Can i change my alternate icloud password without altering my apple id password?

Question

Can i change my alternate icloud password without altering my apple id password?

Hello,

I have an apple id which is shared with my family for itunes; the apple id is associated with my gmail account. I also have an "Altername email address" that is an icloud address.

I am considering switching my primary email to my icloud account because I want to use the mail app with push notification (gmail no longer supports push in the mail app and I prefer to use a single mail app instead of two).

It appears that my icloud email address is associated with my appleID but it is not my appleID or primary email address; if I try to log in to "manage my apple id" with either my gmail email address or my icloud email address they both are directed to the same primary apple id (and use the same password).

I basically want to know if I can have a different password for my current appleID and have a seperate password for my icloud email address.

For example: my family messages me through my current appleid and my wifes iphone has my apple id for itunes/app store but she has her own apple id for messaging. If I have to create another apple id just for this purpose I suppose I could do that, but I want to use the specific icloud email address i already created.

thanks for your input,

-joel

Aperture 3, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Sep 23, 2013 5:53 AM

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Answer 1

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pvonk

Level 6

13,851 points

Sep 23, 2013 6:26 AM in response to joelfrombranford

passwords are associated with Apple IDs and these IDs are associated with accounts like icloud and itunes. You don't really say "icloud password", it's the ID that is associated with the password.

"I am considering switching my primary email to my icloud account" - this doesn't make sense. If you have an email address, then it is associated with an icloud account. You can't change an email address from one icloud account to another. This is also true of email aliases the are defined in one account.

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Answer 2

Sep 23, 2013 7:05 AM in response to pvonk

pvonk wrote:

"I am considering switching my primary email to my icloud account" - this doesn't make sense. If you have an email address, then it is associated with an icloud account. You can't change an email address from one icloud account to another. This is also true of email aliases the are defined in one account.

Hi pvonk,

Sorry, that's not what I meant. I meant to say that I am considering using my icloud email address as the address I use to write/read emails from people I communicate with; The context of "switching my primary email to my icloud account" was to describe the actions I take and not a technical relationship of apple ids.

I want to use the speicifc icloud email address that I already created as the address I use to communicate with others, but I want the password for my icloud email address to be different than my itunes/primary appleID password because my itunes apple id is used accross my family.

can this be done or, can i transfer the icloud email address i want to use (the one i already have as an alternate email address) to another apple id?

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Answer 3

pvonk

Level 6

13,851 points

Sep 23, 2013 11:04 AM in response to joelfrombranford

If you have an icloud account using some Apple ID, then if you want to use a certain email address that is not the ID, then add an alias to the account. For example:

ID: me@mac.com

alias: joe@icloud.com

You can now send emails as joe@icloud.com and they will behave the same as if you had used me@mac.com.

Note that now, with aliases, you must use the @icloud domain. You can't use something like joe@smith.com or even joe@mac.com (unless you already have this defined).

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Answer 4

Sep 24, 2013 6:13 AM in response to pvonk

Thanks pvonk,

I appreciate your help but this is not what I'm looking for. Searching the web and some apple doc pages I'm thinking that I am stuck with the icloud email address that I want with the apple id it is already associated with, even though it is not the primary email address associated with the apple id.

Thanks again,

-joel

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