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

I am currently using my Apple for pretty much everything, and it is not a matter of using an inactive email account as your Apple ID, as apple still have to send you receipts for any of your purchases.

Hopefully Apple could resolve this issue as it is quite irritating considering I'm already such a heavy apple user at the moment

Sorry, but not sure what you are referring to? There is no issue to "resolve" - this is the way it works.

If your Apple ID email is no longer active, you can get a free email from many sources - Gmail and Yahoo just to name a couple.

Cheers,

GB

gail from maine wrote:

Sorry, but not sure what you are referring to? There is no issue to "resolve" - this is the way it works.

If your Apple ID email is no longer active...

Just because something works a specific way, doesn't mean there isn't an issue with how it works. The "issue", in this case, is that a) Only the primary e-mail receives official apple communications, and b) there is no way to make the @icloud.com e-mail primary. So no, you can't just sign up for a free e-mail account and then not use it (which I believe is what ericlee11 is referring to when they say "inactive e-mail account"), because you still have to check it for official communications. This IS an issue (even IF this is the way it works), and as ericlee11 says, is quite irritating.

LACAllen wrote:

So, one can switch the email address associated with their Apple ID from a valid @gmail.com, @hotmail.com email address and so on, to an @icloud.com one time.

Can't even do it one time. In order to even have an iCloud.com email address, it has to be set up under an existing ID that is not an Apple domain address, or has to have been set up initially as an iCloud Apple account (in which case, there would be no need to change it). If you try to edit a non-Apple domain email address to an iCloud email address, it just goes out into the ether. It will not change it.

GB

I may be wrong, but in the case where the AppleID is a non apple domain email address (my case), an icloud.com domain email address is NOT necessarily an Apple ID. It is an ALIAS associated to the non-apple AppleID. And those (I have a few), are supposedly used as contact backup (but I don't recall ever receiving anything on them from Apple). Of course, if one has created a second AppleID with an Apple domain on another device, that is possible.

However, I would appreciate if you could explain or provide a reference/link to the how of this : "So, one can switch the email address associated with their AppleID from a valid @gmail.com .... to an @icloud.com email ONE TIME."

THank you.

gail from maine wrote:

Seems like an easier way to do this would be to be able to have an indicator on the Apple account for which email you want your Apple communications to go to....

GB

That would certainly do it, yes. Then I could just ignore the "primary" e-mail account from the free provider that I never wanted anyway.

So far the best solution I have come up with is using a gmail account as the primary and putting a forward on it.

Is there a way to delete an apple ID such that it can be re-used? If I could do that, then I could re-create it from an iOS device so the @icloud *is* primary. Would have been nice to know this limitation *before* I created the e-mail I wanted, but water under the bridge, as they say...

Is there a way to delete an apple ID such that it can be re-used? If I could do that, then I could re-create it from an iOS device so the @icloud *is* primary.

No. This is not supported by Apple. You can request perhaps get the deletion, but you can't recycle the Apple ID.

No, sorry, but can't do that either. The only option you have with a non-Apple domain email address is to EDIT it to a different non-Apple domain email address, unless you want to do the following:

Continue to use the current gmail address (or any other non-Apple domain email address that you might EDIT it to) for your iTunes sign in so that you continue to have access to all of your iTunes purchases, then go to any iOS device and sign it out of iCloud, then set up a new iCloud email address there to be used for Mail, iCloud, FaceTime, and Messages.

The only thing you would want to make sure you do prior to signing your existing ID out of iCloud and signing the new iCloud account in would be to make sure you save your iCloud Notes, if you still want them to be on your device/computer. They would, of course still be accessible when you sign into iCloud.com with the non-Apple domain iCloud account, but if you need them on your device, you would move them. When you sign out of the existing iCloud account on your device, it will ask if you want to keep a copy of Calendars, Contacts, Reminders, and Safari bookmarks on your device, so you can elect to keep those and then Merge them to the new iCloud account when you sign in. Notes, however, would need to be copied to your iPhone locally, then copied back, which can be done right in the Notes app itself by clicking on EDIT in the iCloud Notes list, then selecting all of the notes you want to Move, then selecting the Move option at the bottom to move them to a local Notes folder.

