Can I merge 2 Apple IDs?

i went into the apple store today for an appointment with a GENIUS, who was INSANELY THICK, and didnt seem to have a basic clue about the nature of the problem with multiple ids, and duplicate calender entries and all of these other fun things we are trying to live with, and was no help at all !!

Well, if a GENIUS couldn't figure it all, that would certainly explain why this is a never ending problem over on these sides of the forums.

I FOUND A SOLUTION! At least to the 2 id's, one for the store and one for Mobile me mail accounts. What you do is use the store a/c for your "Primary" iCloud settings, which for me is an AOL a/c that I used to set up one iCloud account, and historically used for all purchases. Then use the mobile me account, also used to set up a different iCloud account, to set up a secondary iCloud account setting in all your devices that will only do mail for the me.com address. This can be done. Use the iCloud button to set up the Primary, and the separate mail, contacts, etc. button to set up the me.com iCloud account.

Before I changed all my devices (iPad, iPhone, MacPro, and PC) to the primary iCloud account I saved my iCal settings because they will all go away with this change. I also saved my contacts in an importable setting, but this was not necessary, as the contacts do not go away. I had to edit the future calendar items to point to the cloud, to sync with other devices, but the history is intact in iCal. I also added the mobile me mail account separately on the iPad and iPhone after the change.

This does not help if you have multiple store accounts, but at least you can have the store ID be on point for photo streaming, document sync, etc, (which will never work if you don't have the store Apple ID on every device as the main iCloud) and you can save your Mobile me mail account.

There is an Apple article on "Secondary iCloud accounts" that describes this in more detail.

Hello,

Is there now an easy way to consolidate all Apple ID?

Or sipmply delete an account?

(I begin to be creasy)

I have 2 iphones, 1 Imac, 1 macbook pro, 1 ipad2, 1 ipod tuch and 2 Apple ID

I need the same account and password for everithing.

Thx,

Christophe.

I simply want to change my Apple ID, which is currently an ancient Comcast email address. A long time ago Apple insisted that I merge the Apple ID and primary email account. I fell for it. Now I'm screwed. I'm dropping Comcast for Verizon, so I want to start using my main Gmail account, since once I drop Comcast all mail going there will get flushed.

I tried changing the account ID, but that just created a brand new Apple ID that doesn't get to access any of the stuff I've downloaded over the past SEVEN YEARS. This totally *****.

Apple, are you listening? What can I do?

(BTW, for all of you playing along at home, the ***** above is supposed to represent a word that starts with "s" and sounds like "bucks" ...)

You can continue to use the Comcast address as the login for iTunes - it doesn't have to be a functioning address, it's just a text string in the form of an email address. You will need to change the associated email address to something which does work in case they need to contact you.

You can use a different ID for iCloud from that for iTunes, iTunes in the Cloud and iTunes Match without any problems.

Thanks, but as I said, my Apple ID and primary email address were merged long ago. I don't see a way to disassociate the two.

Go to http://appleid.apple.com . Click on 'Manage your account'. Sign in with your Comcast ID. You will see spaced for alternate email addresses: put something working in at least the first one.

Continue to sign in with this ID in iTunes to be able to access your purchases. You can use another ID for iCloud if you wish.

i think everyone would LOVE to use the same apple id for icloud and itunes, but it comes down to a timing issue. there is a population out there that had itunes ids before they signed up for mobile me (and did not have a .mac account). then when mobile me became available, signed up for a mobile me email account. I really dont remember the logic there on if you could attach the legacy itunes id to the mobile me account -- hindsight is 20/20 but at the time we didn't have the semalessness of itunes and all other things apple, so it was probably a non issue. then icloud concept came out and it became a real issue because of the years of purchases under the old itunes id, we are all stuck. Apple won't allow us to "transfer" these purchases to our mobile me/ icloud apple id (which is our email address).

As far as I can tell, the resolution to this issue for people in this population should be easy, apple should allow for us to transfer purchases to the mobile me /icloud apple id. and for one dump the legacy itiunes id.

am i missing something with my logic?

