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reitermoritz Author

Level 2

220 points

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

When I want to enter my iCloud email address (like foo@icloud.com) as my Apple ID, the system at appleid.apple.com tells me that I can't use an email address with a domain owned by Apple as my Apple ID which I find odd enough. I tried to create a new Apple ID through appleid.apple.com just to see what happens and even then it says that you cannot use an email address with an Apple domain.

It becomes even more odd when you consider that, if I'm not wrong, you can very well create a new Apple ID and use a new @icloud.com email address if you do it with an iPhone.

I can use my iCloud address as the primary email address of my Apple ID account so it's not a huge problem, but it still annoys me a little bit that the name of my Apple ID has to continue being my obsolete Gmail address.

Does anyone have more information on this?

Posted on Oct 15, 2012 8:45 AM

Top-ranking reply

mswcpt

Level 1

14 points

Posted on Nov 24, 2013 9:01 PM

Hi -

As per reitermoritz's reply to my comment on the 20th March 2013, I feel s_rafida has again missed the point slightly and is still being misunderstood. Like the other other Apple customers here, we don't want to have 2, 3, 10 or 7 email addresses. We want ONE. Because we had (now in hindsight directly caused this problem) by using a NON-APPLE email intially as the ID and then an @icloud address for the icloud account and email, we are the ones NOT in a position to get rid of the email associated with the ID and move it to the icloud email address. There are fortunate people out there who have set-up new accounts, devices from scratch who were not Apple customers before that have been able to from the very beginning have their icloud address as their Apple ID, and therefore ONE account.

This means that us poor sods have to go through the inconvenince and frankly seamingly unecessary pain to create digital clutter in our lives and be forced to open some unused email account simply to use it as an Apple ID. What an utterly perposterous and cumbersome system.

I think it is ridiculous.

View in context

428 replies

Jun 29, 2016 12:51 AM in response to HR

If your Apple ID is also your @icloud.com address then you can specify a contact address to be used in the sort of situation you describe.

Aug 5, 2016 6:16 PM in response to mharo21

aabsolutely! Share your feelings on this one.

cheers,

LIam

mharo21

Level 1

8 points

Aug 12, 2016 5:39 PM in response to gail from maine

I Want to completely delete my gmail email off the account and I cannot. That makes no sense.

Aug 12, 2016 11:55 PM in response to mharo21

You can change your Gmail address, but you would have to provide another non-Apple address to change it to.

Aug 16, 2016 7:53 PM in response to mharo21

You can delete the Gmail account. You just have to replace it with another valid email address that is not an Apple domain email.

Sep 6, 2016 10:26 AM in response to reitermoritz

Still nothing on this.

Oct 19, 2016 1:29 PM in response to Steve-O23

You can use your iCloud.com email address to log into any Apple Service that you logged into using your Gmail address. They are totally interchangeable from the Apple services standpoint.

Cheers,

Oct 31, 2016 7:43 AM in response to Imp68

Drives me crazy as I used to have an iCloud.com email address. Now I'm stuck with my email address that is specifically for my emails. Grr

sweetw0r

Level 1

8 points

Dec 21, 2016 3:42 PM in response to reitermoritz

Same here. I have decided to get rid of anything related to Google as much as possible. But seems to me know Apple doesn't want me to.

Dec 22, 2016 4:39 PM in response to capt.marwan

I've been literally waiting for this issue to be addressed by Apple since I was an undergrad.

Dec 28, 2016 9:54 PM in response to fanboyfanboy

It is still not possible. You can simply use only your iCloud email if you wish as has been outlined in this thread several times.

Dec 29, 2016 7:59 PM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Thank you Roger 🙂

Jan 10, 2017 9:30 AM in response to fanboyfanboy

Hmm... false alarm then. I went the other way. Privacy aside, I'm quite happy with Google's Inbox. I'll probably only switch to iCloud when I can use it as a primary address.

Rolomoto

Level 1

12 points

Mar 31, 2017 11:56 AM in response to gail from maine

hmmm...4 yrs and 24 pages of thread. Has this been solved? Verizon is shutting their email so my apple id will be a dead email and I can't change it to my icloud email?

May 23, 2017 9:19 AM in response to Israel Brewster

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....

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