Changing Apple ID issue

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Level 1

4 points

Changing Apple ID issue

I'm leaving my job next month and my Apple ID is my work email, which I'll no longer have access to. I want to change my Apple ID to my main personal email (which was my notification email) but am being blocked. First I was told I could not use my notification email for the Apple ID (this personal email is the one I used for authentication, I guess). Then when I changed my notification email to a third email address, I tried again to change my Apple ID to my main personal email address and received this message: Apple ID Error:

"This email address is not available. Choose a different address."

I thought, is it possible that sometime in the past I used my main personal email for an Apple ID of some sort (maybe something to do with an old ITunes account?). But when I tried to sign in with my main personal account to check on this, I was told that was not a valid user ID. So I did NOT have an Apple ID already set up under my main personal email account.

I do not have another suitable email to use. Why isn't Apple letting me use my personal email as my user ID, especially since it's telling me that email account isn't a valid ID? Just to ask this question, I had to enter a new user name (which was NOT an email address). Very confused and annoyed. The whole reason I started this venture was to have a way to interact with Apple in order to recover my and my husband's ancient ITunes account, which we can't remember the User ID for (probably was an email we no longer have).

Posted on Jan 30, 2023 10:52 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Limnos

Level 10

427,175 points

Jan 30, 2023 11:11 AM in response to Suzystephens

Apple has long lacked a good document defining which email accounts can be used for Apple IDs. We end up just saying that if you have an email address that has once been used with Apple for some reason or other, particularly as an Apple ID, it can't be used again, ever.

This is what is documented:

From: 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."

Although this next section discusses email address re-use in the context of deleting an account, it supports observations frequently posted on this forum about not being able to re-use an email address as an Apple ID once used previously as an Apple ID:

From: How to delete your Apple ID account - Apple Support

"Can I use the primary email address for my deleted Apple ID account to create a new Apple ID or with another existing Apple ID account?

No, once your Apple ID is deleted, you can't use the email address that you used with it to create a new Apple ID. In addition, you can't use that email address with another existing Apple ID except as a rescue [notification*] email. Also, if your primary Apple ID email address is with a Custom Email Domain, it can never be reused to create an Apple ID after your Apple ID is deleted, even if the domain ownership changes."

* About your Apple ID email addresses - Apple Support

If you still have questions or problems:

Refer to this document for ways to contact Apple --> Choose your country or region - Official Apple Support

Select your country (also look for "other" regions), then a product. If you don't see one that handles your issue then keep experimenting with selections until you reach one that gets you a chat session or a telephone call and get the representative to redirect you.

or:

Contact Apple for support and service by telephone --> Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support

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Answer 2

Suzystephens Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 30, 2023 11:29 AM in response to Limnos

Thanks for the lightning-fast response, Limnos! I had tried to find out the info and I came across some other answers similar to yours but wasn't sure. I had really just wanted to figure out a way to recover an old ITunes account to revive an old IPod with some treasured songs I'd purchased and didn't have much hope that would happen anyway. I do not believe my personal email was ever used as an Apple ID (no one else in the family would have used it); I think it was merely an authentication email, which should not prevent it from being used as an ID. I'm sure other people have lost email addresses in the past and tried to convert to their other email address, but they must have run into the same problem. Your answer at least gives me some closure. Thanks again and have a great day.

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Changing Apple ID issue

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