Apple ID cannot be used to sign in to iCloud

Maybe it was dumb luck, but I found this page: http://ipodiphoneitunestutorials.com/iTunesTutorials/changeItunesEmailAddressItu nesStoreAppleID.php

And followed the steps to change my ID to my email address on both iTunes and my iPhone. Worked like a charm. No problems connecting to iCloud.

Best of luck! And happy holidays.

That worked perfectly for me. Thanks a lot!

That won't work with an existing MobileMe email address.

I had a problem getting OS X mail on my ipod touch and non-Apple phone as it wouldn't take the password or username. I could, however, access OS X mail in my iMac just fine. This occured after switching from mobileme to iCloud. On another forum I found a suggestion to look at my apple ID at this url: https://appleid.apple.com

Turns out Apple has changed its rules on passwords but it doesn't seem to be migrating thru the networks. My old mobileme password was 8 letters, all lower case. Once I got on the appleID site (using the old password), it noted that the current password was insufficient so I changed it to meet the new rules. It worked. OS X mail now appears on the ipod and the non apple phone. On the iMac, I just put in the new password in mail account preferences and was good to go.

Not sure my experience will work for all but this is a good place to start. Good luck.

I had to change my password a short time back, did so, and have had no problems logging in. Can even do it on my iPad. iCloud still refuses to accept it, and when it says my id or password is invalid, it freezes my settings until I have to shut off my iPad. After 6 or 7 attempts, I am saying to F-iCloud and getting rid of it if I can. If not, I'll figure some way of being able to use my information now that Apple says it's impossible. Thanks for screwing my iPad up Apple!

I like others got the "Apple ID cannot be used to sign in to iCloud" when trying to use iCloud for the first time on my new iPhone 4s. After getting my case escalated to an iCloud specialist/supervisor with someone from iTunes account team on the line, we finally resolved that the issue was that my Apple ID was flagged as an "Apple Reseller ID", and that there was no way without getting engineering involved to change that. (Note that I was at an xserve/xsan reseller many years ago). The only option left is to use a different Apple ID for iCloud if I want to keep my iTunes purchase history. 😟

I have spent hours and hours over some days scouring Apple.com and the Internet in general trying to get my iPhone 3gs to properly log into iCloud. Nelion's simple post answered my difficulty perfectly!! My MacBook Pro, iPhone, and iPad are finally synced in iCloud. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

To reprise: Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > iCloud (it will probably say, "inactive"). Tap iCloud and enter your Apple ID. You should now be good to go!

you can just create another Apple ID then

just the same problem

An old apple id with an email, cannot connect to the icloud.

OK for the Itune store.

Another weird stuff is that I cannot update keynote through the app store, although it is listed in the product bought with this apple id (I conly have one).

Wake up, Apple techies!

This post now has 10k+ views and no solution. I tried changing my email and password and still get the same problem that everyone else here and I have always have. Please fix this apple.

Want to add my input to the iCloud and Apple ID problem - I seriously hope Apple techs are reading this and WILL have a fix soon!

Both my iTunes and iCloud accounts were using the same email address for Apple ID; email address was from my internet provider. I'm now switching providers, so I changed my Apple ID through iTunes first, using my gmail. Everything is fine, updated all setting on my MacBook Pro and iPod touch 4G. Then attempted to update my iCloud settings... now things go wrong. My iCloud Apple ID is greyed out. It tells me my password is wrong. Takes me to forgotID webpage, reset my password, it updates iTunes account perfectly fine, but iCloud is still screwed. I can log into iCloud.com with my new Apple ID just fine. All of my settings indicate my Apple ID is the new updated one, but iCloud on my MacBook Pro and iPod touch just refuses to update to the new ID. I've read just about every post and can't find a suitable solution.

After failing to remedy this issue with more moderate steps, the following procedure has now fixed the problem on 3 different machines for 2 different users, including myself, about 15 minutes ago.

These steps will result in OS X regenerating your User Library, or the 5-10k files which store your preferences. All of your applications and user login password will remain intact. However, any preferences you set -- what appears in your finder sidebar, your email accounts saved in Mail, bookmarks, etc, will be deleted. Other tutorials out there can show you how to back up and restore those, but herein you will just find the instructions for the brute force method which will enable you to associate your User Account with your Apple ID and allow you to sign in to iCloud through System Preferences without modifying your prior Apple Account settings.

