I changed my Apple ID and can't update my apps

Phew... I wanted to change my Apple ID email address, just to make it look and sound better. But now after reading all these comments... it's clear that it's going to be a mess. And I'll risk losing all my purchase history. So I better stay with an ugly but working email address as my Apple ID. I hope the Apple people who are reading this are not going to ignore it in the future updates. It's quite dishonest that Apple doesn't warn the users when they are trying to change the ID name that no former purchases will be associated with the new one. My advise to everybody: don't change it.

the only way around it is to delete the app you are trying to update, and download again, this time it will ask for the apple ID that you use on that iPad or iPhone currently, not the old one, but you will lose any settings or purchases in that app, but if that was free app or if you don't care then delete and download

Go to Expresslane.apple.com and tell them your problem. You have to wait 24 to 72 hours to get a reply, but I think that is the only way you are going to get this resolved.

Apple Support is NOT helpful in my experience with this issue. I'm facing similar problems due to the ios5 update and my single-word AppleID which i have had for YEARS (not an email-based id), and they haven't sent me anything of use. Search the forums for Apple id and you'll find similar postings. Here's some threads to get you started:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3373875?answerId=16337836022#16337836022

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3378665

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3361343

I was contemplating a procedure that would've included what you did, but now that I see your report of loss of functionality, I'm stumped again as to the best course of action.

I am absolutely astonished at this experience with Apple. Right now, my iPad is an expensive paperweight.

Here's what I said to another person asking about Apple Ids. The first part may not apply, but read what I said at the end of my response:

I got help with this from tech support. To make sure all works well together: in iTunes on your computer, log off the Store. Log back in with your first Apple ID and go to the store account info. Deauthorize all computers with this ID. Click Done and then go back and authorize under that ID. Back in tyour iTunes log off. Now log in with your 2nd ID. In account again deauthorize and re authorize again. Log off in iTunes.

Now log back in with your preferred ID in your iTunes window on your computer. All content from both IDs should be able to play on your computer. I have 2 IDs and all my content works as I remained logged in to my current ID. This is how the tech person had me "merge" them.

But as the other replyer said, in Apple's database cannot merge them into one. Stinks, doesn't it? I have founf that this worked for me and have had no issues. If you were using Apps with your first ID you will need to be logged in with that ID to get app updates. Log back off and in again with your current and they all work fine on your computer and devices. The App store didn't exist when I had my 1st Apple ID, so I don't have that issue, but my daughter does and that is how she "merges" all things on her Mac.

Hope this helps.

Hi there.

This is exactly, EXACTLY what happened to me when I switched to iOS 5. The problem is now solved, so I thought I would suggest contacting Expresslane, even though I still don't know what they did to solve it.

I was forced to create a new Apple ID (with an email address) when I updated my iPhone and as a result, was unable to update any of the apps I had previously purchased using my old account name. So, for example, for years I'd bought songs, apps etc. with "emd" and now my account was emd@yahoo.com. When I went to download a free update on my iPhone, I'd be prompted for the password for emd, which no longer existed, so of course my old password didn't work.

I went to the Genius bar, where they tried to help, but did not. Specifically, they were unable to find my old purchase history or the Apple ID associated with it (they found only the new one, since October 2011). So, the Genius bar guy submitted a request on my behalf to Expresslane. Expresslane emailed me that night with a list of all my Apple IDs and information about which ID was associated with all of my old purchases -- it was one the Apple store did not discover and that I did not even know existed. Let's call it emd@aol.com. It seems all my old purchases, back to 2006 and up to the iOS 5 switch were now linked to emd@aol.com, even though my iPhone was prompting me for the "emd" password.

I created a new password for emd@aol.com, signed into iTunes using that, and there were all my old purchases, including all the apps I wanted to update. I updated them, synced my iPhone, and I'm all set, albeit now with approximately 5 million Apple IDs.

Moral of the story is that Expresslane can help and it's entirely possible that the Apple ID that comes up in a prompt is not actually the Apple ID that is currently linked to the purchase.

Good luck.

You should be able to sign in the old apple ID. FYI you can update apps with the ID that you purchased them with.

Go to your settings page and change your apple id in the iTunes and App Store icon on the left hand side. You will need to this for a couple other items listed on the left, like FaceTime, iMessage, etc.

This worked great for being able to log into intunes under my new apple Id. Thank you 🙂

I was just helped out by apple support on this. Great service.

What you should have done when changing the primary email address associated with your apple ID, is to sign out of your account on all your devices (remembering find-my-mac too), make the change on appleid.apple.com, and then sign back in on your device with your new credentials.

Now ... I wasn't so far-sighted, so here's what I had to do to fix it: log into your apple id on appleid.apple.com with the current email/password combination. Temporarily change the primary email back to the old one (but keep you current password). It doesn't matter that you're not in touch with that email address any longer. You don't have to verify it, so just enter the email which you device thinks it's connected to. Then log out of appleid.apple.com. You can now sign out of your device (since the email/password combination is a match). Log back in to appleid.apple.com with your old email/current password combination; Now that your are logged out of your device, you are on back on the happy path, and you can revert your primary email back to the new one you wanted. Verify that one via email. Log in to your device with the new email/current password combination and Bob's your uncle.

Hopefully that helped someone out there.

/c