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iMessage unable to verify email because its already in use

I have iMessage setup with my mobile me account addgress as was suggested. However when I try to set up another email address in the iMessage settings I get an iMessage activation message that says "Unable to verify email because it's already in use". Apparently this is because that email address is the one I use for my iTunes purchases. I have separate mobile me and itunes accounts, always have. The email address that I use is the one associated with the iTunes account which is why I would like to add it to iMessage. Any ideas?

Posted on Oct 14, 2011 2:44 AM

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23 replies

Oct 14, 2011 2:57 AM in response to roblister

I got the same problem, but in my case it's the opposite. since i created an apple id with my yahoo address before i got my mobileme account. so now bacically my imessages is setup with my yahoo account (the one i use for my purchases on itunes store and app store} but i would like to add my mobile address and use it instead of the yahoo one, because the mobileme one is the one i use for emails and people dont know my yahoo address.


Please apple, help!

Oct 24, 2011 5:17 AM in response to roblister

My wife and I also have the same problem with two id's for each of us. We're both MobileMe subscribers and have made purchases in iTunes with another ID. WE DESPERATELY NEED the ability to merge Applie ID's so that we each have one account for each of us. This is the kinda crap that slowly tears away our attachment to Apple. We've been devoted customers for a decade.

Oct 30, 2011 6:27 AM in response to chadl5

A simple solution I found was to sign the old email out of iMessage and sign back in with the new email. Step by step:


On your iPhone, go to Settings

Touch "Messages"

Touch "Receive At"

Touch the Apple ID at the top, and a window will pop up. Touch "Sign out"

Touch "Add Another Email"

Enter the email/Apple ID you want associated with iMessage, enter your password, touch "Sign In"

An iMessage note comes up asking which email you want to use. Touch your email address, and then touch "Next" in the top right corner. The new email should be set.


This worked for me -- I hope it helps someone else.

Dec 4, 2011 6:25 AM in response to Tim Snider1

I had two Apple accounts prior to iCloud's debut along with a separate MobileMe account. I'm not sure how things were set up prior, but now with iCloud, I just realised that I can log in to apple.com with my former MobileMe email address. So now I have three Apple accounts.


I use my former MobileMe email address to log in to iMessage. If you don't do this, when you try to use the temporary location sharing feature of Find My Friends, you'll get some kind of error message regarding this.


The additional email address I wanted to add to iMessage was used as the primary Apple ID for one of my other Apple accounts and as a secondary address in the other. I had to resolve both of these issues before I could use this email address as a secondary address with iMessage. For the former, I had to use a different email address for the primary Apple ID while for the latter, I had to simply remove the email address as a secondary address in the account.


You can manage all your Apple accounts at https://appleid.apple.com. Hope this helps.

Dec 15, 2011 5:58 PM in response to roblister

The fixes described above are fine if you just want to change to another Apple ID but are no help when it comes to adding a second one, which I believe was the original problem that inspired this thread. I too am signed into iMessage with my .mac (yeah, I'm old school ;-) addy and want to receive at a second address but it's the one I originally used to set up my iTunes account back in the day and my first iPhone too so I can't seem to get along with out it now. When I try to add that second address I get the aforementioned "unable to verify" error- sure would be nice if Apple set up some way for folks like myself to combine all accounts into one if we want (which I think a bunch of folks do), even if it involves paying a human being to get involved. Till then I have to deal with annoyances like this, and the fact that updating some of my apps require me to sign in under my old account while others prefer me under the new one. Too much hassle for my caveman brain...

Dec 21, 2011 11:43 PM in response to Robert from MD

Hello Robert.

If you try to use an email w iMessage and iMessage says that the mail address is already in use it means that you verified that email with another appleID.

May be AIM service? That was my case! So, you have to think about if you have another appleID (may be one you got in te past!), and change the mail in that ID.

Then yuo'll be able to verify the email address in the appleID you use for iMessage.

🙂

Hope now is clear!

By the way, you can enable iMessage with different email address at the same time.

Go to settings>Messages

Good Luck!

Dec 22, 2011 4:26 AM in response to roblister

Much clearer, thanks. However, the email addy I want to enable in iMessage (which is my first AppleID) is one that I still need to use to update some of my apps (since they were downloaded using that addy/ID), and hence Ihesitate to get into my profile and alter the addy for fear it will screw that up. Perhaps I should just nuke whatever apps I've got under that ID and re-download them under the more current AppleID I'm using now and then I should be able to alter the old one without worry?

Dec 22, 2011 4:41 AM in response to roblister

Follow-up: I went into my older AppleID profile (the one with the email addy that I want to enable in iMessage but can't) and there's no way to alter the addy that defines the ID. I'm also unable to delete this account, so even if I migrated all my apps over to my primary AppleID I wouldn't be able to nuke the problematic one and get iMessage to accept it. Therefore, it looks like I'm back to square one; guess I have to wait until Apple sorts this out before I can use iMessage without worrying that someone with my old email addy is sending me texts that iMessage won't acknowledge (which was the case with my wife that prompted this whole inquiry). Thanks again for your well-intentioned help and happy holidays!

iMessage unable to verify email because its already in use

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