Disclaimer: I have not used this method to remedy the situation in which a user has a standing MobileMe account. I also do not know the root cause of the problem. I did, however, note the following oddity: Before applying this fix on a user's machine, an @me email address in the form of 'first.last@me.com' had been generated in a user Library plist, even though the user said he had never registered such an address, and our having never associated such an address with any preferences on the machine.

Enable a root user account:

1. Make sure you are logged in as an Administrative user
2. Go to System Prefs > Users & Groups
3. Select Login Options
4. Select "Join..." beside the Network Account Server field
5. Select Open Directory Utility
6. Go up to the Edit Menu on the toolbar and select Enable Root User
7. Create a new password -- or no password if you plan to delete the account later
8. -->You have now created a superuser account, which is a higher level of access (the highest, actually) than the Admin account. If you are an everyday user, just delete the account later.

OK out of the menus and Log Out of your account

1. At the Login Screen, select Other...
2. Enter the user name root
3. Enter your password
4. Open the menu Finder>Preferences...
5. Select the third tab, Sidebar
6. Under devices, put a check nex to Hard Disk
7. In the Finder window, where there is a series of view option icons, select the columns view (3rd from the left -- the first is icon view, then list view...)
8. In the Sidebar, select the Hard Disk or 'Blah HD'
9. Go to HD>users>Your User Name>
10. Single click on the Library folder and change the name to Library.old (this way, you retain the old library in case it needs to be restored).

Reboot the machine and log into your account. A new Library will have been generated.

1. Go to System Preferences > Users & Groups
2. Select the button beside Apple ID: something...
3. This will prompt you to Change your Apple ID -- but that's not really what is going to happen here -- just follow the consecutive screens using your exising credentials - the first password you enter will be your Mac Account Password (not Apple ID) - next you will enter your Apple ID and Password
4. Your Apple ID should now be associated with your Mac Account
5. Now click Show All to return to the System Preferences main menu
6. Now select iCloud
7. Enter your iCloud credentials and follow the preferences procedures -- all should now be well

Hi Joey,

I have confirmed with iCloud technical support that there are DIFFERENT kinds of Apple IDs. In my case, my old Apple ID is an incompatible Apple ID for iCloud, but it works fine with iTunes, iOS Dev, Apple Sales Web, iTunes Match and the App Store. It just doesn't work for iCloud, or as I will now refer to them as iClowns.

Originally iCloud support said that my Apple ID was "locked" by iTunes. But later they said "So sorry, that Apple ID is incompatible with iCloud. Here are three free iTunes songs for being bounced around tech support circles." because iTunes support could not help me and bounced me BACk to iCloud support.

Here's my suspicion... I noticed that when I finally gave up and migrated my old Mobile Me (old mac.com account initially) account to iCloud that iCloud ACCEPTS my user@me.com log in and password, but when you log into appleid.apple.com to edit your account my Apple ID actually shows up as USER@MAC.COM. So what I THINK is happening here is that Apple is actually storing your REAL Apple ID as whatever it was when you set it up and all of us who get the unsupported message have an alias of an email laddress like gmail or me.com, but our actual Apple IDs in the system are the older non-email based Apple ID.

How. In. The. ****. Could. They. Let. This. Happen.

It tells you a little about how Apple is organized internally. There are a lot of silos at Apple. One group has ownership of something and they will not give it up. They do not neccesarily talk to each other and they don't test across departments for compatibility.

Silly people.

The only bright news in this all, the iCloud support people really looked hard for a solution but in the end had to send me away with nothing.

YMMV, good luck - hope everything worked out for you in the end.

K

imkimc's response from Apple is pretty much the same I received with both iTunes & iCloud tech spport on the phone (iTunes tech support raised it to a supervisor who got someone at iCloud on the call). They said the problem was that my AppleID created as a reseller ID in the past. So I contacted the reseller group who deleted all references in my AppleID profile to reseller status. No luck, the only option I have is to use a separate AppleID for iCloud...the are technically unable to remove whatever flag is on my AppleID, and procedurally unable to completely delete my old AppleID and let me start from scratch with it.

As in-elegent as it is, I have been using this for a month and so far things are working altough I only minimally use iCloud. However, it furthers my negative recommendation of Apple's iCloud for friends and a definate NO for business users. There are several althernative solutions out there that I will continue to endorse. I pretty much feel that Apple is fogetting their roots in favor of profits...they're becomming the next Microsoft of the '90s.

I'm having the same problem,too 😟 and I have not been solving for three days...I have gotten a new App ID and password,but it does not work for iCloud as well*&%?#@!!!...