icloud account email is different from apple id email

If you are trying to change the iCloud ID ("email") on your phone, you have to go to Settings>iCloud, tap Delete Account, provide the password for the old ID when prompted to turn off Find My iDevice, then sign back in with the ID you wish to use. When you do this you may find that the password for your old ID isn't accepted. If this should happen, and if your old ID is an earlier version of your current ID, you need to temporarily recreate your old ID by going to https://appleid.apple.com, click Manage my Apple ID and sign in with your current iCloud ID. Click edit next to the primary email account, change it back to your old email address and save the change. Then edit the name of the account to change it back to your old email address. You can now use your current password to turn off Find My iDevice on your device, even though it prompts you for the password for your old account ID. Then save any photo stream photos that you wish to keep to your camera roll. When finished go to Settings>iCloud, tap Delete Account and choose Delete from My iDevice when prompted (your iCloud data will still be in iCloud). Next, go back to https://appleid.apple.com and change your primary email address and iCloud ID name back to the way it was. Now you can go to Settings>iCloud and sign in with your current iCloud ID and password.

I have the exact same problem, and it's infuriating. When I try to log in to iCloud, it asks me to manage my apple ID. So i go log in with that username and password, and it takes me to a page that shows those details. All of which is fine, but at no point does the system ever give me a chance to change my iCloud password. I can change my apple ID password 100 times, but I never get to a place where I can change my iCloud password. Either I'm a complete idiot, or the system is totally confusing.

If you're still trying to change your iCloud password, this article explains how to do this: iCloud: Change your iCloud password.

Thanks for the reply. The problem is that I've done this over and over, and I can change my Apple ID password just fine. But the password for iCloud is apparently different, and there seems to be no place I can find that will change it. When I change my Apple ID password, I can use it to log into everything *except* iCloud, which tells me my password is incorrect, then directs me to change my Apple ID password yet again. It's like an endless feedback loop of failure.

Your iCloud ID is an Apple ID, and you change the password for it the same way you change the password for any other Apple ID. If for some reason you're having trouble with this, you can contact the Apple account security team for your country and ask for assistance: Apple ID: Contacting Apple for help with Apple ID account security. If your country isn't listed, you can contact iTunes store support for assistance by filling out this form: https://ssl.apple.com/emea/support/itunes/contact.html.

Thanks so much for the link! I was able to solve the problem by following it and scheduling a one-on-one session with Apple tech support where the technician tracked down my other Apple ID and was able to help me fix the problem. Apparently, somehow I had an Apple ID that was my name, but attached to a @me.com account, and another older ID that was attached to my current email that I never use and had forgotten about. Anyway, the tech support was excellent and it's all fixed now. If anyone else is in iCloud password ****, I highly recommend going this route to try to fix it. It took awhile, but everything works now, and I would never have been able to do it on my own.

Funny that the profanity filter covered "H-E-double hockey sticks". Didn't think I was being that hardcore! 🙂