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

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 -

Yup, I already cliked "I have this question too" in the opening post.

I discovered that Apple has a feedback page (apple.com/feedback).

Then I selected iCloud and explained the problem.

Maybe they will never answer me, but that's another way of telling them the issue we are having.

I'm in a similar position , I've just been told my current email supplier is cancelling their .co.uk accounts. So sensibly I though I'd use my apple email address for everything. Ironically itunes is the one place it appears I can't use it. Once it's gone will my receipts etv be sent to my secondary email?

I don't get this either. A lot of folks were saying it's due to the danger of losing your icloud.com login information and you won't be able to retrieve the information. But the same can be said about any other web service. That's why Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc have all those double, triple security measures like security questions, alternative email address and whathaveyou.

This is the only reason I never use my iCloud.com email. I don't want to have to tend to too many email address. Since I have to do that with my primary Apple Id, I'm not gonna bother with the icloud.com alternative address. Being on the Apple system everywhere else, I would love to be able to use icloud.com email all the time for reasons of aesthetics and uniformity.

Hello Guys!

The answer to that is no, you will not be able to use your iCloud email to update any of your existing Apple IDs. The reason for that, as I mentioned earlier, is that emails created in iCloud are already considered Apple IDs. For example if you have a non-working gmail appleID, you can go to appleid.apple.com to update it to a new email (as long as the one that you will used to update it is not own by Apple @icloud.com, @me.com and @mac.com).

To make it simple, the only time that you can use your iCloud Apple ID in the iTunes Store is if you're creating a new account.

As per Apple, it is also not possible to merge two apple ids together. For me this is more convenient because if your entire household is using one Apple ID that means sharing everything including private messages.

The only disadvantage of using multiple Apple Ids is when you also use them all in the iTunes Store. I believe this is something to do with anti-piracy. When you purchase something in the iTunes Store you will need to authorize the item using the iTunes Store account used to purchase it.

just to remove the confusion, an apple ID is NOT an iTunes Store account until you register it in the iTunes Store. And an iTunes Store account is already an Apple ID.

iTunes Store account is an Apple ID

iCLoud account is an Apple ID

Therefore, you cannot update an Apple ID with another Apple ID

Thank you.

Again, we are weighing in on this important thread...

We do not want our icloud master account tied to an offshore email account anymore. We want to use our icloud account as our MASTER EMAIL ACCOUNT.

Cudos to those in this thread who get that. Thank you for weighing in, too.

However, we are entertaining the idea that it might not matter if our icloud account is tied to an offshore account. What if my offshore account goes out of business? Will that KILL my master icloud account?

Great question, huh?

I'm sorry, but this is PRECISELY what we want to avoid: "Create a new email address, for example at Yahoo or Gmail, or anywhere convenient (or you can use an existing address as long as it has never been associated with an Apple ID)"

If the reponses are read thoroughly, this is exactly what we as Apple customers do not want. I, as with the others, do NOT want a bloomin' Yahoo or Gmail email address... That is the problem!

reitermoritz wrote:

For god's sake, Roger, would you please stop it? What you explain there has nothing to do with the problem.

I'm sorry if you found my post, explaining what you can do, unhelpful, but your problem is that you want to do something you can't do, and nothing posted here can change that. I've posted the feedback URL in my post above.

And, incidentally, Dave Black, to whom I was actually responding, asked what would happen if the service providing the address which forms his ID should go out of business, and I answered that.