Cheers,

GB

LACAllen wrote:

Is there a way to delete an apple ID such that it can be re-used? If I could do that, then I could re-create it from an iOS device so the @icloud *is* primary.

No. This is not supported by Apple. You can request perhaps get the deletion, but you can't recycle the Apple ID.

Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. So because I didn't know that you had to create the account from an iOS device for the @icloud email to be primary, and I set up the @icloud e-mail I wanted under a non-cloud appleid, I'm now stuck with no way to get the e-mail I want. Great 😝

I think we all got confused with this statement:

LACAllen wrote:

So, one can switch the email address associated with their Apple ID from a valid @gmail.com, @hotmail.com email address and so on, to an @icloud.com one time.

Not sure what you meant? But you cannot switch to or from an Apple domain email address.

GB

Once again, You absolutely cannot change an Apple ID to use an icloud email at all.

Which is what I have said as well. Just not as concisely as this.

I believed that to be clear already and was obviously wrong.

But you said you could change it once several times. That is what we are correcting.

LACAllen wrote:

So, one can switch the email address associated with their Apple ID from a valid @gmail.com, @hotmail.com email address and so on, to an @icloud.com one time.

LACAllen wrote:

Once you've changed from @gmail to @icloud, you can't change again. One time.

The point is you cannot do it. not even one time. You cannot change it to a @icloud at all. Not even once.

gail from maine wrote:

Israel Brewster wrote:

I'm now stuck with no way to get the e-mail I want. Great 😝

See my reply above 🙂

GB

Yeah, the difficulty I now have is with the second half of your post: "go to any iOS device and sign it out of iCloud, then set up a new iCloud email address". The problem is that the iCloud e-mail address I want is already taken - by the AppleID I already have set up with the non-@icloud email as primary. So unless I can free-up the @icloud email I created in conjunction with that account before I knew it wouldn't work properly, which LCAllen says I can't, then I'd have to come up with a unique, less desirable, e-mail address to set up directly. Sigh.

Israel Brewster wrote:

gail from maine wrote:

Israel Brewster wrote:

I'm now stuck with no way to get the e-mail I want. Great 😝

See my reply above 🙂

GB

Yeah, the difficulty I now have is with the second half of your post: "go to any iOS device and sign it out of iCloud, then set up a new iCloud email address". The problem is that the iCloud e-mail address I want is already taken - by the AppleID I already have set up with the non-@icloud email as primary. So unless I can free-up the @icloud email I created in conjunction with that account before I knew it wouldn't work properly, which LCAllen says I can't, then I'd have to come up with a unique, less desirable, e-mail address to set up directly. Sigh.

Well, you are going to have to have a little flexibility here. The iCloud email you have for your current Apple ID can't be the only one that would work for you. Be a little creative. Use your initials, or put your middle initial in between your first and last name. There are a myriad of ways to make it almost like the one you have now if you are that attached to it. Add some memorable numbers to the end of it. If it is that important for you to use an iCloud email address, then it seems like you would be willing to figure out something that would work....

Best of luck,

GB

gail from maine wrote:

Well, you are going to have to have a little flexibility here. The iCloud email you have for your current Apple ID can't be the only one that would work for you. Be a little creative. Use your initials, or put your middle initial in between your first and last name. There are a myriad of ways to make it almost like the one you have now if you are that attached to it. Add some memorable numbers to the end of it. If it is that important for you to use an iCloud email address, then it seems like you would be willing to figure out something that would work....

Best of luck,

GB

Yes, of course. It's just frustrating, especially since I already used a little flexibility to come up with my initial @icloud address. And just because Apple's system has issues. That's all I'm saying: frustrating. 🙂