What are Pros & Cons for keeping 3rd Party email for my Apple ID?

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linda2009 Author

Level 1

76 points

What are Pros & Cons for keeping 3rd Party email for my Apple ID?

I originally set up my Apple ID with a 3rd Party email address. I'm a light Apple ID user, basically use it for my Macs and a few Apps that I purchased in MAS.

I currently do not have iPhone, but am going to get one soon.

I was recently reading that now it is possible to change your Apple ID to an @icloud.com email. I'm trying to figure out if that would be good for me or not.

I did create an icloud email from my Mac which is now listed as Reachable At: in my Apple ID (and looks like I cannot delete that!) And Apple now considers this an Apple ID alias (not an @icloud alias).

I realized now I can sign into my Apple ID using either of these email addresses. I don't really like that.

So First, Can I change my Apple ID to the Reachable At: @icloud email; is that possible? (I do know that once I change Apple ID to anything @icloud I cannot use any 3rd Party email ever, ever again with this Apple ID!)

When I do that, the 3rd Party email address becomes a Reachable At: email. Will I be able to delete it from that list being that it is 3rd Party?

What are the benefits and drawbacks of changing from 3rd Party address to @icloud address??

Thank you for any insights and information!

Posted on Jan 30, 2018 9:15 AM

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Answer 1

Phil0124

Level 10

217,454 points

Jan 30, 2018 10:39 AM in response to linda2009

linda2009 wrote:

Can I change my Apple ID to the Reachable At: @icloud email; is that possible?

Yes. It is.

Change your Apple ID - Apple Support

When you change your Apple ID, you can enter another third-party email address. Or you can enter an @icloud.com, @me.com, or @mac.com email address that's already associated with your account. To see these addresses, check Reachable At in the Account section of appleid.apple.com.

linda2009 wrote:

When I do that, the 3rd Party email address becomes a Reachable At: email. Will I be able to delete it from that list being that it is 3rd Party?

Yes. 3rd Party Emails in "Reachable At" can be deleted from there yes.

I don't like Apple allowing my Apple ID TWO separate Log In options. It seems if you have just an icloud email for your Apple ID, you only have ONE Log in option.

It's still one login option regardless. The iCloud Email is your account also, its just another name for it. If you change your account to use that now, instead of tour 3rd party email, all you re doing is renaming the Apple ID to be your iCloud email. The outcome is still the same, except you are using the same email for both.

You aren't really changing the underlying mechanism. Which is, you can log in with your Apple ID or your iCloud email., except they are now the same thing.

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Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

685,257 points

Jan 30, 2018 10:49 AM in response to linda2009

If you delete the 3rd party e-mail address, it is no longer associated with your Apple ID. You won't be able to reuse it in association with an Apple ID for about a year, but it isn't tied to your Apple ID.

If you change it, you can't log in using the 3rd party e-mail.

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Answer 3

Phil0124

Level 10

217,454 points

Jan 30, 2018 11:01 AM in response to linda2009

linda2009 wrote:

Phil0124,

Does that mean that I could still login with that 3rd party email??

Once you remove it it cannot be used to log in. I was more referring to how the login mechanism works. not whether or not you can continue to use the Third Party Email to log in, which you can't.

Just that the email addresses would now be the same for both things.

There's no real benefit in doing what you want to do. Everything will continue to work the same.

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Answer 4

Phil0124

Level 10

217,454 points

Jan 30, 2018 9:23 AM in response to linda2009

I always used a 3rd Party email for my Apple ID. The icloud.com email address associated with an Apple Id that uses a 3rd party email address is simply an alias. By default this alias is always set for reachable at, but you can of course turn that off.

There is no issue with using it to access to your services like the iTunes store, or iCloud since its essentially just your Apple Id by another name.

You can turn off the email for Reachable at, in Messages or Facetime for your Apple ID as you require. This has no bearing on how it used to access your Apple ID services though. Just whether or not someone can use it to call you over Facetime or send you an iMessage with it.

Beyond that, there's no real difference. The Apple ID will operate the same whether you use a 3rd party email or your iCloud email for it.

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Answer 5

linda2009 Author

Level 1

76 points

Jan 30, 2018 9:36 AM in response to Phil0124

Phil0124 wrote:

By default this alias is always set for reachable at, but you can of course turn that off.

