No option to associate Apple ID with user account

Question

Level 1

6 points

No option to associate Apple ID with user account

Hey guys, I'm hoping you can help me out here.

I have a Late-2008 MBP that I've just upgraded to Yosemite. I'm trying to get my old copy of iWork 09 to be recognized by the AppStore for upgrade, but the AppStore is convinced that it was not purchased (I installed it via DVD). I saw on a few websites that I need to associate my Apple ID to my user account for this to cooperate, but I don't have that option.

FileVault is turned off; I know that can affect this feature.

I've tried creating another account and signing in with my Apple ID while logged on there. When I did that, the AppStore didn't even see that I had iWork installed at all.

I tried setting my password to match my Apple ID account, to see if that would nudge something into cooperating. No dice.

Any other ideas, please?

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Oct 17, 2014 10:10 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 22, 2014 2:45 PM in response to pmbasehore

Paul,

The fact you have 'Allow user to reset password' as a checkbox option tells me you're still using a separate rather than iCloud password.

What I did to get around this is click the Change Password button at the top. This gives you the option of switching between separate and iCloud credentials.

Regards

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Answer 2

pmbasehore Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 1, 2014 1:34 PM in response to 10,000 Angry Vegans

Thanks, 10,000 Angry Vegans. I've done that, but the option still isn't there. I've re-installed my DVD-versions of iWork and iLife since. The App Store did weird things after that:

iPhoto became a free download

iMovie is shown as installed, needing an update

Garage Band is not shown as installed, but it had an update show up like it was an OS update. I'm not sure if I understand what happened there, and I saw it.

All of iWork is shown as installed, and needs an update.

iMovie, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote all fail their updates, saying that they were installed using a different Apple ID. My goal is for these apps to be associated with my Apple ID so I can get the needed updates. Any other ideas?

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Answer 3

Nov 1, 2014 1:40 PM in response to pmbasehore

Have you managed to sign in to iCloud via the iCloud control panel in System Preferences?

My father had a similar problem only last week that was solved by signing out of iCloud in System Preferences and then changing the user password which gave him the option of using iCloud credentials for the user account.

Note that I'd also trashed the system preferences file in ~/Library/Preferences before doing that but could not say whether that had any meaningful effect.

Regards

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Answer 4

pmbasehore Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 1, 2014 2:03 PM in response to 10,000 Angry Vegans

I think I tried that, but no change. This is what I did:

I signed out of iCloud in System Preferences. When I did that, it prompted me to enter in my Apple ID password and choose a new password for my local account. I checked my Users & Groups account and it still didn't give me any option to tie everything into my iCloud account. So I logged back into iCloud, and went to Users & Groups again. Clicked "Change Password" and chose to use my iCloud password.

Still no dice. I feel like this should be a lot easier than it is -- I must be missing something. Right?

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Answer 5

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

Nov 1, 2014 2:21 PM in response to pmbasehore

Can you unlock the System Preferences, right click the user & select 'Advanced Options'. That should give you access to the 'aliases' that are associated with that user account - does the Apple ID match? These settings are critical - so backup before you change any of them.

Another thing to consider is that ANY apps on your Mac that are associated with another Apple ID can stop the app store allowing you to switch accounts. Remove any apps from other users, Spotlight will know they exist, so eject all disks that contain them.

You can also update iLife manually (but not to the App Store versions) perhaps you need newer app versions to qualify for the store versions?

Apple - Support - Downloads

I also wonder if the upgrade program has ended?

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Answer 6

pmbasehore Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 1, 2014 2:33 PM in response to Drew Reece

I did that -- my Apple ID shows up correctly in the Apple ID box, but the "Alias" box has two entries -- one that matches my Apple ID, and one that's different. It's "com.apple.idms.appleid.prd.<LongNumber>". Do I need to remove that second entry for it to cooperate?

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Answer 7

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

Nov 1, 2014 8:48 PM in response to pmbasehore

Back the strings up into a text file & then remove them from the list. I'd reboot for what it is worth.

I would assume the incorrect Apple ID is the one to remove. I'm still not convinced this is the reason for the failure in the store, but I can't see the terms for the iLife upgrade, I believe it was tied to the specific Mac, it's possible your version is not eligible (I have a clean installed & updated iLife 09 here that wants to charge for Garageband). It's also possible that Apple pulled the free versions from the store in which case only previously purchased versions will be available for download.

The alias com.apple.idms.appleid.prd[…] seems normal to me (I have one too) , but I cannot work out what it is for (iCloud, Back To My Mac, or the App Store…).

P.S. Click the tiny blue 'More' link to expand the list of updates in the store, it may be that updates are listed within the Software update section.

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Answer 8

Feb 29, 2016 6:43 AM in response to pmbasehore

I'm having the same problem after changing my account's "Full Name" (right click on the account and choose "Advanced Options"). When I click "Change Password", it no longer prompts me to use my iCloud password to login. Even after signing out of iCloud and removing the Apple ID from "Advanced Options", it still shows the checkbox for "Allow user to reset password using Apple ID". Clearly something is corrupted and some part of the account system thinks I'm still associated with iCloud.

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