Change of Apple ID

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euan_m8 Author

Level 1

4 points

Change of Apple ID

Hi,

I'm trying to help my mother change the email address of her apple ID.

She created her initial and main apple ID, which she has used and made purchases on for a couple of years.

She accidentally made a new apple ID when she purchased a new iphone, rather than signing in to her existing account.

The initial Apple ID uses an email address which is no longer accessable (talktalk email).

The second used her current email.

So, to save purchases and icloud photos etc, I deleted the second Apple ID and waited 30 days for the deletion process. Tried to change the email of her initial Apple ID to her current email address, which she can access but it says; 'This email is not available'. I have checked using iForgot that it is not in use, and it is not used as a reovery email address.

How can I get this sorted? She can't make purchases until she can get the currnet email on her account.

Thanks in advance.

iPhone 13 Pro Max

Posted on Oct 2, 2021 5:17 AM

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Answer 1

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Limnos

Level 10

411,277 points

Oct 2, 2021 5:34 AM in response to euan_m8

Apple does not have a position statement about email address re-use in its documentation that I can find and even the Apple Support team offers conflicting advice:

Here is an April 2021 post by ASC contributor IdrisSeabright that was recommended by an Apple Recommends team member - "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

In complete contradiction, another Apple Recommends team member approved a Sept. 2021 post telling a user to just change it back to the old email address: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253165777

The Terms of Use of this forum do not allow us to question the decisions of the moderation team even though they confusingly present conflicting advice. I will simply state (though of course you have absolutely no reason to believe anything that is not officially posted by Apple as reliable) I have seen many topics where people say they have not been able to re-use an email address used with Apple in some context or other.

Here's more 'anecdotal' evidence:

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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Answer 2

euan_m8 Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 2, 2021 5:47 AM in response to Limnos

I've never come across an issue with account deletion and email re-use like this.

Thank you for your help.

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Change of Apple ID

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