I want to change my Apple ID email address back to the old email

Change your Apple ID

1. Go to appleid.apple.com and sign in.
2. In the Account section, choose Edit.
3. Choose Change Apple ID.
4. Enter the email address that you want to use.
5. Choose Continue.
6. If you changed your Apple ID to a third-party email address, check your email for a verification code, then enter the code.

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."

Yeah, the only thing I can find from Apple is this somewhat general statement which doesn't match this situation anyway:

Change your Apple ID - Apple Support

If you see a message that the email address you want to use isn't available or is already in use, check that you or a family member aren't already using that email address with a different Apple ID. If a family member is using that email address, remove it from their account then try to use it.

I have, however, seen many, many posts where somebody says they cannot use an old email address again. Apple just doesn't openly say that.

One the one side we have one person from Apple agreeing all you need to do is just change it back to the old ID.

On the other side we have somebody from Apple agreeing once you have used an email address as an Apple ID you cannot re-use it.

I guess these diametrically opposite recommendations must both be the right answer!

Very informative, I was unaware about that.

Many thanks

That said, it would be truly interesting to know if you can successfully change it back. Please tell us if you can or cannot.