Thanks for the reply Phil0124. Yes, it will always remain under Reachable; Apple does not let me delete it and tells me it is an alias. I guess you mean turn it off for Messages or Facetime, correct? As I do not use either, I don't know how to do that. No one knows this email exists; I haven't used it anywhere or just created it.

There is no issue with using it to access to your services like the iTunes store, or iCloud since its essentially just your Apple Id by another name.

The one thing that bothers me is that Apple allows me to use it to Log in using the (ID) alias; log into Manage Apple ID, iTunes, MAS, etc. (Logging into icloud is fine; as there is no other icloud email associated with my Apple ID).

I don't like Apple allowing my Apple ID TWO separate Log In options. It seems if you have just an icloud email for your Apple ID, you only have ONE Log in option.

That's why I asked if it is possible to change the Apple ID to the Reachable at icould email.

So it would be nice to know:

Can I change my Apple ID to the Reachable At: @icloud email; is that possible?
When I do that, the 3rd Party email address becomes a Reachable At: email. Will I be able to delete it from that list being that it is 3rd Party?

TIA anyone!

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Answer 6

Eric Root

Level 10

685,257 points

Jan 30, 2018 10:39 AM in response to linda2009

Most of the time.

You should be able to delete it.

See Apple's guidelines for a name change for more information.

Apple ID Name Change

Apple ID email address or password - What to do after you change I suggest doing this before you change your Apple ID or password.

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Answer 7

linda2009 Author

Level 1

76 points

Jan 30, 2018 10:38 AM in response to Phil0124

Phil0124,

Are you saying, (because Apple basically refuses to delete any email addresses), that even if I change to the @icloud address AND I delete the 3rd party email from my Reachable list, that 3rd party email address is Stored somewhere associated to my Apple ID??

Does that mean that I could still login with that 3rd party email?? Or, does it just mean that nobody else could ever use it to create or associate it with their Apple ID??

Why does Apple make all this so confusing?! 😕😟

(I just want to clean things up (make it simple) before I start using an iPhone!)

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Answer 8

linda2009 Author

Level 1

76 points

Feb 23, 2018 6:37 PM in response to Phil0124

Hi guys.

Thought I'd ask a very related question, as I'm having Apple ID issue, i think.

Okay so after the above discussion, I did change my Apple ID, but I changed it to another 3rd party email. Had some issues (not sure if or how related).

So, changed it back to the original 3rd party email.

I'm pretty sure I cannot change my Apple ID to the newly created .........@icloud.com "alias" under reachable at for one month. So for now, I cannot change my Apple ID from 3rd party as far as I can tell.

So how exactly do you change your Apple ID - whether it is an @icloud.com or 3rd party to an NEW @icloud.com address if it's not already "associated" with your Apple ID???

If we look at the instructions, both #3 (icloud ID's) and first paragraph for 3rd party say,:

"You can only use email addresses that are already associated with your account."

How exactly do you create an @icloud.com email address to associate it with your Apple ID?? If you make one up that doesn't exist anywhere, you'll never get the verification email!

I apparently was able to create an @icloud.com address, because it already existed behind the scenes as an alias, because the info before the @ symbol were exactly the same. (This is what Apple said to me on the phone. That every 3rd party Apple ID has an @icloud.com alias address, even if they do not see it. It's created when you create your apple ID.

I'm confused. Sorry if I confused even more people. But, how do you create a NEW @icloud.com email address and then associate it with your Apple ID?

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Answer 9

Eric Root

Level 10

685,257 points

Feb 23, 2018 8:52 PM in response to linda2009

You might want to consider starting a new discussion. Since this one is marked solved, less people are likely to look at it. A new post would be much more visible. You can link to this one.

iCloud - Create or change email aliases

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Answer 10

Phil0124

Level 10

217,454 points

Feb 24, 2018 5:40 PM in response to linda2009

To create an iCloud email address associated with your Apple ID, you need to create an alias from the Mail App in the iCloud website.

iCloud: Create an email alias in iCloud Mail

Apple IDs that were created with a 3rd party email automatically get an iCloud email alias created when they turn on the Mail option for iCloud in an iOS device or Mac.

iCloud: Set up an iCloud Mail email address

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