ieveryone...  "For Security Purposes an Email Address is Required"... Understanding that this is not good a good thing I reluctantly created yet  another Apple ID..  Hoping that Apple looked at the billing account info, plus what I was entering, and converted my single word ID to a ID@me.com.. Needless to say, this was not the case and yet another ID was created..

OK,, as others have pointed out, you can use icloud for whatever and then open the apps store, change your ID back to (in this case) my single word ID. At this point going into settings and turning on "Auto Download of purchased Apps." should, well, download purchased apps..  Alas, if you go to the apps store and pull up an app that you already downloaded you'll see an "install" button instead of the "$ or Free" button next to previously bought app.. The problem is,, from what I can see, even though the "Auto DL boxes are checked",  there is no Auto DL for none icloud related IDs. Not only that,, but Apple seems to have taken that extra moronic step of disenabling the "purchased" Category as seen on Ipad app store interfaces. ie.. it lists all the purchases you have made on the current ID allowing for selective DLs. The IPhone has none. But then again,, how long can it take to pull up every app looking for the install button? a Decade or so?  Yup,, I think this is the last round of Iphones for a while.. Time to go Google..

PS: Did Apple really need to hear this from us? Are these not obvious and simple problems to resolve,,,?  I don't know, add all this to the sad 4s, no 4G5, the fact that Itunes is still pathetically joined to my phone and it all adds up to looking at return policy's..    

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!

Totally agree bpeacock22.

Can I ask if anyone with ONE iCloud/iTunes account has a music and apps icon? Do photos show up on the Cloud? Because I have none of that, despite both IDs working/syncing and I have to manually sync documents from mac to Cloud which seems bizarre?

apple better start allowing merging different apple id accounts, specifically the ones used for the itune store and the .me mobile me accounts. Until that happens a lot of us will be reluctant to use icloud.

It is such a stupid thing that apple does not have a mechanism to merge apple ids....

I wish I had read all this before updating and joining iCloud.  When Apple said you will be able to move your MobileMe to the cloud, I assumed that meant some kind of merge.  I mistakenly created a new ID for iCloud. Now I have Apple ID, MobileMe, and iCloud accounts.  I can't get my calendar or contacts to sync between devices at all now.  Even if I turn off the iCloud and set them to MobileMe, they are still not syncing. 

That's easy to fix... Back up the calendar and contacts and the import them to the new iCloud ID. Then make sure your devices are registered correctly to the new iCloud ID and the store to the iTunes ID. Everything should sync fine then using only two IDs.

I have heard unofficially from official sources that Apple ARE working on allowing ID merging

My reply from online support about this issue - have posted on 3 similar threads:-

I have thoroughly researched this issue and unfortunately as of right now you are actually unable to synch all of your purchases from both accounts onto one account.  I know it would actually be easier and I can definitely see why you want to do that; however right now iTunes does not have this built into it¹s functionality.

Often Apple makes changes to the iTunes Store based off the opinions and suggestions of the customers.  I would highly suggest that you inform Apple about how much you would like to have this feature added to the store.  You can use this link to leave the

feedback, http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunes.html.

Now in the meantime I have a workaround for you that may help make the situation a little better.  Please follow the steps below to authorize your computer for each account.  When you authorize the purchases for each account you should be able to play all the purchases.

1) Make sure you have the latest version of iTunes. You can download it free of charge:

http://www.apple.com/itunes/download

2) Open iTunes.

3) From the Store pull-down menu at the top, choose Authorize Computer.

4) Enter one of your account names and the password for the account. If you have forgotten the password, you can reset it here

My Apple ID

https://appleid.apple.com

5) Click Authorize.

Repeat steps 3 to 5 for each of your accounts.

Keep in mind that you may only authorize up to five computers to play purchases made with one account. To learn more about iTunes Store authorization and de-authorization, read this article:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1420

I have also included some information on how to copy purchases between computers incase you have multiple computers in addition to multiple account.  You may download titles that you purchase from the iTunes Store one time only. These articles show you how to copy:

Mac: iTunes: How to copy music between authorized computers

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1373

Copying music between authorized computers with iTunes for Windows

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1727

You can also sync your purchases to your iPhone, iPad, and/or iPod. To learn

how to sync purchases from multiple accounts onto your device, follow the

instructions in these articles:

Managing content manually on iPhone, iPad, and iPod

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1535

User Guides for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

http://support.apple.com/manuals/

Please keep in mind that we recommend, Kate, that you do not want to associate both accounts with the Cloud.  Also it is not necessary to associate both accounts in order to play the purchases from them.  If you have any additional questions regarding managing your accounts, please let me know and I will be happy to assist you further. I hope you enjoy the update!

Obviously that doesn't really help... so I replied this

Thanks. I'm not sure I can use the old MobileMe ID for the Cloud though, as my Apps would not sync? All apps are purchased with my iTunes ID. Also all my devices are currently locked to the iTunes ID. Really Apple should have considered this issue and issued step by step instructions to avoid the problem! I cannot do what you suggest and use iTunes for iCloud with my iCloud/MobileMe ID because all devices are locked for 90 days to the iTunes ID!

