My Apple ID email is already in use

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My Apple ID email is already in use

I’m old and technically challenged. I freaked out in June when creeps got into my phone because I fell for a phishing scam and let them in. I didn’t want anything to do with that phone anymore. Got an iPhone 12 mini and made stupid mistake of changing the AppleID but changed everything I could over to Google and using the prior gmail account only. Today I found out I can change the Apple ID so I did. It was simple. But then it said that email was already in use. Yes, on my old phone and my netbook. What can I do???

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Posted on Sep 9, 2021 3:17 PM

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Limnos

Level 10

419,887 points

Sep 9, 2021 3:44 PM in response to Ambrerose

I do not a-priori assume old is a reason to be technically challenged. Many of the top helpers on this forum are of retirement age.

Apple does not have a statement about email address re-use in its documentation that I can find but here is an April 2021 post by ASC contributor IdrisSeabright that was recommended by the official Apple team -

"Once you've used an email address as an Apple ID, it can't be used again for an Apple ID, even if the first Apple ID has been deleted."

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252629414?answerId=255095641022#255095641022

This is in accordance with what is claimed in this April 2021 post https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252629414

- Original post: "I tried contacting chat support and finally phone support today and they told me that you can NEVER use an email address that was used for a deleted account."

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My Apple ID email is already in use

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