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

Someone found out how to change the primary email address so that all coms go to that one (even tho you still can change your Apple ID). That means you will not have to create rules to forward apple emails etc:

Link to thread:

Change my "Apple ID and Primary Email Address" to my @me.com address

Summary below:

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I figured out how to at least change my PRIMARY EMAIL to my @me account, so that I don't get receipts and other communications at an old, unused non-Apple email address! Try this:

1) Use your browser to go to the Apple Store website. In the USA, it is: http://store.apple.com/us or http://store.apple.com/uk for the UK.

2) Hover on ACCOUNT on the upper right, then scroll down and click on ACCOUNT HOME PAGE

3) Click on CHANGE YOUR DEFAULT SHIPPING OR BILLING INFO down on the left

4) Log in with your Apple ID and password

5) Click EDIT under PAYMENT INFORMATION

6) Enter your preferred email address where your old, defunct email address appears

7) Click SAVE

On 6), you can use xxxxx@me.com. If it tells you this is already in use, then just use your xxxxx@icloud.com and it should work.

Hope this helps.

OK, if it is completely different, then it should already be a totally separate Apple ID.

To find out for sure, log into Apple - My Apple ID with the iCloud ID and password, to see if it exists out there as a primary ID.

Cheers,

GB

The reason you cannot make an Apple Domain into a Primary email address on an existing Apple account is because the iCloud.com (or me.com, or Mac.com) is already an Apple ID. Go to: Apple - My Apple ID and sign in with your iCloud ID and password. You will see that it goes to its own Apple account.

Cheers,

GB

No, you cannot make changes to any Apple Domain email assignment - @iCloud.com, @me.com, @mac.com. Whether that email address is your iCloud address attached to your Apple ID, or whether it is your actual Apple ID, it cannot be changed from that function.

You will need to get a new email address (you can get a free one from Google, Yahoo, etc.), and then go to your Apple account, and EDIT your current Apple ID to the new email address. BEFORE you do that, however, be sure to sign out of iCloud on your computer or any devices where it is signed in. Also sign out of iTunes & App Store, FaceTime, and Messages. Then EDIT your email on your Apple account, then sign in with the new email address. You can then go on using your iCloud address if you wish.

To EDIT your Apple account ID, go to: Apple - My Apple ID

Best of luck,

GB

There is absolutely no call for you to be insulting Gail, who helps a lot of people in these forums. She knows, as we all do, what it is you want; but it's not possible and no-one on here can tell you otherwise. You can send feedback to Apple at http://apple.com/feedback about your views. It's Apple's decision, and ranting at posters in this forum who don't work for Apple and can't do anything about their decisions is not only pointless but ill-mannered.

Gail, at this point I have to assume that you're trolling us.

I assume the opposite... I think users who come to these threads, asking the same questions in perhaps a slightly different manner, but the same question nonetheless, are the trolls.

Of course we understand how it works.

I don't think you do, or how this community works. If you did understand how this community works, you wouldn't make this statement.

We just don't think that it should work this way and have described the issues it causes in earlier posts.

This is not a forum for debate. To ask why Apple does what they do and if and when they will change it. Their house, their rules.

It is for asking technical questions and giving technical answers.

Which Gail has done. Calmly, clearly and in this thread, repeatedly.

You and others have been given options. That you don't like them is moot.

I suggest you send your comments where a) Apple asks you to and b) where they have any chance of being addressed

Apple feedback goes here >>>> http://www.apple.com/feedback/ <<<<

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

reitermoritz wrote:

Well, to be fair, I think we have to differntiate here. The Apple ID account contains three different relevant values, configurable under "Name, ID and Email Addresses" in the "My Apple ID" web interface:

1. The name of the Apple ID itself, which is also an email address,
2. the primary email address and
3. the alternate email address.

3) ist just for account recovery purposes. 2) is the actual technically relevant address. This is the one iTunes receips etc. get sent to. And 2) can be an @icloud.com type address.

This gave me some hope, as I'd be content if #2 could be an Apple-owned domain. That way receipts for purchases, etc. could go directly to my me.com address, rather than being routed through gmail. I think that also applies, for example, to this forum -- further activity on this thread will be sent to my gmail address; I see no way to change that.

However, as I'm seeing appleid.apple.com right now, #1 and #2 are treated as the same.

(I'm fine with Apple requiring we maintain a non-Apple email address. That seems sensible. But I'm not fine with being blocked from making gmail the alternative address, rather than the primary.)

dr.stuart wrote:

Only 1) may not be an email address at a domain owned by Apple (for which obscure reason ever; no one seems to know).

If you go and create an iCloud right now, you can use an xxxxx@icloud.com account for everything. The restrictions are only on early adopters.

Actually, this is not the case, it still requires an outside email as seen in the popup bubble.

I too would love to know because I am just about to ditch my old Apple ID and start over so I want to get it right. I want to cut my ties to Windows by finally ditching my hotmail account and Apple ID seems to be the only thing I need to keep it for!!

I just bought a new MacBook Pro and the guy in the Apple Store said there is a way to use you iCloud address as your Apple ID but it was too busy for me to book an appointment with a genius.

What we also have to realise is that Apple ID options are (or definitely used to be) different depending on which country your credit card comes from. So, if someone finds a solution, it may not work for you because Apple is bound by the laws of the country in which they operate. Hence why I couldn't redownload songs that I had purchased for free when I lived in Japan and had a Japanese iTunes account, but people in the US have pretty much always been able to.

I hope someone can shed some light on this issue soon. I am ready make iCloud my primary e-mail account and leave my hotmail account to manage my junk mail ;-)

I've come across this problem too.

The email address, a non-Apple one, which my daughter had been using for her Apple ID in now defunct and she doesn't have another email address to use. I thought all she had to do was to get a free @icloud.com one and use this instead for the Apple ID. She went to the appleid.apple.com website, signed in and then went to manage her Apple ID. She clicked the Add Email Address button and entered what she thought would be an unused icloud email address which was accepted and she got a confirmatory email. However when we went to edit her current Apple ID email address and tried to change it to her new icloud one we got that message that you can't use an email address with an Apple domain.

We've been on to Apple Support today and they've confirmed that this is the case and suggested that she gets a new non-Apple one, from such as a Gmail one, to use. Since her present, defunct, email address works OK for app purchases etc she's just going to leave it but add her new icloud one an an alternartive email address that she can be contacted at.

I see that this problem is also dealt with at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4677439?answerId=20818027022#20818027022&tstart=0#20818027?tstart=0

"Well, then I want to be able to merge that one and the one my purchases are on..."

This is exactly what I want to do but don't think I can:

I noticed the following :

If you attempt to create an Apple ID which is the same as your @icloud email address from the online facility, it does not allow you (can't use an Apple associated email address as your Apple ID). However - if you start a fresh device - such as a new iPhone, iPad (must be mobile it seems), and then create an iCloud account and Apple ID from the prompts when setting up the mobile device, it IS possible to have your Apple ID and @iCloud email address as the same. I know because I just did it!

Unfortunately for me, the result I got above is not for one of my own ID's but a friends, and I would VERY much like to do the same - my current Apple ID is a completely different email address from my iCloud account. Trying to get them the same in my situation is a major bother - I think that if I wipe a device (such as an iPhone5 that is mine) and try to setup as I did my friend's device, then I will get a conflict because the iCloud email I have ALREADY exists. This is my worry and I will not attempt this until I get the new iPad 4 soon to test this.

There is an inconsistency here between the two methods of creating Apple ID's and iCloud accounts.

Overall in my opinion, the Apple ID system as currently available from Apple is not designed very well, and should be addressed.

Best wishes -