 

If I had registered for iCloud with my iTunes ID I would not have been able to transfer from MobileMe as that was associated with the MMe ID! The Apple discussion community is FULL of this issue, people are very, very cross about it.

 

I've now discovered my Mac (as of today) is not listed as associated with my iTunes ID anymore.... so I am in the quandary of not knowing which I should associate it with if asked?!

This did work (eventually).  The iPhone just wouldn't sync - shut it down and turned it back on - now it syncs!  I also deleted the extra iCloud email from all devices and went back to MobileMe address.

really annoying… I now have two apple IDs. the one all my purchases are registered with and my me.com aple ID because I also used mobileMe.

But which one to use? I want to use the new icloud system, but can't because on the other side I don't want to lose my mobile me email adresses and my mac only allows me to log in with one at a time.

Somian, think of your non-mobileme ID being for purchases and your mobileme ID is for everything else like email. They are separate.

Here is the procedure you want to take to transfer to iCloud smoothly: Make sure your computer has been upgraded to OS 10.7.2 and your iDevices have iOS5. Then, go into iTunes on your computer and click on the iTunes store in the source list on the right and make sure you are signed in to iTunes with the ID that you made all the purchases with...look in the upper right corner of the iTunes window once you are in the iTunes store to see your account name to be sure. Now, use your mobileme me.com ID to transition to iCloud by going to system preferences on your computer and picking iCloud...put in your mobileme ID and it will open up MobileMe website to make the transition...go through the process. You will then be setup for iCloud with your mobileme address and can say goodbye to mobileme. In the last step, it asks you to go to your iDevices and there will be a confirmation message so confirm that. Next, on your iDevices, go to the Settings app, then pick the Store setting and make sure that it shows you are signed in with the ID that you made all your purchases with, that is, the ID that you are signed in to iTunes with. If not, click on the ID name and sign out and then sign back in with the ID with all the purchases. Everything should work perfectly for you then and you will still have your mobileme email address to use in iCloud. Hope that helps.

None of that *really* helps. Sure it syncs fine, but you still have two IDs and you cannot view your music within the cloud!

@twinsplustwo - I don't tyink you can view your music in the cloud anyway, even if you had everything on one account. If you look at the page about iTunes in the Cloud, it has nothing about viewing yourmusic online:

http://www.apple.com/icloud/features/

OK, a couple of things that may help a few people, I know these don't solve all concerns, and still mean you have to manage more than one account, but I've found them helpful:

1) Though you cannot merge your old Apple ID with a mobile.me address, with iCloud you can now change your old Apple ID to a new iCloud account, and so assign a new @me.com address to it.  If your main concern is that you want to dump your old email adress, this may be a good solution for you.  I have done it for all my additional Apple IDs.  Here's what to do (what I did):

(note: this may not work with pre-email Apple IDs, convert it to an email one first on the Apple ID page)

a) sign out of iCloud in OSX in 'System Preferences' -> 'iCloud'

b) sign in with your other Apple ID (you may need to verify your email address, it'll send you an email if you do, but give an error message in the iCloud settings, just verify then try again)

c) deselect all services to use, and hit next

d) select to sync mail, when prompted pick a new @me.com address (I went for a slight variation on my preferred address, related to what I use it for, such as myaddress-itunes@me.com)

e) sign out of iCloud again

f) sign in with your prefered account

At this stage, you may need to tidy up your email accounts in Mail app (the account settings in Mail app and System Preferences don't quite sync up right, it seems).  Easiest is to remove all iCloud ones in Mail preferences (in Mail app), and then in 'Mail, Contacts and Calendars' in 'System Preferences' switch mail back on for your primary iCloud account.

Forward email from your new address (optional):

g) log in to the iCloud website with you new @me.com address

h) click on Mail

i) click on the settings cog and go to Preferences -> General

j) select 'Forward my email to', and enter your preferred @me.com address

k) select 'Delete messages after forwarding' (optional)

l) click 'done'

(This will not foward email from your @olddomain.com address, this should be obvious, but just in case it wasnt.)

Now you will no longer have to keep using your @old-domain.com email address, and can always sign in to Apple services with an @me.com address (which I like, because it's a lot shorted than my old address, so easier on my Apple TV and iDevices).  You will still have two, or multiple, accounts, though.  For me I just wanted to get rid of my old email address, and didn't want to set up a gmail account just to accomplish this.

So, now I have multiple iCloud accounts and multiple @me.com addresses, all of which forward the mail to the same @me.com address.

You may choose not to do this, just incase in the future Apple does let you merge IDs, but not if you have @me.com addresses for them (who knows, this might happen, I decided to risk it, though).

2) You can have "secondary" iCloud accounts set up, you can do this in 'Mail, Contacts & Calendars' in 'System Preferences'.  This allows you to sync Mail, Contacts and Calendars from multiple iCloud accounts, other features are only available on your primary iCloud account. 

You may chose to do this, rather than using the 'fowarding' option above.  It may also be a good solution for other situations, though I can't think of any, but thought I'd share this, just incase people weren't aware.