can't change email address for iCloud

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Level 1

19 points

can't change email address for iCloud

I've changed my email to @icloud and went into change it in System preferences > iCloud but it won't accept the change, any suggestions?

Posted on Jul 12, 2014 2:16 PM

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Answer 1

randers4

Level 9

63,519 points

Jul 12, 2014 2:59 PM in response to azartguy

You can't use your @icloud.com address as your primary email address. You can only use an existing @icloud.com address as your primary email address if you elected to do so when you were first creating your ID and iCloud account.

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Answer 2

azartguy Author

Level 1

19 points

Jul 12, 2014 3:26 PM in response to randers4

Where did you find this info? Apple support says: "Apple recommends you change your Apple ID to your current, working email address. This will not create another Apple ID, it will only change it to your working email address."

So I dug deeper and found this:

Go to My Apple ID (appleid.apple.com).

Select “Manage your Apple ID” and sign in.
Select Edit next to “Apple ID and Primary Email Address.”
Enter the email address to use as your Apple ID, then select Save Changes. Apple will send a verification email to that address

But, if Apple won't let me change the email address, and the old address does not exist any longer because I created my Apple account a couple of years before iCloud existed, I won't get the email that will allow me verify the change. In other words, there are no options. Does this make sense to anybody, anywhere, outside of Cupertino?

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Answer 3

randers4

Level 9

63,519 points

Jul 12, 2014 3:36 PM in response to azartguy

An @icloud.com address is also an alias of your iCloud ID, and can be used interchangeably with your ID to, for example, sign into your account on iCloud.com. As such, it can't be used as your primary email address too (as it is already an Apple ID). The only exception is if you created the address when you first created your Apple ID, and then used it to create your iCloud account. As stated in this article Change your Apple ID:

"You can change the address of any Apple ID, except an Apple ID that ends with @icloud.com, @me.com, or @mac.com."

If your current primary email address is not functional, you'll need to create another non-apple email account (such as a Gmail address) and use that as your new Primary email address.

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Answer 4

azartguy Author

Level 1

19 points

Jul 12, 2014 4:13 PM in response to randers4

Thanks. That's what I could do. But my experience during the past year suggest a trend as...

Mavericks slowed my iMac down to a crawl and began to crash regularly,
or when my perfectly serviceable Photoshop CS4 wouldn't work with Mavericks, so I had top upgrade to Photoshop CC,
or when my iMac wouldn't handle the PS upgrade and slowed to a crawl and began to crash regularly
or when my perfectly serviceable Wacom 4 tablet started crashing because of the upgrade,
or when Aperture 3 refused to read CC files, or corrupted them when it did
or when Time Machine simply decided to not show any file before Mavericks
or Pages 4 files wouldn't be read by my iCloud-linked iPad without upgrading to Pages 5 which is, by general consensus, the single worst word processing program of the last decade
or, the current wonders of iCloud ... and so I'm starting to question my switch to Apple three years past.

I switched to Apple because of the GUI, and the commitment to a user-centric system and providing users with the best cutting-edge hardware and software and supporting those products. However, the paradigm shift to iOS, with the trend of churning out new products for the digital mobile world at the expense of established, desktop users, is disheartening.

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