Can't change Apple ID

When you create an Apple ID you can either (1) sign up by using a third party email address or (2) choose to create an iCloud email address and sign up by using that iCloud email address.

If you choose option (1), your Apple ID/iCloud account will initially not have an iCloud email address associated with it at all. The third party email address you use to sign up will be your Apple ID's name (and also the primary way Apple will contact you; for example to confirm App Store purchases). You will be able to use other iCloud services such as Find My iPhone, Notes and Reminders. Just no iCloud email. It is still possible to create an iCloud email address for that Apple ID at any time after you initially signed up by using your third party email. This can be done in the Settings app on iOS or MacOS or by clicking on the email icon on iCloud.com. You will however not be able to change your Apple ID's name from the third party email address you used upon signup to your newly created iCloud email address. Your Apple ID's name can only be changed to another third party email that is not already in use by another Apple ID.

​As such, unfortunately currently it is not possible to change an Apple ID's name/primary email from a third party email address to an iCloud email address (i.e. to the same iCloud email address that is already associated with/an alias for that Apple ID).

This is a known issue and it has been known for a very long time. From a user perspective, its completely insane.

The topic is extensively discussed in this thread https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4434456.

I strongly encourage you to provide feedback to Apple as indicated in this post https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4434456?answerId=32026857022#32026857022.

If you choose option (2) upon sign up however, your newly created iCloud email address will be your Apple ID's name and your Apple ID's name cannot be changed at all. This option is only available when an Apple ID is created on iOS or MacOS through the Settings app or through the device setup menu.

Winston Churchill wrote:

This is a known issue and it has been known for a very long time. From a user perspective, its completely insane.

No, it's not. An issue would be where it doesn't behave as expected, this does, it's exactly how it's intended to be and there's nothing wrong with it although I appreciate you may like it to work differently.

Sure it is. From any average user's perspective, this is not at all a crazy or exotic thing to want and should simply be possible. From a user's perspective, it therefore does not at all behave as should reasonably be expected and is an issue.

I appreciate that this is the way the back-end of Apple ID works. The fact that Apple ID works this way however *is* the issue, at least from a lot of users' perspectives as extensively discussed in this thread https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4434456.

I didn't say you can’t use an Apple address for your ID.

An ID has both an Apple address and a non-Apple address associated with it, you can change the non-Apple address for another non-Apple address, but you can’t change the Apple address at all.

You seem to be contradicting yourself. You first said you can't use an Apple email for an Apple ID,

For the second time that isn't what I said at all, I said...

You can only change your non-Apple address to another non-Apple address

Which means the non-Apple address you currently have associated with your ID can be changed but only for another non-Apple ID, I didn't even mention an Apple address in my first post.

then you say that you can use an Apple email address, and then in the next sentance say you can't.

You need to re-read what I've written. I'm not sure which sentence you are referring to in my post, but the first sentence in my second post merely points out what I've just said above...

I didn't say you can’t use an Apple address for your ID.

After that I said...

An ID has both an Apple address and a non-Apple address associated with it, you can change the non-Apple address for another non-Apple address, but you can’t change the Apple address at all.

Which is exactly how it is. For example, my Apple ID has the two addresses (not real for example only) winnie @ iCloud.com and winnie @ hotmail.com

I can change the non-Apple address I use for my ID, for example, I can change it from winnie @ hotmail.com to winnie.c @ yahoo.com but I can't change the Apple address I use which will always be winnie @ iCloud.com

This is a known issue and it has been known for a very long time. From a user perspective, its completely insane.

No, it's not. An issue would be where it doesn't behave as expected, this does, it's exactly how it's intended to be and there's nothing wrong with it although I appreciate you may like it to work differently.

Winston Churchill wrote:

So software has an issue when it doesn't suit you rather than not doing something it's supposed to do. It's not my definition of a known issue but there we are.

Pretty sure you were the one who just wrote "An issue would be where it doesn't behave as expected".

I was just observing that for many average users the Apple ID front-end clearly doesn't behave as should reasonably be expected in this regard.

