This email address is not available for use as an Apple ID

Thanks for asking the question. I had a similar situation and I have solved it in my own case. I had a duplicate/s accounts one of which referred to my gmail account. My main ID for apple had apps associated with it and apple orders so wanted to continue using, but it was an old ID so not yet converted to be an email address which caused problems when trying to setup an icloud account, so i needed to change my main ID to be my email account and obviously wanted to use my main email account, but this you guessed it tied up with one of the duplicates. Tried changing ID in duplicates and removing secondary email addresses but did not seem to 'free up' the email address. Was going to use a completely different email address and then remembered that you can use @googlemail.com and @gmail.com interchangeably for gmail accounts. So I have set my apple id to the googlemail one. Hope this helps someone too.

Thanks, Will

I had the same issue and got that solved in 10mn with the help of an Apple officer (apple.com website -> click "support" in the top bar menu -> click "apple ID" icon -> click "contact support" on the left)

The issue was that I wanted to create an account with an address that was already listed as a secondary address for an another, older, Apple ID account.

This situation blocks the Apple ID creation process (and because the email is not a primary address for any Apple ID yet, there is no birthdate associated with it and the recovery emails go nowhere)

To solve the problem I went to id.apple.com, clicked "manage your ID" and logged in with my old account credentials.

I then deleted the email address that I wanted to use to create an ID from the list of "alternate emails" associated with the old account and victory! After that the Apple ID creation process went fine.

I'm having this problem as well. However, the gmail address I wish to change to is not listed as my alternate security address. Is there a way to find out if it has been used with an Apple service in the past? Perhaps I've forgotten. Thanks xoxo 🙂

Hi Mate,

I hope this might be helpful although it might be too late. And All replies seems not to solve it as expected.

I had the exactly same problem as you.By calling Apple Support, I figured this can be done in this way:

Supposing you have 2 account A and B and the primary email addresses associated are a@amail.com and b@bmail.com respectively. Now you have to have a third email address, say c@cmail.com.

1.Disassociate A and a@amail.com, which should be replaces by c@cmail.com

2.You find when you try to associate B with a@amail.com, it shows you a@amail.com in unavailable. Then just wait for 30 days to free up a@amail.com.

3. Associate B with a@amail.com and wait for 30 days to free b@bmail.com.

4. Associate A with b@bmail.com.

a@amail.com&b@bmail.com are switched and c@cmail.com is still there.

Ta-Da!!!

This procedure takes at least 2 months to complete, but for a perfectionist, it is worth it.

Yes, I am having the same problem. When I called apple they said that things were "tied up somehow" with another account that has a do different birthday than me. Uuuuuhh? So that means someone else can log in?... I have a feeling there is a big vulnerability with the three login options, just like with the current and past password retrieval. Apple had only suggested that I delete my current set up on my serviced and make a new ID and email.

I Just got a new email and made a new Apple ID account For now. I was hoping the email would work itself out. I assumed If I could make sure everything was verified, not associated with another account, and try to get rid of the alternate id and second email option also used to sign in (seen in Apple ID management) that could possibly be construed or mixed up with something else that it would eventually free up and become "available" again. Unfortunately im still waiting In hopes in just needs to recognize the email isn't associated with anything.

I have had a few major concerns with apple products lately especially with security. My iPhone 4s was hacked too. Some ******* was listening/recording and when I hooked to Internet he sent out the recorded portion that was available. Talk about ****** up.

Same issue, your description helped me solve my problem. The email address that I was trying to use was a secondary email on my older icloud account. I removed it and then was able to create a new icloud account with that email address. Thanks!

This is a public forum. I've asked the hosts to remove your email address to reduce the chance of it being harvested by spammers.

As far as I can tell from looking at What can I buy from the iTunes Store in my country or region? - Apple Support there is no iTunes Store for Iceland as yet. Only Apple Support can tell you for certain, but perhaps the sign up form has a list of exclusions for country codes where Apple doesn't yet have a presence. Their contractual arrangements with content providers prevent them making cross border sales.

tt2

This is the key no one else mentioned... you can't use the address again for 30-days? That *****.

At least now I know?

tell us why is it not available for Apple?

rgds Thorsteinn

this just helped me so much, thank you! works perfectly. i really wanted everything to come to my gmail, but it was associated with an apple ID from years ago, when I got my first ipod touch, so there was a lot of confusion. Thanks!

I had a similar/related problem. I was setting up Family Sharing and changing from one Apple ID to multiples under family sharing. As it turns out, I had four email addresses associated with one PRIMARY Apple Id account (the whole family shared one ID). When creating NEW Apple ID's for my wife and two kids I could not create the account with email addresses that were "already in use" because they were used by the primary account as iCloud contact options and listed as a secondary security email account.

Before creating the NEW Apple ID's for my family, I had to remove all references of the email addresses I wanted to use for NEW accounts from being associated with iCloud in any way. Unlike a previous post, I did not have to wait for 30 days for Apple to flush their system...it happened immediately.

Unfortunately, one drawback of using Family Sharing is the fact that Contacts are not shared when having accounts linked in Family Sharing but having their own Apple ID's. My Wife and I shared contact lists to save on updating and it was handy to have my kids friends numbers too... Now we will need to share through another service (Google mail or ...).

I hope this help's others!

Just wondering... did you have to wait or did it work right away? I'm having a similar issue.

You are a genius!

You're awesome. I had that same problem, now solved! Thanks!

In Iceland we use ****@internet.is. This is a lógó for an Icelandic e mail service provider. Why does Aplle not allow my ID ****@internet.is. Pls reply.

Rgds Thorsteinn

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