iCloud and Apple ID do not match

Hello Busterbrown1234,

If I'm understanding you right, your Apple ID email address and email address you use for iCloud do not match. You've come to the right place for help. I'm happy to assist you with getting this sorted out.

There are two different possible scenarios of what is actually occurring with your Apple ID. You might be signed into two different Apple ID's on your device, or you could actually be signed into the same Apple ID in both places, but one of them may be an alternate Apple ID for your main one. An alternate Apple ID, sometimes referred to as an Apple ID alias, is assigned when an iCloud email address is set up. It may look the same as your Apple ID, but may end in @icloud.com instead of a third-party email provider. Depending on when your account was set up, it may also end in either @me.com or @mac.com.

You can check to see if the iCloud Apple ID you're seeing is your alternate Apple ID on the Apple ID website here: http://appleid.apple.com/. Sign in with your Apple ID, and look at the email addresses under the Account section. If you see the iCloud email address listed there, click on the question mark to the right of it. Doing so should make a message appear telling you it is an Apple ID alias. If this is the case, you won't have to make any changes even if you're signed into your Apple ID in one place on your iOS device, and the Apple ID alias in another. However, if you would like to have both of them match in the places you're signed in on your device, you'll simply have to sign out with one and then sign in with the other one. These steps should help you do that: What to do after you change your Apple ID or password. Keep in mind, if you're subscribed to Apple Music, any music you downloaded for offline listening will have to be downloaded again if you sign out of iTunes & App Store on your iOS device.

If you don't see the iCloud email address listed, it's possible you're using two different accounts. The email address you use for your iCloud account is technically considered an Apple ID as well. While it doesn't necessarily hurt anything to use a separate Apple ID for iCloud and other Apple ID services such as iTunes & App Store, you can make some adjustments so that you're only using one Apple ID for everything if you choose to. You can sign out of the Apple ID you don't want to use, and then sign in with the one you do want to use by following the steps in the support article above. Please note that there is no way to transfer purchases from one Apple ID to another. So if you made any purchases under one Apple ID, you would not be able to move them to the other one since they remain attached to the one used when the purchase was made. Also, there is no way to transfer iCloud data from one Apple ID to the other. However, you can make copies of the iCloud data for the Apple ID you choose to no longer use with the steps here: Archive or make copies of the information you store in iCloud.

If neither of the scenarios I mentioned apply to your situation, please respond back with more information about what exactly you're experiencing, and provide as many details as possible.

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.

Take care!