Why can't I use my iCloud email address as my Apple ID

I have a yahoo e-mail Apple ID to log into itunes etc on my current ipad. On this iPad I also have an icloud e-mail address just as my e-mail. If I buy a new iPad, can I use my existing icloud e-mail as my new Apple ID?

Wnader wrote:

I have a yahoo e-mail Apple ID to log into itunes etc on my current ipad. On this iPad I also have an icloud e-mail address just as my e-mail. If I buy a new iPad, can I use my existing icloud e-mail as my new Apple ID?

As I understand you, you have an Apple ID which is a Yahoo address, which is the login for your iCloud account which has its own @icloud.com address. This iCloud address is tied to the Yahoo ID account and cannot be used as another Apple ID. You can't transfer any iCloud address, main or alias, to another account either as its ID or its address.

Im not sure its tied to it. I had the Yahoo Apple ID account for many years but just made a new icloud account EMAIL in the last month. I have it as one of my e-mails on the iPad but its not in anyway otherwise tied.

You have an iCloud account which has its own @icloud.com address. Either its login is that address or it is some other address. If the ID is the @icloud.com address you can obviously sign into iCloud with that on another device. If the ID is a non-Apple address you cannot change it to the @icloud.com address; you can of course sign in with the ID address.

Sorry Im pretty confused but Im pretty sure you are saying I can sign in onto my new iPad with this month old Apple ID which I also have as an e-mail account on my old Yahoo Apple ID iPad. Many thanks

Yes. Basically you have two Apple IDs; one with a Yahoo address as the ID, with which you are presumably logged into iTunes, and one which is its own iCloud address for the iCloud service. You can sign into iCloud with that ID on any other device, but you will still need to use the Yahoo one for iTunes if you have any purchases since they cannot be transferred from one ID to another. There is no problem about separate IDs for iTunes and iCloud.

Yes it does. It is a totally separate Apple ID as you have confirmed!

Are you signed into iCloud on your current iPad with the iCloud ID that we are discussing? Just asking so we can provide suggestions for the set up for your new device if you want to set it up from an iCloud backup.

Cheers,

GB

Thank you, I will be starting fresh on my new iPad Pro as I don't have much iTune purchases with my old Yahoo Apple ID on my old iPad. I just want to use one e-mail address and that is my month old icloud e-mail address as my new ID.

No, Im currently on my Yahoo Apple ID account on my PC. But that is really great help you gave me this evening, many thanks for your help. I had this old e-mail that I don't use and just wanted to use my new icloud e-mail on my new iPad.

The only thing i'l be missing out on is one movie i purchased, I'm not sure if I can transfer this.

OK, so you will be setting up the new iPad as a brand new device and starting from scratch? So, I take it you do not have iCloud set up on your Yahoo account? You are not syncing Contacts, Notes, Photos, etc. via iCloud now?

Cheers,

GB

So to be clear: it's 100% impossible to send all Apple correspondence to your iCloud mail if it's not your primary email address? Without auto-forwarding that is.

If it is, I'll probably stick to Gmail for now, and hope Apple will fix this some day.

I can't really answer that as my Apple ID is an Apple address (because I was a DotMac/MobileMe subscriber). Though you should be able to set up a separate 'rescue address' I suspect it's not possible to prevent all messages going to the ID address - certainly notifications from these forums will do so and that can't be changed.

Sorry, but does anyone else find this whole setup an absolute disaste

I used to have a Windows Phone, and used my Microsoft login for all Microsoft services. I also had an Android Phone and used my Google login for all Google Services.

Now I have an iPhone (again, I used to have one but went away after the iPhone 3G) and I have an Apple ID comprising of an @outlook email address and an iCloud account with an @icloud address.

Quite frankly, I don't care about 'depending on when you made your account' (this isn't aimed at the people in this thread by the way, just at Apple) or 'it's all in the backend'. It just seems ridiculous and archaic that one of the biggest companies in the world aren't able to figure our a workable solution to this. At the very least if it really is a technical nightmare they should allow us to create a new, unified Apple ID and let us transfer all our old purchases over.

Sorry if I'm overreacting a little, I mean there's worse things going on in the world but I just find it completely incompetent.

On another note, thanks to everyone who's contributed - it's finally ended my search on why I can't get this sorted 🙂

I agree with you shoobirdy 100%! I think Apple's stance is if you're locked out of your account, they want to be able to reach you by some means which is why it's set up the way it is now.

I guess their logic is, if you have your iCloud email address as your Apple ID, and it's compromised, once you're locked out you are locked out...for good! No means of contacting you otherwise.

My setup is, like you, my Apple ID is an @gmail email address so my logic is why can't I use my iCloud email address as my Apple ID and my @gmail email as my rescue?

"The company has $203 billion in cash on its balance sheet, becoming the first corporation ever to cross the $200 billion mark."

[ http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/22/investing/apple-stock-cash-earnings/ ]

It's been 3 years and 3 months since the original post to this forum.

3 years, $200 billion in cash, access to the world's greatest genius programmers and Apple could not fix an account/login consolidation issue?

They couldn't email existing accounts a unique code to the existing Apple membership accounts, giving them a finite amount of time, to access a special webpage to consolidate their accounts (must have the valid pw for each account ready).

They cry "security" and legacy database complexity as the reason. Seriously?

A whole new Apple data center/server farm is $1 billion, they can't spare the pocket change to dedicate an entirely new monster-sized server to fix this?

Perhaps, my FaceTime that was broken with El Capitan might work, too. (After an hour on the phone, Apple support said the problem was on their end, but they never emailed or called back with a solution. Reverting to Yosemite would not have solved the problem.)

Shoobirdy, although Apple has no intent on fixing their problems, misery loves company.

Regardless of fantastic products, poor management always leads to poor customer service (disgruntled employees) and the downfall of many big companies.

"All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty back together again."

The king has died, the magic is gone, and Camelot has become just another crumbling ancient castle. It's a tale we can tell our grandchildren of a land that once had magical devices, nearly mind-reading user interfaces, with spectacular announcements and major technology advancements.

Our children won't believe us.