How to remove an Apple ID "Reachable at" alias.

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Level 1

82 points

How to remove an Apple ID "Reachable at" alias.

How do you remove an Apple ID "Reachable at" alias?

For example if the device is a cell phone it likely will have a number and your apple id email. I have an extra one and its an old email that I would like to remove.

I have searched the community forum a little bit to help me with this.

I have come up with no way to remove an alias from an apple id account. I can only add new ones. Hopefully this thread will have the answer to my question.

iPhone 5s, iOS 10.1, Using Apple ID

Posted on Oct 29, 2016 12:46 PM

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Answer 1

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Oct 10, 2017 9:48 AM in response to cylent77

It is not clear how many email addresses you have or which are simply iCloud aliases - you always need at least one real email within an iCloud account that is not the same as the main Apple ID so there is an address to use for resets. If you have a second email account add that so you can remove the other one.

It is also unclear if the @icloud.com address is the same as your main Apple ID. It can be normal to have multiple addresses within an Apple ID.

I suspect you need to ask for help at an Apple store, take some screenshots of the settings that concern you, a genius should be able to help explain if you cannot work it out. I would view the iCloud alias & the Apple ID email settings.

If someone else created or modifies your account you should really discuss it with them to see why it is like that too otherwise they may have setup ways for them to gain access.

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Answer 2

cylent77

Level 1

13 points

Oct 9, 2017 4:25 PM in response to DCDavidA1

what if someone had added an icloud.com email address alias to my account because i had forgotten my password at a friend and they added this.

can they use this @icloud.com email alias to reset my account or change password/security questions?

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Answer 3

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Oct 9, 2017 5:25 PM in response to cylent77

Any email addresses that are set within your Apple account can potentially be used for password recovery.

I suggest you login to the the ID and check the addresses within the account.

https://appleid.apple.com. Remove any that you do not control, otherwise that email could be used to reset the account (depending on if you have 2 factor/ 2 step authentication enabled).

The 'email alias' term confuses the issue here, so you may need to explain a little more if the above does not apply. Apple accounts can have username@mac.com, username@icloud.com and combinations of other 'aliases' too, those aliases are managed at iCloud.com.

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Answer 4

cylent77

Level 1

13 points

Oct 9, 2017 5:33 PM in response to Drew Reece

its not removable.

furthremore, i tried to login with it and since i dont know the password for the @icloud.com address account that was added as an alias i did a password reset.

it sent an email password reset to the main account which is good.

so can i assume that the password for this email @icloud.com alias is the same password as the main account (apple id)? if so cause i changed that.

i just dont want them to login using an alias. thats a big security loop if they are able to.

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Answer 5

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Oct 29, 2016 1:28 PM in response to DCDavidA1

Login to iCloud.com

Select mail.

Select the Preferences at the bottom right via the 'gear' menu.

Select Accounts.

The email aliases are listed there & can be deleted.

You may also be referring to the 'reachable at' section of iMessage or the Apple ID. Login to appleid.apple.com and edit the settings for the reachability addresses there if that is what you are asking for (I'm not 100% certain I understand).

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Answer 6

DCDavidA1 Author

Level 1

82 points

Oct 31, 2016 6:50 AM in response to Drew Reece

The cog was at the bottom left of iCloud mail app

I apparently have no aliases and that email is, I think, my default @icloud.com email address. If you know where I can change/edit/delete that please let me know.

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Answer 7

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Oct 31, 2016 8:30 AM in response to DCDavidA1

I don't know what you are referring to you are not giving enough info.

Have you also looked at the Apple ID as I previously mentioned. There are many places where an Apple account can have & use email 'aliases'.

iMessage also has account settings that manage aliases on that device.

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Answer 8

DCDavidA1 Author

Level 1

82 points

Oct 31, 2016 10:10 AM in response to DCDavidA1

Sorry let me try to make it more clear ill insert images i didn't know i could do that.

Okay so the first picture is from an iphone on ios 10.1

Iphone>settings>top picture with name and such 'apple id'>Contact Information> this is the screen shot of the picture on the left.

The second picture is from what you told me to go to on

Icloud>mail>settings cog at bottom left>preferences>accounts

That "@icloud.com" email in the left screenshot and the "@icloud.com" email address in the right photo are the same.

As you can see I have no aliases and the email address for my icloud mail app is that @icloud.com Im assuming... that email though I want to change/edit/delete or something.

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Answer 9

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Oct 31, 2016 1:16 PM in response to DCDavidA1

The Apple ID primary email is the address you signed up with I believe it will be the one that receives the 'password reset' link if you ever need to request it from Apple. You can choose to edit that in the account at appleid.apple.com.

DCDavidA1 wrote:

As you can see I have no aliases and the email address for my icloud mail app is that @icloud.com Im assuming... that email though I want to change/edit/delete or something.

I don't know what this means?

As I keep mentioning you probably need to look at the appleid.apple.com or look at the Messages, FaceTime or Mail settings.

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Answer 10

DCDavidA1 Author

Level 1

82 points

Nov 15, 2016 1:46 PM in response to Drew Reece

So I figured it out. Basically that email is a permanent alias of my account. I did not add it to my account like I thought I did. This was my reason for wanting to remove it. Somewhere down the line that became my official "@icloud.com" email which you can not change even if you wanted to.

Overall you can remove any alias that you add yourself, but an "@icloud.com" email that you make using that same account can never removed. If you use that same email address with another account, and add it yourself, people can find that account with that email or email the original account.

ℹ = @

because it thinks I am adding actual addresses

For example, lets say you were to make a new Apple ID with a gmail account as its Apple ID

"example123ℹgmail.com" would be the user ID

Lets say you have this new account but you want people to be able to find you with your old account

"toytruckℹgmail.com"

and on your old account you happened to also make an "@icloud.com" email address connected to that "toytruckℹgmail.com" Apple ID and you made that "hotdog1ℹicloud.com"

well you could essentially make/remove "toytruckℹgmail.com" OR "hotdog1ℹicloud.com" as aliases of the "example123ℹgmail.com" Apple ID.

Where you can run into a problem though is if you think you can remove the "hotdog1ℹicloud.com" alias from your old, "toytruckℹgmail.com" Apple ID Because you can't. Also you can't change the "@icloud.com" address according to and Apple representative I spoke to on the phone.

Thank you for trying to help me Drew. The reason why I came here for help was because I actually did not make the icloud address for my account so I wanted to get rid of it or change it atleast. Both things I can not do. Since neither are possible I will just ignore them.

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