Exactly, they just need to let us transfer purchases/shutdown the original account in the process. The problem they are probably having is how to get content already downloaded to still work when it's linked to a closed account WITHOUT forcing us to redownload it.

Eric, your logic is spot on.

Roger, the whole point is that we want to be able to sign on with our @me.com e-mail address. Also, we want a way to be fully integrated into iCloud without losing our old stuff.

illinifan29 wrote:

Roger, the whole point is that we want to be able to sign on with our @me.com e-mail address. Also, we want a way to be fully integrated into iCloud without losing our old stuff.

I realize that: but currently it's not possible. There really isn't any technical problem about having one ID for iTunes, iTunes in the Cloud and iTunes Match, and another for iCloud - you won't even notice with Keychain logging you in automatically; and given the number or complaints about iTunes accounts being hacked it's better security if the iTunes login isn't your email address, which is widely known.

I agree that an even better solution would be to allow AppleIDs that are not email addresses.

There is a technical issue. I cannot change my primary email to my @me.com address. I get errors and my iTune Match will not work. So no matter what, until they fix this, I will need two e-mail addresses. My @me.com address and another one (gmail, yahoo, etc.) to use as my Apple ID. Not very smart when every company out there wants their customers fully integrated into their own ecosystem. If I'm Apple, I am wondering "why I am forcing my customers to have email addresses with thrid party companies?"

This isn't the solution. Apple needs to fix this. It's crazy it's been this long and theres no fix yet. I'm set up as you describe and I can't sync notes between iphone and ipad becuase it requires a @me account which I'm using only for email. I really don't understand why this hasn't been fixed and why apple can't step up there game and fix a major annoyance for long time customers.

Nope, still no fix apparently.... this isn't encouraging me to try other Apple products (and neither is that pig of a program they call iTunes). I don't live in a big city, so no "genius" bar to get in person help. This is just a smart phone and its becoming a hassle to deal with two different accounts and a ridiculous password requirement to type on their tiny screen keyboard. How bad is it going to be with a mac and the store? Apps now bungled up with two different id's and I don't remember switching id's on my phone when buying the apps. This is a very badly managed transition to the cloud. A mess that is apparently of no concern to Apple based on the amount of time this has lasted.

The current inability of Apple to allow for us to replace our iTunes Apple ID with our me.com address causes confusion, but not unresolvable technical difficulties.

The Confusion:

1. First of all, when a new or restored iPhone running iOS 5 asks for your Apple ID, you had best enter the email address for your iTunes Account which you have been using to make purchases. iOS 5 will automatically set up everything but mail for you using it (unless it's a me.com account). You will then have to set up mail. When you attempt to set up mail in iCloud, you will then be prompted to create a me.com account for the purpose of receiving mail via iCloud so that iCloud can sync your mail across your devices. Think about it, iCloud can't use your gmail account for mail because mail sent to you would go to gmail's servers and not iCloud's.

2. The Solution:

You need to create this me.com alternate email address to work with that same iCloud account.

You also must sign out of iMessage, and every other iCloud aspect except music and movies and iTunes Store and sign back in again except this time with your alternate Apple ID.

Then, and only then, will iCloud function as it should for you... all you who dared set up your iTunes account with a non mobile me address and made purchases therewith.

If you attempt to use your old me.com account for mail, you will either loose everything in June when Apple eliminates all MobileMe accounts, or you will follow the prompts at me.com to turn it into iCloud giving you another iCloud account complete with it's own set of calendar, contacts, email, bookmarks, etc. just to get you nice and confused.

3. What apple needs to do:

Apple needs to allow us to make our newly created me.com Alternate ID the primary email address. I understand that the downloaded music, movies etc won't work with it unless Apple attaches your your previous ID to the new ID; which, by the way, Apple does do already to some degree. I have had three or four previous AppleID's and iTunes Store has asked me for them and their passwords to enable the content, but the content was enabled without the input of previous gmail Apple IDs... I needed only to reenter my current AppleID and password and it was accepted.