HT201485: If you forgot the answers to your Apple ID security questions
Learn about If you forgot the answers to your Apple ID security questions
Q: rigidity of the AppleID system
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Jul 19, 2016 9:40 AMby Phil0124,The point here is you cannot have a 100% Apple based only Apple ID.
Apple IDs created from a 3rd Party E-Mail account cannot be changed to use only Apple E-Mail addresses.
This is a security measure so if something happens to the Apple Systems for any reason, and the iCloud E-Mail cannot be accessed there is still an address that can be used to restore it.
You cannot change this, and you will need another 3rd party E-mail account to set as the primary E-mail address for your Apple ID.
You should never rely solely on a single E-mail account.
If something happens to your account, recovering it will be a nightmare if it at all possible if you don't have a functional e-e-mail account attached to it besides the iCloud account.
I strongly suggest you create a new e-mail account, and just use it for the Apple ID. Even if you don't use it for anything else, having a backup is always a good idea.
Having an extra account should not elicit this type of drama. What is so wrong with having a secondary 3rd party account?
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Jul 19, 2016 11:01 PMby ionel-ciprian,I have added a rescue email address. Thanks for the tip.
The issue here is that the Apple ID is considered to be an email address where I can be reached at. And this is not correct. In certain situations the system still sends emails to my old gmail address even though it is not set as my Primary Email. Now I can understand that some of you got used to this, but getting used to it does not make it normal.
Whenever I look at my iCloud account, under my name, I see the old gmail address which I do not use anymore. This does not make sense. In addition it looks odd and I do not like it. Changing it to a different third party email address which I will not use would not help.
Have a fresh look at the system and think about it a little:
Why does the Apple ID have to be a valid email address entered by the user?
While I can understand the reasoning behind choosing email addresses as Apple IDs (email addresses are unique afterall), it does not have to be something that the user defines. It may as well be an automatically generated GUID for what I care as long as it uniquely identifies the Apple account.
What the user should define is a Primary Email address and either a secondary email address or a rescue email address. It would be reasonable to add a constraint that at least one of the email addresses to be of a third party or to choose a secondary form of verification. The user would be the one that chooses which of the addresses can be used for communication.
Imagine that everywhere in those screenshots with iCloud accounts under the person's name the Primary Email would be displayed instead of the Apple ID. Now that would be more meaningful.
People change email addresses. They do not do it that often, but it happens.
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Jul 19, 2016 11:30 PMby LACAllen,If you only knew the effort expended by "Online ID" providers to have users recall their passwords, let alone a username they made up, you wouldn't float the idea.
An ID is aligned with an email address by many companies besides Apple.
And all for likely the same reason. People will recall them better than something unique they created.
If you reply and say, "but I am clever enough to manage this.." then you are I'm afraid, the outlier.
So, once again... did you delete the Gmail address via Google, or just let it go dormant?
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Jul 20, 2016 12:02 AMby ionel-ciprian,I was suggesting the Apple ID should be something automatically generated, completely unknown to the user, used only internally by Apple to uniquely identify the account. No user name.
The user would have to remember only the email addresses that they actually use.
I have deleted the google account and all related data.
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Jul 20, 2016 2:15 AMby ionel-ciprian,Winston, I have accounts at other online services where they ask me for an email address and a password to verify my identity. And both can be changed at any time keeping the same account. Surely they must use some form of unique key to identify the account. I do not understand why it is so daft to suggest Apple ID could work the same way.
Only if you get out of the mind set that Apple ID must be equal to a valid address you will be able to understand.
It is been like this for a long time and I can understand it is difficult to think about it in a different way.
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Jul 20, 2016 6:21 AMby LACAllen,You are describing the Apple ID system.
I too am done with this thread. I haven't been sure what your issue is/was since it started.
You've done nothing to help close that loop for me, or anyone trying to help you.
You alone deleted your Gmail address & account, while leaving it associated with your Apple ID.
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Jul 22, 2016 2:30 AMby Phil0124,HelpfulI'm going to give it one more shot. Even though I noticed you totally ignored by post above explaining why it works the way it does.
ionel-ciprian wrote:
Winston, I have accounts at other online services where they ask me for an email address and a password to verify my identity. And both can be changed at any time keeping the same account. Surely they must use some form of unique key to identify the account. I do not understand why it is so daft to suggest Apple ID could work the same way.
But Apple does work that way. The only constraint is that the E-Mail address you use cannot be an Apple based E-mail address as explained above.
You can change the E-mail address at any time, as many times as you want, to an entirely different one, and your Apple ID will continue to be the same Apple ID, it just cannot use an Apple based E-Mail that is all.
You don't want to have a 3rd party E-mail as your Apple ID, but that is simply not possible and it has been explained why. Everything else you mention you would like to be able to do you can already do with that constraint.
Again why is having a 3rd party E-mail account there so offensive?
If you deleted the G-Mail account create a new one and change your Apple ID to it so it is functional. That's it. you are done.
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Jul 22, 2016 1:48 AMby ionel-ciprian,Phil, but you can have a "100% Apple based only Apple ID" if you use the icloud.com address at the creation of the account. In such a situation the Apple based e-mail address is used and it works fine.
I understand and agree with the idea of having a backup email address to use in case access to the primary one is forfeited. I can see the benefit of having the backup email setup at a 3rd party.
I just find it disappointing and inflexible not being allowed to switch the e-mail addresses around.
In my case, having started with a 3rd party email account, I am forced to only use 3rd party email accounts as my Apple ID. I could live with this constraint as long as Apple would not display it under my name everytime I look at my iCloud account details. It looks like it is my main email address which is not true. It even lists it among the email addresses I am reachable at which is again not true.
My Apple ID is functional the way it is with a non existing email address as the Apple ID. It is wrong to see that non existing email displayed under my name in my iCloud account details and among the email addresses I am reachable at.
I have setup a 3rd party rescue email address, my icloud.com email address is setup as my Primary Email address. The Apple ID is meaningless at this point. Replacing the Apple ID with a newly created email address which I will not use would not help in any way.
I guess my issue is more of a display problem, than a functional one. That is why perhaps it is not so obvious.
Thank you everybody for your input.
