can't create apple id account limit reached

Welcome to the Apple Community.

Unfortunately once all the 3 iCloud accounts have been created on your device, you cannot create any more regardless of what you do. You will need to re-use one of the accounts that you have already created or create your new account on another iOS device or Mac computer.

So let me get this straight...

I am married and have two kids. My wife, daughter and I all have iPhones and use the home laptop. We utilize iCloud to ensure info is synced between devices. My son is getting to the age where he is about to get an iPhone. Since it appears that the limit of three iCloud accounts is on a device, it would see, he is out of luck. Even when my daughter goes off to college in a year, it does not sound as if there is an easy way of deleting her info and replacing it with his.

if all this is true, I am very disappointed. Over the last few years I have worked to make this an Apple household So information will flow effortlessly to family members and now it seems as though it is not possible due to too many family members.

Will this new account I set up for him work as I planned when he gets his first/new iPhone? Is it simply a problem restricted to my laptop's limits?

I don't know why you had a problem on your computer, there is no reason you can't log into an existing account, you should have no problems on a new phone. It isn't that you are restricted to logging into 3 accounts either, by way of an example I'm logged into 4 accounts on my Mac, iPad and iPhone.

So let me ask you this.

Yes, I believe you can, however I haven't actually signed in with multiple primary accounts over multiple user accounts myself, so am not in a position to say I've seen it work.

As Winston says, there is a limit of three new accounts on any one device. If the device in question has created three accounts you can still create a new account on another iOS device or Mac (not PC) and then you can sign into it on the first device. Your son can create an iCloud account without problems on his new iPhone when he gets it.

Ok, a few things.

1. If my son creates a new account somewhere else, can he then log onto my laptop (which already has reached its limit of creating new accounts) and still be able to utilize iCloud abilities?

2. This one gets a little wordy. The way I found out about this issue is that I used my laptop to create an iCloud account for my father (he's in his 70s and about to get an iPhone and I like to help him with these things even though I am stationed 1000 miles away). The account works for things like going to iCloud.com, creating and signing into iTunes. However, I set up a login for him on my laptop in an attempt to populate the contacts and submit invites to share calendars and photo albums. However when I go to system preferences and select icloud to log him in, that's when I get the "limit reached" error. I guess my question is... Will this account I set up for him work as I planned when he gets his iPhone? Is it simply a problem on this laptop?

3. This relates to both question 1 and 2. If "creating" new account on a device is an issue, does that mean I could go to my Apple desktop and set up a user account and then login into this already established Apple ID/ iCloud account without it counting against my limit of 3?

1. Yes.

2. It sounds like you are trying to create an ID rather than simply logging into an existing one.

3. You won't avoid the limit of 3 by creating different user accounts, it's counted per device, not by each user on a device.

1. Thank you.

2. Right. I believe I have created a new one with my Father's info. I went on my laptop and went to iCloud.com and created the account without issue. But when I went to test it by creating a user account and tried to access the iCloud app via system preferences, that is when I had the error message about limits. So it is okay if I can't get it to work on this laptop but what i really want know... Will this new account I set up for him work as I planned when he gets his first/new iPhone? Is it simply a problem restricted to my laptop's limits?

3. So let me ask you this. Let's pretend I get rid of this laptop and my family of four already have Apple IDs/iCloud accounts. Then i buy a new laptop. And I set up users accounts for all four of us. Since none of us created our Apple IDs/iCloud accounts on this new laptop, can we all log into our computer's user accounts and then login to out own iCloud accounts so that we can access our contact info, photos, calendar from our laptop and our phones and other apple devices. And does that mean we can also, if needed, create 3 new Apple IDs/iCloud accounts on the new laptop as we have yet to us it to create such account?

Will this new account I set up for him work as I planned when he gets his first/new iPhone? Is it simply a problem restricted to my laptop's limits?

Yes.

Since none of us created our Apple IDs/iCloud accounts on this new laptop, can we all log into our computer's user accounts and then login to out own iCloud accounts so that we can access our contact info, photos, calendar from our laptop and our phones and other apple devices.

Yes.

And does that mean we can also, if needed, create 3 new Apple IDs/iCloud accounts on the new laptop as we have yet to us it to create such account?

Yes.

You can have as many accounts on a device as you want, but you can only create 3 NEW accounts on any device. So if you have 3 devices and NO accounts you can create up to 9 (3x3) accounts, but can sign into any number of EXISTING accounts on the devices.

Thank you everybody. I think I am getting a good handle on the situation.

Right now 3 of my household members have existing Apple IDs. I cannot remember if all or some used this laptop to create them.

Last night when I created a new account for my father on my laptop. Everything seemed to go well. I can confirm the existence via confirmation through his email and when I log in or search for it via Apple.com. So from what is being said here. If a limit had been reached prior, this account should have never been made. If true, then this new account in itself might have been the third and last account to be made. However if that is true. Why won't it let me sign in to the iCloud app?

I think possibly you are confusing creating an Apple ID and creating an iCloud account. You can create as many Apple IDs as you like on any device, but if you create an ID on another device and then try to use it to create an iCloud account on a machine which has already created three accounts, it won't work as we've discussed. You have to create the actual iCloud account on another device first.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you are trying to say Roger, but so far as I'm aware you can only create 3 Apple ID's on any device and you can't create an iCloud account as such, you can only log into iCloud using an Apple ID.

As I understand it the limit of three applies to iCloud accounts, not to Apple IDs. I don't think there's any limit to the number of Apple IDs you can create, as long as you provide a new external address for each one. The IDs are created through the website, so it would be difficult to identify the machine involved. The iCloud accounts are created by the Mac or iOS device itself, using an existing Apple ID,* so the fact that it's done can be coded into the firmware. I suspect that the OP has created just an Apple ID on another device, but of course when he tries to use that to sign into iCloud on the device in question he meets the block.

*There is the special case where you create a fresh ID at the same time as creating a new iCloud account, and have the option of either using an external address as the ID or of using the @icloud.com address you create in the process as the ID as well. Obviously that is still affected by the limit.

Hmm.. Ok.. I think I understand.

So as far as my Father is concerned; I created an Apple ID for him. However it's not really an iCloud account until it can be signed onto a device where a limit has not been reached and/or a device in which it was not originally created.

That's right. It's two separate processes:

1. Using a non-Apple email address, create an ID at http://appleid.apple.com - you can use this to sign into the iTunes Store and these forums, and make purchases in the Online Apple Store and the Mac App Store.

2. In System Preferences (or Settings)>iCloud, sign in and create a new @icloud.com address when you enable Mail syncing.

In your case you will have to carry out both steps on another device. Then you can sign into the iCloud account on the device with the limit.