this email is already in use with another apple id

I get the same error message. I suspect the root-cause is the same policy issue.

I just finished speaking with an Apple Support advisor about this error message ”This email is already in use with another Apple ID.” when trying to re-assign a Custom Domain Email Address from one family sharing member to another..

Steps to Reproduce

1. I own a custom domain (foo.com). I successfully added it to my iCloud account for use with Custom Domain Email.
2. I assigned a custom domain email address to myself (bat@foo.com).
3. Then I realized I meant to assign that address to a different family member. My family member is part of my iCloud Family Sharing.
4. I removed the address from my individual iCloud user account.
5. Then I tried adding it to my family members iCloud user account. Adding failed, showing the error message, ”This email is already in use with another Apple ID.”

Apple Support Team (1st & 2nd Attempt)

After two different calls with the front-line support team, which had to be over the phone (having to repeatedly spell the domain name and the custom email address and my icloud email address and the family member’s icloud email address…not fun) I my issue was escalated to a what they called a “senior advisor”.

Senior Apple Support Advisor Explanation

The senior advisor took time to investigate and research the issue for a day and setup a callback time. In the end, they found that the root-cause was an iCloud Policy. To paraphrase:

If a Custom Domain Email Address has been previously assigned to an iCloud user, the Custom Domain Email Address must be deleted and left unused for one (1) year before it can be assigned to another iCloud user. Even if the two iCloud users are members of the same iCloud Family Sharing.

I imagine this policy is meant to prevent some form of abuse.

Wishing won’t help, but…

Having self-hosted my email for a very long time, I was very surprised I couldn’t immediately re-assign the email to a different user.

• I wish the waiting period was shorter, such as 24-hours or worst 30-days.
• I wish the iCloud Custom Domain Email product had much more detailed Apple Support documentation.
• I wish the iCloud Custom Domain Email setup flow had more specific and detailed instructions and warnings to inform users and help avert this type of issue.

I'm in the same boat...

In the beginning of the year I thought I'd test-drive the new iCloud custom domain feature so I loaded my domain onto my own personal Apple ID, I liked the way it works so I figured since a two other people sometimes use the exact same custom address instead of their own individual addresses it might be a good idea to setup a new separate Apple ID where I load all my domains & then the two the people could just sign into that one Apple ID & we can all access the sam custom email address.

So now I can't load the custom email address that I want to use on the new Apple ID because its was already previously associated with my personal Apple ID!

Apple's 1 year policy is absolute BS!!!

When you spoke to senior apple support did they by any chance say if there was a way to override this policy if we had a valid reason such as pretty much everyone here has?

I can see this becoming a major problem going forward & a dealbreaker for many people!!!

Apple should implement a mechanism that if a new Apple ID / user tries to use a custom email address previously associated with a different Apple ID the new user should be able to request permission from the original Apple ID user to transfer "association" / "ownership" of the previously used custom email address to the new Apple ID. This would make sense, a 1-year waiting policy makes absolutely no sense & literally breaks complete functionality for people who may have made an initial setup mistake or want to change the logistics of their setup in the future!!!

Come on Apple!!! Get your act together!!!

Hello wasischlosm,

It sounds like you are having some issues with adding your Apple ID to iCloud. We will be happy to assist.

You mentioned that you deleted the Apple ID, and this account was associated. Please review this article that explains what happens when you delete your Apple ID:

How to delete your Apple ID account

If the email account was associated with the Apple ID and wasn't removed, it may not be useable as an Apple ID any further. You may need to set up a new Apple ID at this point.

Best Wishes.

<waving angry fist at Apple> Thanks for the answer. (sigh)....

I have the exact same issue as wasischlos. merlinapple, your response does not seem to apply.

You state "If the email account was associated with the Apple ID and wasn't removed, it may not be useable as an Apple ID any further. "

However we are not trying to create another Apple ID with that email, we are only trying to add it as an existing email address for our custom domain.

Where do we go from here? How do we resolve this ""This email is already in use with another Apple ID" issue?

Thank you

I have the same issue with a new custom domain. I have never used any email address on that domain as an Apple ID. Yet I'm also getting this "This email is already in use with another Apple ID" error when trying to create specific custom addresses.

My understanding of the issue is that I had indeed already created these custom addresses on my iCloud+ plan. I then deleted them. And now I'm trying to recreate them. My bad for kicking the tires on this new iCloud+ feature I guess.

I understand that, for security reasons, it might be best to prevent recycling @icloud.com (@me.com and @mac.com) email addresses. However, here Apple is offering custom email addresses on custom domains that their customers control. It doesn't make sense to apply the same policies.

I have called Apple support 3 times regarding this issue so far. Each time, I got a case number and was told that I would hear back from iCloud engineers. Nobody followed up. What's the next step?

I have exactly the same issue - this is a bad implementation as it was almost impossible to understand how to assign new addresses for other accounts after creation. Waiting a year to re-assign my own domain address is ridiculous.

I strongly support the Apple iCloud team to fix this.

I agree.

This is, technically, trivial and frustrating that Apple would have a policy like this. It's also stupid that my wife and I can't have joint email.

Agree.

There’s no reason I’ve to wait one year before assigning an email of my own custom domain to another family account.

It should be fixed ASAP.

This is frankly a joke Apple. ONE YEAR. Technically, there is no reason to implement this.

Very much agree with previous statements. A waiting time of 1 year is a bit off the charts.