t sounds like your account identity has become a bit scrambled during the transition between your main address and your aliases. This usually happens because Apple treats the Apple Account login—formerly known as Apple ID—and the iCloud Mail system as two separate but linked layers. When you change your primary account email to an alias, the original address isn't deleted; it often gets "pushed" into a background state or becomes a secondary alias. If you successfully promoted an alias to your primary login, Apple sometimes moves the original @icloud.com address to the alias list, which changes how it behaves in your apps.
If your original address has seemingly vanished from your Mail app, it is likely because the "Send From" default was updated to the new primary address. However, your old emails should still be there, as they all feed into the same single inbox. To recover the view, you should log in to the iCloud website and navigate to the Mail settings. By checking the "Account" or "Composing" sections under the gear icon, you can see a list of addresses. If your original email is listed but unchecked, it won't appear as an option when you try to send mail, making it seem like it has disappeared.
Regarding your inability to add more aliases, iCloud enforces a strict limit of three active aliases in addition to your primary address. If you recently deleted an old alias to make room for a new one, Apple typically enforces a seven-day waiting period before that slot becomes available again. Furthermore, if your original email was moved into an alias slot during your recent changes, it is now occupying one of those three limited slots. You can verify this by checking your account settings on the iCloud website to see exactly how many addresses are currently taking up space.
If you want to restore your original email as your main login, you can usually do this through the "Sign-In & Security" section on an iPhone or iPad. If the original address is listed under "Reachable At," you should be able to set it back to primary. However, if the address was fully removed during your recent shuffle, Apple sometimes requires a 30-day waiting period before an Apple-owned domain can be reassigned. In the meantime, ensuring that the address is "active" in your web mail settings is the best way to ensure you don't miss any incoming messages.
Would you like me to guide you through the specific steps to re-verify your old email as the primary login, or do you want to check if your old emails are still sitting in a specific folder?
