mac.com email account

Your profile states that you are using OS X 10.3, I'm not even sure if you can run an iCloud account from the mail application in that operating system. if your .Mac address is part of a MobileMe package, he will need to migrate that package to iCloud before June 30, 2012.

On the assumption that OS X 10.3 will allow you to run an iCloud account within the mail application, or that your profile has not been updated and you are running a later system:

Delete your mail account from Mail preferences and set it up again using the Mail Server Information.

Some users have apparently encountered issues using this information in pre-Lion set ups (I haven't), Roger Wilmut has kindly provided instructions for those who find themselves with this problem.

Entering iCloud email settings manually in Snow Leopard or Leopard

Entering iCloud email settings manually in Tiger

I thought I had provided links to the configurations for your email accounts, I'm not quite sure what you are asking any longer. Perhaps the page I link to below will help you.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2968

Hey I have the exact same problem, and no you did not answer the question, but your help would be appreciated.

I am still using myname@mac.com account but i have no idea where the email goes to

I set-up a @mac.com in 2009

like i can send e-mail to myname@mac.com and i dont get that noservice email saying its out of service....but i have no idea or never check my e-mail on myname@mac.com email account.

I use myname@mac.com for many applications and stuff

Where can I check Myname@mac.com mail?

I never set up MobileMe

I never set up icloud

In order to be able to access this you would have had to a) been a MobileMe subscriber right through to July 2012, and b) migrated your account to iCloud before 1 August 2012.

It's possible that you got this address purely as an Apple ID in the early days, without actually having a MobileMe account. If this is the case you cannot use this address as an actual email address.

You can try reactivating the address: go to System Preferences>iCloud and try signing in with that address and the password attached to it; if this is accepted check Mail in the checklist there to set your Mail application up.

You may very well find that you can only get an @icloud.com version of the address; or indeed that you simply can't access it. All you can do is try.

hi Roger,

I have the same problem. I don't know where to go to check my email in a mac.com account. I did what you said about system preferences I signed in and this is what it says: "Account not verified. Check your email at myname@mac.com for instructions for verifying your account". An I already tried to ad that account to mail but it will not let me. What am I doing wrong?

You need to post your operating system: pre-Lion systems can't access iCloud directly though email can be set up. Can you sign into your account at http://icloud.com and find your email? Did you originally have a MobileMe account and if so did you migrate it to iCloud before 1 August last?

Thank you! It is Lion, but the account is not MobileMe it is mac.com and I created it a long time ago, never checked the email and never did migrate it to icloud....I didn't know how to because I had created a MobileMe account, and that confused me. But I don't think it really matters, I can still play my music with the mac.com account.

Than you again

OK; it was a DotMac account - this service later became called MobileMe. As I assume you didn't continue paying for it continuously up to July last year the @mac.com address can no longer be reactivated: it's OK as an ID because in that instance it's merely a text string, it doesn't actually have to work (though of course you should have a functioning address associated with the ID so that the iTunes Store can contact you).

You can get a free @icloud.com address by creating an iCloud account, though I'm not sure you can use the @mac.com address as an ID, you may have to create a new Apple ID (unless the one you use here is different anyway).

my wife has the same issue. she has a DotMac apple id. she can never get the email receipts that the itunes store sends her after she make a purchase. how does she access these emails from the itunes store???? she uses mountain lion (10.8.3) on a macbook pro 15 inch and she has an iphone 4S using os6.1.3.

please somebody help!

The fact that she has an Apple ID taking the form of an @mac.com address doesn't mean that the address is a functioning one. For that to be the case she would have to have been a subscriber to .Mac/MobileMe continuously from before the change to MobileMe up until June 30 last year: if she wasn't then the address has lapsed and can't be reactivated.

She needs to go to http://appleid.apple.com , sign in with the ID, and ensure that there is another, working, email address associated with it.

thanks roger. she has been a subscriber to mobileme in the past. she has been to the appleid.apple.com site and there is a gmail account listed as an alternative email for her apple id. however, she never recieves her receipts for itunes purchases to that gmail account. we assume the receipts are going to the dotmac account. we would like them to come to the gmail account.

If she subscribed to MobileMe continuously up to its demise last year and migrated to iCloud before 1 August, she should be able to sign in with the ID in System Preferences>iCloud and check Mail in the checklist there to set it up. If she didn't do this she may not be able to reactivate that address, though she may be able to activate the @icloud.com equivalent - however in that case she probably can't receive messages to @mac.com.

If she has the gmail account set up as an alternative I'm not sure how she can persuade iTunes to use it as the Apple ID page is the only place she can alter this.

update: my wife spent about 3 hours on the phone with various apple support people. they were unable to solve her issue. they emailed her a copy of all the itunes receipts that have previously sent to her mac.com address (that goes nowhere!). they said she has to ring apple to get her receipts sent to her in the future. they can't seem to organise a simple email forwarding function from her mac.com email address to a functioning email address. quite unbelievable really. their solution was for her to stop using the mac.com as her itunes apple id. this is very inconvienient. she has made many purchases of apps and music over the years using the mac.com apple id. surely apple can work out a way to merge apple ids or at least forward emails from mac.com apple id accounts to functioning email addresses???????

you can change your email to be the contact email address but still keep the same apple ID. All you have to do is update your payment information and on that page they will ask you which email to contact you. after the update the email will go to the new email you put in.