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

"If you don't want it to be a gmail address, then set up another free email, and change your Apple ID to that email address."

Well, the email that one probably would want to use wouldn't be available and one would not be able to access purchased content. Just because that's how it's designed doesn't mean that it's a good design or cannot be changed. Pretty much every other service that I use let's me do that.

The issue here is that you don't understand how Apple IDs and emails work. You can have a gmail account as your Apple ID, and then not use it anymore, and it will still be your Apple ID. You can use your linked iCloud account as your primary email and only use that for emails. If you sign into iCloud and set up your email via iCloud, then you can have all of your mail sent to your iCloud.com address.

Maybe you should take a look at the post I provided several posts above the one you commented on. It's all explained there. Also, I have no idea why Apple has decided to protect Apple domain names, but they have. I also have no idea if it would be "technically simple" to change that approach....

You also can set up a brand new Apple ID as an iCloud.com email address. If you want to use that ID exclusively, you can set up Family Sharing with your old ID so that you will still have access to purchases done on your old Apple ID.

GB

I am not sure what you mean by "the email that one probably would want to use wouldn't be available". Why would you think that? And what does that have to do with anything? You do not have to use that email address for anything except your Apple ID. You can use your linked iCloud email address for email.

And if you edit your existing Apple account to that email, then your purchased content is a non-issue since you are using the same Apple account. You only lose access to purchases when you set up a brand new Apple ID.

And I didn't give an opinion as to whether it was a good design or not. It just is how it works, and it is not likely to change anytime soon.

Also, there is nothing that prevents you from setting up a new Apple ID with an iCloud email address, and then using that Apple ID for iCloud and iCloud functions like Mail, Messages, and FaceTime. Then you can still use your old ID for the iTunes & App Store.

Conversely, you can use Family Sharing as I have explained in the post above.

GB

Yeah this is really frustrating. I hope Apple fixes it soon so I can finally close my non-apple address. Thanks for your suggestion Gale but I'm not interested in creating a second Apple ID to manage the first one, lol. I just wanted to consolidate cleanly.

Is this still not possible? I have a @hotmail.com (Now migrated w/ legacy to Outlook) as my AppleId. I just want to use my @iCloud.com email address so I can close my legacy outlook email once and for all. It's currently an alias; I just want to make it my primary.

Gail, at this point I have to assume that you're trolling us. Of course we understand how it works. We just don't think that it should work this way and have described the issues it causes in earlier posts.

I'm not insulting her and I'm not ranting at her. I do however find it rather insulting to be repeatedly told that I simply "don't understand how it works" and that the issues that I've described "have [nothing] to do with anything" after having described the issues earlier in this thread based on my experience and after spending quite some time working through some of them with Apple Support.

Evidently you don't think accusing someone of trolling is being insulting. Looking a couple of her posts above, Gail tried to offer you workarounds for your situation. We know you you don't want workarounds, you want it to change, but no-one on here can do anything whatever about that.

Since I am not responding to you in the post you are replying to, you don't need to comment. This was a new poster, and since we find that many people posting never read the thread, I am repeating what the answer to the question is. Sorry, but that is how it is. That is the answer. No matter whether you like it or not, there is no other answer that we can give you or anyone else asking the question.

You have been advised to the best of our ability. We can do no more for you. A new answer is not going to appear here, so beyond providing feedback to Apple, not sure why you are persisting with this. We volunteer here to provide people with the best information we have. Providing that information is not trolling, it is doing what we volunteer our time to do - provide the alternatives to questions that people have. So, again, just because you don't like the answer is no reason to take it out on us.

GB

Interestingly, when I try to change my primary address to my iCloud alias, it keeps loading/spinning forever. Previously, it would just immediately give message saying that my Apple ID can't end with @icloud.com. Does this happen for anyone else?

This was always the case for me. Attempted on Mac w/ Safari & Chrome. iPhone Safari & Chrome. Win7 Chrome. I never received the error message. I just gave up on this. I use my iCloud email to sign in for everything & it shows the iCloud email as my ID for most services (FaceTime, iCloud settings pane, Home Sharing, etc.) Only the iTunes store shows the true primary email address. I went the route of using a different email as the primary but in reality it's only a safeguard for recovery. I switched all linked/external services to use my iCloud email so it acts as my primary email and phased out the super-totally-awesome email I made when I was ~12.

I guess I'm not sure what you mean. It can be used as a primary address? It can login to all Apple services - and can be used for Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn etc, etc. It just cannot be set as a primary email for the AppleID. Recovery email addresses are required anyways so in reality you would still need a backup. (? - maybe not with 2FA & phone# but not 100% on this)

fanboyfanboy wrote:

Recovery email addresses are required anyways so in reality you would still need a backup. (? - maybe not with 2FA & phone# but not 100% on this)

If you put a Recovery email on your Apple account, it has to be a totally different address than the Apple ID or any of the alias email addresses on the account. So, needs to be a completely different address not already associated with that Apple account in any way.

For 2SV, there is a Recovery Key, and for 2FA, there is a Recovery process, so neither even provide a place to put a Rescue email address.

Cheers!

GB

There is nothing to solve. This is how it works. Get another free email account so you can change your Verizon email on your Apple ID to a functional address, then just start using your iCloud.com email exclusively. The primary Apple ID and the iCloud email are completely interchangeable.

Cheers,

GB

I'm missing something. I would like to use my icloud email exclusively but oddly, all apple emails e.g. responses to this thread get sent to my apple Id email (which is now gmail and which I don't use). You say they are interchangeable but I don't see that. How can I get apple communications sent to my icloud email?