Not saying it's a software bug. Just that from an average user's perspective it should simply be possible to change an Apple ID's name from a third party email address to the iCloud email address that is already associated with/an alias for that Apple ID. The fact that it's not possible is counterintuitive and should be considered an issue from user-friendliness perspective.

Pretty sure you were the one who just wrote "An issue would be where it doesn't behave as expected".

Yes, but that's 'as expected' to work by the people who built it, not 'a handful of people' that use it.

Winston Churchill wrote:

Pretty sure you were the one who just wrote "An issue would be where it doesn't behave as expected".

Yes, but that's 'as expected' to work by the people who built it, not 'a handful of people' that use it.

That only makes sense if you don’t care about user experience.

Also, in what universe do only "a handful of people" use Apple ID?

Winston Churchill wrote:

Only a handful of people want to change their ID, I've been in these communities for 16 years, I know the sort of volumes that are bothered about this sort of stuff, you are a small minority.

Well duh only a relatively small minority encounters this here; that can probably be said of most things in these communities. Does not mean it does not merit to be addressed.

Also, at the titanic scales that Apple operates at, even if a relatively small minority of users encounters something in these communities, it arguably still means that a massive number of users out there are experiencing the same. It would be out of touch to think otherwise.

As impressive as your 16 year tenure in these communities may be - and I do sincerely mean that and appreciate the effort - nothing you've said so far on the topic at hand has been convincing. Your arguments basically went from 'it's not an issue at all' to 'who cares about the minority of people who are experiencing the issue'.

Your arguments basically went from 'it's not an issue at all' to 'who cares about the minority of people who are experiencing the issue'.

I haven't changed my mind at all, it's not a known issue and I didn't say I didn't care what the minority want, but just because you or somebody else wants something different (in any numbers) doesn't make it a known issue. If everything that somebody felt should be done differently was a known issue, everything or very close to everything would be a known issue.

I'd like to be able to share photo albums in Photos at full resolution with chosen recipients, that doesn't make the fact that Photos doesn't do that a known issue nor does the fact that I might be in a small minority mean I don't care.

Winston Churchill wrote:

Your arguments basically went from 'it's not an issue at all' to 'who cares about the minority of people who are experiencing the issue'.

I haven't changed my mind at all, it's not a known issue and I didn't say I didn't care what the minority want, but just because you or somebody else wants something different (in any numbers) doesn't make it a known issue. If everything that somebody felt should be done differently was a known issue, everything or very close to everything would be a known issue.

I'd like to be able to share photo albums in Photos at full resolution with chosen recipients, that doesn't make the fact that Photos doesn't do that a known issue nor does the fact that I might be in a small minority mean I don't care.

That Photos analogy would be like saying you'd like to be able to get a Tesla Model S with a 500 mile range and the fact that you can’t - because the specs max out at 335 miles - shouldn't be considered an issue, in which case you would be completely right. But that's not at all akin to what's going on here.

What's going here would be more like getting car and finding out that the driver's door opens slightly, but noticeably, less than the other doors. Not because it's broken, but because it was designed that way, for whatever technical reason. Regardless of what percentage of users would actually be bother by it, we would all agree that it shouldn't be designed that way because for a car manufacturer it shouldn't take magic to design a car with all of its doors being able to open fully.

An Apple ID's name can be changed to any third party email address but not to the iCloud email address that is associated with it. No matter how you spin it, from an average user's perspective that doesn't make any sense and - instantly and intuitively - feels wrong when encountered. Some may be bothered by it, others may not. All who encounter it will however consider it an issue in the normal sense of the word because it should just work as would reasonably be expected - and it doesn't. It's the software equivalent of the driver's door that opens slightly, but noticeably, less than the other doors.

It's arguably worse that it's not just a bug because it means that the design, in this regard, is inherently counter intuitive.

You can only change your non-Apple address to another non-Apple address

So software has an issue when it doesn't suit you rather than not doing something it's supposed to do. It's not my definition of a known issue but there we are.