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

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."

Change your Apple ID - Apple Support

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

This is the biggest joke I have ever seen in technology. I can change my Apple ID to any other email address in the world except for my @icloud.com email address. You can't make this stuff up. However, if I were to create a brand new Apple ID I could make it an @icloud.com email address. Sounds like Apple has a really hard time with SMTP addresses. The won't even let me delete my @.me email address as well. Apple has slowly become one of the most incompetent companies in technology.

Drew

Even from a software perspective, this is not a difficult feature to implement and makes no sense why it hasn't been added yet if Apple really wants to get everyone locked into their ecosystem.

Then why won't Google do it? Microsoft?

Neither if them allow a change to the core identity either. They each will allow an alias to provide another "nickname".

None of the major players allow it. Apple is not an outlier.

Well I just changed it. I've changed it 3 times: From @hotmail.com -> @iCloud.com -> @gmail.com and now I can no longer change it.

Edit: Adding picture for proof

<Image Edited by Host to Remove Personal Information>

fanboyfanboy wrote:

Agreed. Even from a software perspective, this is not a difficult feature to implement and makes no sense why it hasn't been added yet if Apple really wants to get everyone locked into their ecosystem.

Since you are so certain that it isn't difficult to change the software (I guess you have taken into account the entire iCloud infrastructure, correct?), then why don't you send the solution to Apple via the Feedback link: Apple - Feedback

Cheers,

GB

fanboyfanboy wrote:

I submitted feedback and a bug report on this long ago actually. No, I haven’t looked at the iCloud infrastructure because Apple has not released the source code. However, if I can use my my @iCloud.com email - which is an alias, - as a valid login to any Apple services, the relations between database tables already exist.

​

Indeed.

The notion that it should take near magic for Apple to make this possible is ridiculous.

I’m sure it won’t be as easy as flicking on a switch; probably nothing is at the titanic scales that Apple operates at. Also pretty sure that finding a workable solution is not beyond the collective wit of Apple’s engineers if doing so was made a high enough priority by the powers that be.

Yes I tried myself and this works! Completely out of the blue, but much appreciated. Thank you Apple for finally allowing this. 🙂

Israel Brewster wrote:

LACAllen wrote:

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."

Change your Apple ID - Apple Support

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

No, NOT One time. Not at all. The issue isn't that you can't change from one @icloud to another. We all get and understand that. The issue is that you can't change from @gmail TO @icloud - NOT EVEN ONE TIME. Yes, there is a change button. Yes, I can change from one gmail to another gmail, or to something different, but I can't set the @icloud account as primary - NOT EVEN ONCE. As gail said: "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."

This is correct.

You cannot change an Apple ID's primary email address to an iCloud Email address not even once. You can change a non-Apple domain email address to another non-Apple domain email address as many times as you want.

An iCloud Email address is either an Apple ID in and of itself already (if it was created on its own from the Mail app on macOS or from an iOS device) and by extension cannot be used with a different Apple ID, or is simply an email alias that belongs to another non-Apple domain Apple ID (if it was created after creating the Apple ID).

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

LACAllen wrote:

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

This is incorrect. You cannot change it to icloud, not even once.

I'm having same problem. It's not such a big deal but I'm in the same boat my one and only AppleID is currently rocking an antiquated gmail address, and it's just stupid...

I just bought a new MBP and decided to start using icloud properly and set up an @icloud.com email in order to properly consolidate all Apple's products and services under my name and make sure cloud syncing works with my phone etc. etc.

But ironically, the one thing governing all of their services (my Apple ID) is still designated a Googlemail accnt (their veritable rival) because we can't use Apple domain email addresses??! I don't understand. It just seems ludicrous. Can anyone explain why this is the case?

Hi I am in the same boat, I originally used my gmail account from my old phone previous email provider, I have now deleted the gmail account and no longer use it.

Now I am forced to continue to use an obsolete email address to log into my Apple account which in my opinion is completely unnecessary.

It only makes sense to sign into icloud.com with your icloud email address and use it as the Apple ID, its absolutely stupid that Apple will not allow you to use their own domain, where is the logic behind that? its just simply frustrating.

I also find this really annoying but Goran Abdullah's answer was very helpful indeed. Thank you Goran, I've just sent the suggested feedback. thank you for taking the time to make that so easy, much appreciated

Goran's post doesn't do anything. Not to mention their are 27 pages of posts in here, think you could have included the link to this post. Doesn't really matter. I have contacted Apple Support and they have verified that this cannot be done.

Thanks,

Not sure what for, but thanks for your post.

All very will except I have a Microsoft email as my Apple ID and when anyone who uses iCloud calendars sends me an invitation, Apple hijacks it and send it to my Apple account which not only do I not use, but I haven't even got a calendar just the family calendar. So anyone using iCloud calendar sending me a calendar invitation will actually be sending it to my kids!

What a joke. No wonder I changed from Apple to Microsoft for all my cloud facilities.

The entire point is that from a UXD perspective, without question, it should be possible to simply change an Apple ID's name/primary email from a third party email address (such as Gmail) to the iCloud email address that is already associated with/an alias for that Apple ID.

It's beyond perplexing that after all these years it still isn't possible to do that.

Agreed. Even from a software perspective, this is not a difficult feature to implement and makes no sense why it hasn't been added yet if Apple really wants to get everyone locked into their ecosystem.