iOS 5 insists on "Update Apple ID", but won't accept my e-mail address

griff311, my problem, and I think a lot of other folks in this thread's problem, was that I only had one Apple ID. My email address was associated with it, but the email address itself wasn't the ID (I'm assuming that at some point Apple switched to making the ID an email address, and that my ID and the others here were grandfathered in).

At any rate "merging" them hasn't broken anything, all of the things that knew me as my ID without my email address now work with the email address I had associated with that ID as my ID.

Last night everything was working OK. This morning, I get a message in my iPad and iPhone saying that the user and password for iCloud are incorrect. Help! I can't work without my email!

Apple has really screwed up the ID process with ios 5. I tried to log on to my iPhone and iPad to download apps, and my Apple ID suddenly was shown with "@me.com" in it! I don't recall changing it from my email address. Of course, Apple wouldn't let me log in with the password that would have worked with the email address I had been using as my ID. After much frustration, I was able to reset my password, but NOT my ID! Seems Apple won't let you change the "@me.com" ID!?? In the process of all this, I also wound up changing my iTunes Store ID, which I didn't necessarily want to do, but I was grasping at straws. So, what is the @me.com ID for? Why can't I change it? Why did Apple change it? Thanks for any thoughts.

Same problem, very unprofessional that this wasn't caught in testing. Best solution for me was to "Skip This Step" on the first page since I don't care about using iCloud right now. Everything's worked fine since. I figure by the time I get around to messing with iCloud they'll have this sorted out.

yep this screwed me over as well. installed OS5, my iphone wanted me to enter in my Apple ID, which has always been jwolf114, wouldnt accept that so I used the email associated with my account. Had to update the password, which I can sign in just fine with iTunes but my iPhone still thinks my APPLE ID is jwolf114.

I can't update/change/modify/fix this anywhere and it's a bit frustrating to say the least!

Thanks a lot Apple!!!!!!!!! 😟

Just went through this issue. I fixed it by doing the following:

1. Skip iCloud setup on your iPod/iPhone

2. Go to your Apple account on the website
3. Verify your Apple ID with the email address you wish to use.
4. Wait 5 minuntes
5. On your iPod/iPhone, got to Settings, and go through the iCloud setup again.

Hope this works for others, as it just worked for me 🙂

I too am having the exact same problem following downloading the new OS5. I managed to get my iphone working by pressing 'back' and then 'complete later'. So I have the new operating software but no icloud. When I try to verify my email address on my Apple ID account, I get this red message:

Not verified. Verify now

Email address is already verified for another Apple ID.

Now I cannot use my password for anything.

WAIT TO UPDATE!

dude, your money, worked like a charm. they should have explained this to people. i understand if there are new signup's but 99 percent of people already have an account. either way you method worked flawlessly

Same problem here.

- entered my old apple ID

- says you need to have an email ID.

- somehow I created a 'new' apple ID with the same email that was associated with my old account (which I intend to keep).

- now when I go to the settings app and try to open the icloud open the app just crashes.

cmon apple - I really expect better from you guys.

I already had an email associated to my old ID. you should have recognized that and just started using it.

cmon.

now I have no idea what to do. I suspect I can't make my email my primary ID because this 'new' account was just created.

ok - here's what I did to fix my issue.

I went to appleid.apple.com logged in with my 'new' account which was automatically created when setting up my iphone. I changed that email address to something else.

then I went into my old non-email account (which aleady had my email I wanted to use verified). and I clicked on the 'make your email your user id' button. and it updated fine.

then I logged out and logged back in to see if it worked (I now i'm in the right account because I had chosen different passwords for the two).

then I went into the settings->icloud and the app no longer crashed.

hope this helps someone else.

one additional thing - i had to delete the icloud account (because it thought the email wasn't verified) I guess that it was still linked to the 'new' account that was automatically created for me.

after deleting the account and logging in with my email (which was already verified on my old account) and with my old password I was able to join icloud.

In addition, your Apple ID is now the email address tied to your "old" Apple ID. This spans not only iCloud, but your login for Game Center, the App Store, and website log-in.

Roocell you are the man! I now understand why I wasn't getting an e-mail verification with my Apple ID that used my email address with my name. I had two log-ins for itunes. One was just my ID with out my email (which had the email address verified that was associated with it) and the other was with an email address, the same email was associated with that account so it was not verifying because it was already verified with the email-less ID.

I signed into the email ID and changed the e-mail address to my work e-mail account. After doing so, I logged back into the email-less ID and did the 'make your e-mail your user ID' just like Roocell did. I had tried that before but nothing had happened. It worked this time because the email ID was not associated with me old email address.

I got onto my iPad and was finally able to set up iClould! Thanks Roocell!