Q: I have an old email account on iCloud and cannot update my iPad because I am not able to turn off find my iPad

Welcome to the Apple community.

If you mean that Find My Phone is asking for a password to a different Apple ID to your current Apple ID and that ID is a previous version of your current ID, not an entirely different one.

This feature has been introduced to make stolen phones useless to those that have stolen them.

However it can also arise when the user has changed their Apple ID details with Apple and not made the same changes to their iCloud account/Find My Phone on their device before upgrading to iOS 7, or if you restore from a previous back up made before you changed your details and some other circumstances.

The only solution is to change your Apple ID back to its previous state with Apple at My Apple ID using your current password, you don’t need access to this address if it’s previously been used with your Apple ID, nor do you need to verify it, once you have saved these details enter the password as requested on your device and then turn off "find my phone" and delete the account from your device. It may take a short while to remove the account.

You should then change your Apple ID back to its current state, save it once again and then log back in using your current Apple ID. Finally, turn "find my phone" back on once again.

This article provides more information about Activation Lock.

You don't need access to it.

You either haven't described your situation correctly or you aren't reading the solution correctly.

that account is no longer active

If you mean your email account, as I've said it doesn't matter, you don't need access to it. If you mean the Apple ID for which this address is associated then that's not correct, Apple ID's can't be terminated.

I seem to have a similar problem.

I attached my new iPhone to my pc via USB/lightning connector with the purpose of syncing some songs from my PC.

This is the 1st time I have attached my new phone to my pc and a screen came up asking me if I wanted to back up to an existing date or set up as a new phone. I didn't want to do either but I couldn't progress any further so I hit backup to a previous date. The phone backed up to an old apple ID email that is no longer in existence. I was able to change to my current Apple ID email in itunes but not in icloud.

When I go into Settings/iCloud to top of the screen has my name with my old account login. When I press this it tells me that "Account details unavailable. If you are signing into iCloud on another device or at iCloud.com, you can get a verification code while offline" There are then 2 options " get verification code" or "OK". When I hit ok nothing happens. When I hit get verification code it gives me a code but nowhere to enter it.

Like loghouseowner I cannot turn off find my iPhone as it is asking for the password for my old iTunes email ID.

Please help.

When I press this it tells me that "Account details unavailable. If you are signing into iCloud on another device or at iCloud.com, you can get a verification code while offline" There are then 2 options " get verification code" or "OK". When I hit ok nothing happens. When I hit get verification code it gives me a code but nowhere to enter it.

I didn't suggest you do any of this.

Hello Winston.

I didn't say you did.

I was explaining what I did myself before I logged into support.