iMessage - Where To Change Apple ID?

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Level 2

289 points

iMessage - Where To Change Apple ID?

I'm trying to help a friend with his iPad. He's got a problem switching iMessage on.

On the Settings > Messages screen, iMessage is currently set to OFF. If he tries to turn it on, a window pops up saying:

iMessage Password

blahblah@googlemail.com

Cancel | Log in

The Apple ID that it's showing (blahblah@googlemail.com) is incorrect. It's not his Apple ID anymore. So, how does he re-enter his Apple ID? There doesn't seem to be any option? iMessage is completely locked to that old Apple ID of his.

Please help.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8), iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2010) 12GB RAM

Posted on Oct 20, 2011 11:23 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Reuben Feffer Author

Level 2

289 points

Oct 20, 2011 11:50 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

I solved the problem myself.

If you enter your password incorrectly enough times (say, 8 times) the pop up window will change to one that asks you to re-enter your Apple ID. So, you have to intentionally make mistakes, in order to get the opportunity to enter a new Apple ID.

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Answer 2

Oct 21, 2011 6:47 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

OR -- Settings -->Messages--->iMessage - Turn off then turn on again to enter new Apple ID.

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Answer 3

Reuben Feffer Author

Level 2

289 points

Oct 21, 2011 8:44 AM in response to nicolefromconshohocken

No, that didn't work. In turning off iMessage, and turning it on again, it wasn't giving me the opportunity to change the Apple ID, only the password.

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Answer 4

Oct 24, 2011 11:02 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

You can change it after you sign in with the wrong apple ID. When you are in settings>messages with iMessage on you should see a field that says recieve at with an email address. Click that and it should take you to another page with your apple ID at the top. Click on your apple ID and sign out. Then you can sign in with the correct apple ID.

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Answer 5

Dec 21, 2011 4:14 AM in response to amy.oneal70

thank you sooo much. helped me heaps. I could not find a way till I found this discussion. Thanx again.

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Answer 6

Feb 22, 2012 1:42 PM in response to Reuben Feffer

Thanks a ton... should have known it would be something this simple... it's an Apple product... lol

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Answer 7

Apr 1, 2012 12:31 PM in response to Reuben Feffer

Great tip 5 time wrong password did the trick!

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Answer 8

Apr 4, 2012 7:04 PM in response to nicolefromconshohocken

That doesn't work.

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Answer 9

Apr 8, 2012 2:56 AM in response to amy.oneal70

I bought a used iPhone from my friend and it has her apple id saved for iMessage without her password being any idea on how to change that to my own apple Id?

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Answer 10

Reuben Feffer Author

Level 2

289 points

Apr 8, 2012 3:03 AM in response to Xjustinx1994

Yeah. Just enter a password (an incorrect password) as much as 10 times. Eventually the iPhone will ask you to re-enter/change the Apple ID it has stored, at which point you can change it to your own Apple ID.

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Answer 11

Apr 30, 2012 7:10 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

You have got to be kidding me. This is apples solution to this. Making people deliberately enter an incorrect password. Wouldn't a user expect their account to become locked after doing this?

So apple just completely changes the way we all expect authentication to work.

1. Don't give us any opportunity to change the user name field

2. make us deliberately type incorrect paswords in.

3. Make something that should take 1 min to do turn in to a 60 min google search nightmare.

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Answer 12

fred6632

Level 1

8 points

Sep 23, 2012 6:05 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

Agree that this tip works, I changed my ID after yahoo was hacked and imessage locked as in old mail address, entered random password 4 times and it offered me a new log in screen, all OK now. Also agree Apple could fix this in seconds if they wanted to.

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Answer 13

MDaytona

Level 1

4 points

Oct 10, 2013 6:59 PM in response to Reuben Feffer

If this doesn't work for everyone (as in my case), I figured out another way. Turn off iMessage under settings. Then turn the iphone off and back on. Then turn on iMessage again. This time it will ask you to type in your AppleID.

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Answer 14

Feb 20, 2014 7:48 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

The easiest way to fix this is by going to Settings --> Messages --> Send & Receive.

Press "Apple ID: exampleid@apple.com" and choose "Sign Out". You can then log in with a new apple ID.

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Answer 15

Cebby66

Level 1

0 points

Mar 7, 2014 8:57 PM in response to Reuben Feffer

@ktasapple - this doesn't work for me...

Pressing "Use you Apple ID for iMessage" brings up a screen showing my (wrong) apple id and a password box, but then another box floats over top of that screen immedaitely prompting for a password only for the (wrong) apple id (apple id is not editable).

There's no where to sign out of imessage > I think Apple is taking this "Infinite Loop" thing a little too far.

EDIT:

Thank you to whomever suggested turning off iMessage (and Facetime) in Settings, then powering down. Upon powering back up and enabling iMessage I was able to fix my wrong Apple id. (same for Facetime)

Message was edited by: Cebby66

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