How do I change my old Apple ID email address?

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How do I change my old Apple ID email address?

Hello,

I signed up for the original .Mac account way back before 2007. I have a main email address, and some alternatives. I would like to change my Apple ID from the original main, to one of the alternatives.

Yes, I have seen: Change your Apple ID - Apple Support

But my screen doesn't give me the option of Editing the email address (apparently because it is old).

Is there a workaround? And / or can Apple please fix this annoying unnecessary glitch! And and, if I delete the account and start again, will the original emails no longer be available?

Thanks for your help,

Scott

Posted on Feb 21, 2015 1:33 AM

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Answer 1

Brett L

Community Specialist

Feb 22, 2015 9:30 AM in response to scottukgb

Good day Scott,

Apple IDs which end in @mac.com, @me.com or @icloud.com can not be changed. See the first paragraph of this article -

Change your Apple ID - Apple Support

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.

Safe computing,

Brett L

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Answer 2

Feb 22, 2015 9:54 AM in response to scottukgb

scottukgb wrote:

Is there a workaround?

I'm afraid not.

Is there a workaround? And / or can Apple please fix this annoying unnecessary glitch!

It's not a glitch and I see no likelihood of it being changed. If your ID is something@mac.com then something@me.com and something@icloud.com are all the same thing and will receive the message and can be used as logins.

if I delete the account and start again, will the original emails no longer be available?

If you want to delete the account you need to download all the messages to a new mailbox under 'On My Mac' - just create the mailbox and drag the messages to it (don't try to do a huge number all at once). All this is likely to take some time. The actual email addresses associated with the account cannot be moved to a new account.

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Answer 3

scottukgb Author

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Mar 3, 2015 2:45 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Thanks for your replies.

So, I wanted to change my Apple ID from my original@mac.com email address to one of my alternatives@mac.com (I don't much care whether it's @mac, @me or @icloud, it's the switching between alternatives I'm after). This is because my original email address was a (silly) pseudonym, whereas my alternative is my real full name. At present, for example, I can only send Calendar invites with the original silly email, whereas I'd like to send them with my full name (e.g. to clients and colleagues).

It is possible to switch your Apple ID from original to alternative emails in current .icloud accounts. It's just that, for some reason, this option isn't available on older accounts. That's why I call it a glitch / oversight. There's no apparent technical obstacle to having this feature (it works now, and presumably the entire system has been migrated several times over since ~2005). It just seems like an arbitrary cut off – and one that is reducing the functionality of OS X for me (and presumably others).

So, is there anything I can do??

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Answer 4

Mar 3, 2015 3:39 AM in response to scottukgb

If your ID is original@mac.com because you started with a MobileMe (or DotMac) account then if you have somethingelse@mac.com that has to be an 'email alias'. You can't make an alias into the ID (or the ID for another account). You can specify an alias as the 'From' address when sending an email but I don't know whether you can do so where Calendar invites are concerned.

If you can't find a way to use an alias with the calendar invites your only other option is to create a completely new iCloud account from scratch. Of course you won't be able to use the exact version of your name which is the alias, but you could make a variant. However you can't merge accounts; you would have to manually transfer any data on the old account to the new one, or sign into the new one in the usual way then sign in with the old one in System Preferences>Mail, Contacts and Calendars in order to maintain the data (though accounts signed in in that way can't use PhotoStream or Find My Mac/iPhone/Pad).

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Answer 5

scottukgb Author

Level 1

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Mar 30, 2015 7:43 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Hello again,

Yes, my something else@mac.com is an alias.

Are you sure that "you can't make an alias into the ID"?

The main issue seems to be that, for recent accounts, there is an Edit button next to where it says "Apple ID and Primary Email Address" (as in here: http://www.wikihow.com/Change-Your-Apple-ID), whereas there is no such Edit button for older .dotmac accounts... ??

Scott

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Answer 6

Mar 31, 2015 12:24 AM in response to scottukgb

scottukgb wrote:

Are you sure that "you can't make an alias into the ID"?

Yes.

The main issue seems to be that, for recent accounts, there is an Edit button next to where it says "Apple ID and Primary Email Address" (as in here: http://www.wikihow.com/Change-Your-Apple-ID), whereas there is no such Edit button for older .dotmac accounts... ??

You only see the Edit button if the ID is a non-Apple address.

People who started with iTools or MobileMe automatically have their @mac.com / @me.com and now @icloud.com address (all interchangeable) as the ID. This cannot be changed.

People who created a new iCloud account from System Preferences>iCloud could choose to make the ID the @icloud.com address; again, this cannot be changed.

People who started by creating an Apple ID at http://appleid.apple.com, which requires the use of an external address, have that address as their ID and this can be changed. However the primary @icloud.com address of an iCloud account can not be changed.

All types of accounts can create up to three 'email aliases' - these are additional addresses, not accounts. Once created, an alias cannot be made into the ID, or used as either the ID or the alias for another account (even after deletion).

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