iCloud and a new me.com account: can't use it as a primary address in my AppleID.

I quess I should have waited to install iOS 5 and iCloud. I was one of the first iTunes adapters and have had a non-me ID for years. I have spent thousands on iTunes and was really looking forward to iCloud and streaming, since my library is larger than my devices memory. I was also an early adaptor of Mobile Me and have paid for years of not much more than the sync feature. It at least worked until now. My Mobile Me was set up with a .mac ID and when it migrated to iCloud it would not accept my iTunes ID. So no iCloud music and movies and all the great things I was looking forward to. So far I have my Mac Pro and one phone that sync togeather. My Mac Book Pro, two iPhones an iPad used to sync with Mobile Me but not now and I'm not going to upgrade to iOS 5 until this gets straightend out. I was going to get the iPhone 4s in the morning but not now. This will be the first iPhone release that I haven't stood in line for. Sorry Apple iCloud is the deal breaker for me. I did spend an hour on the phone today to be told that we can't merge two Apple ID's.

This is clearly a bug and it is NOT the same problem as not being allowed to merge to Apple IDs.

You have Apple ID "x@gmail.com". You activate your iCloud account. As part of that you're offered to form "x@me.com". Now you have 2 emails which are IDENTICAL ALIASES, both let you access exactly the same stores and previous purchases, and you really want to delete the old "x@gmail.com" which is now quite useless but you cannot, because it is glued to the role of primary Apple ID.

It is simply an oversight, it would be neater for Apple as well to be able to remove all these extraneous addresses from its ecosystem.

On the other hand, it causes no real problems other than the unsightly old email address showing up under your name in the preference panes....

People who have both a mac.com and me.com address to pick from face a similar confusion.

You sum up the problem perfectly, however, I have a further variation of the issue.

I share my main apple ID with other device users on my PC (so we can make collective purchases), but we wish to have a seperate IDs for ICloud so that we are not updating each others device when ever we sync. I therefore actually want to retain the original Apple ID email address (gmail in your example) for store purchase etc for everyone, and to then have the new '@me.com' as my own personal ICloud ID.

However, because when I set up ICloud first time Apple (and without clarification) linked the old Apple ID with the new '@me.com' account, I now cant actually split them apart. I've therefore had to register a comletely new '@me.com' account to act as a seperate ICloud ID.

The trouble is, the original '@me.com' email address I created when I first set up ICloud would actually be my preferred email address - as it now seems to be permanetly associated with the original Apple ID however, i'm stuck using the second '@me.com' email address I set up for my ICloud.

Apple really should allow you to be able to split the original '@me.com' email address from the original Apple ID, and use it as an ID in it's own right...

Please explain what you mean? I think I am having the same problem. Spent all day fixing home sharing in iTunes, iPad, apple tv, checking me.com password, now I can't log into home sharing even though it worked earlier with tech support help. Totally lost here. Perhaps the o

D iTunes user is not correct?

This is what my problem is. I recently decided not to give any money or support to microsoft, so all I wanted to do was move all my emails, and my apple ID belongings to my new @me.com account. I also want to set my apple ID and my primary email as @me.com account but apple has this bug which doesnt allow me to make this email my primary email ID or the only Apple ID. I dont need aliases. Why is this so complicated? Also, I want to be able to access my @me.com mail via new password, not my apple ID which is @live.com.

Answers and Solutions please. I cannot stand this anymore. I am very anal regarding organisation and its driving me insane.

Hi, robinkharel

I am experiencing the same issue as its very frustrating. All is want is my me.com to be my login!

I am migrating from Yahoo! to me.com, and cant close my Yahoo! account down until Apple sort themselves out.

Ash

I have the exact same problem. It is basically a design flaw by Apple. I was always using my Gmail-address as my Apple ID. Now that I have a @me.com address (associated to that Apple ID, since I created it from the iCloud setup), I'm not using my Gmail anymore.

Why would Apple not allow their users to use their new iCloud address as their primary e-mail?

does anyone know if this has been reported to Apple at all?

I also have this problem. I have a @gmail.com address as Apple ID. I then signed up with that for iCloud.

With iCloud I got a free @me.com address, but for some reason I can't change my Apple ID into that @me.com address that I got with iCloud. Very frustrating.

To be clear: I have no MobileMe, it concers a @me.com address you get when you sign up for iCloud.

So, now that we all have the new me.com iCloud account... How can we get all our devices to sync our Contacts, Bookmarks, Calendars, and Email under the new me.com account?

Would you have to login under your old ID, export your calendars, bookmarks, and contacts, then login under your new me.com and import everything, then sync up?

Rumor according to some apple employees is in the future u can merge it all. I had too much trouble so am using same for all accounts and it all works better but onne annoying catch. Itunes makes u do updates to whatever account u first purchased the item so u better remember the password.

Cheers

Obiwon

I'm not looking to merge... I just want to change everything over to the new email account me.com. I'll keep the old account for iTunes. It should be as easy as importing all your stuff under the new me.com and then syncing, no?

Has anyone logged into https://appleid.apple.com/ recently.

Apple have added a section where you can "Make your Apple ID and primary email address one and the same." however if you are trying to apply your @me.com as the default it wont accept it.

If anyone has any success with this please let me know

Ash

I have the same problem as ashtrinder. I only have a single apple id and there are two aliases for it, an @gmail and an @me. Also I don't know if google or apple controls my email. Is my @me adress a full fledged email account or is it simply an alias for my gmail adress? If I send an email to the @me address it appears in my gmail inbox on the gmail server. I want to make the @me address my primary address but I cannot. This is absurd and it cannot be solved by merging accounts. This is a completely different problem.

Hi hipparchus

I'm guessing your @gmail address is your apple id at present?

Your @me.com is a full email address in its own right and is accessed via your iCloud services or by logging into iCoud - https://www.icloud.com/

When you create an @me.com address it automatically adds to your Apple account however it can not be applied as your Apple ID hence this thread.

That dropdown box at https://appleid.apple.com/ should have been able to override the exisiting Apple ID however it doesnt seem to be working, i just hope apple are aware so they can resolve it

Im not sure why you get your @me.com emails in your gmail mailbox though!

Does this help?