Unable To Create Apple ID - Email Address Is Not Available

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Unable To Create Apple ID - Email Address Is Not Available

Hello All,

I am trying to create an Apple ID for my nephew so I can add him to my Apple Music Family Plan. He uses an Android phone and as such he has a Gmail email address. Obviously, the iMessage invite will not work on Android phones so that means the only way to add him to the plan is to "Invite in Person" and manually enter his Apple ID and password. He has told me he does not have an Apple ID so I am trying to create one for him.

The problem is that when creating the Apple ID using his email address it tells me that "This email address is not available. Choose a different address.". If I change one of the numbers in his email address it is then accepted, so the issue is definitely his email address.

My nephew assures me he has never set up an Apple ID and has never had an iPhone or has used any other Apple device or service, including Apple Music. Not believing him, I selected 'Forgot Apple ID or password' and entered in his email address which returned the error " ****.****** @gmail.com is not an Apple ID". So perhaps he is telling the truth.

From the 'Having trouble signing in' screen, I selected "If you forgot your Apple ID, you can look it up.". When I entered in his personal details along with the Gmail address it says "No Apple ID Found We can’t find an Apple ID matching the information provided."

So my question is if my nephew has never used an Apple device or service, and the email address has been confirmed as not being used as an Apple ID, then how come I can't create an Apple ID with his email address? I don't want to create another email address that he will never use just to join him to the Apple Music Family Plan.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions or solutions. 🙂

Posted on Oct 21, 2018 9:20 PM

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RugbyFan05 Author

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Oct 21, 2018 11:44 PM in response to RugbyFan05

My nephew gave me his email address with a full stop between his first an last name. I just remembered that Gmail ignores all full stops in the local-part ( the part before the @ symbol) of the email address.

When trying to create the Apple ID it was picking up that he already had an Apple ID with that email address, even with full stops in it. But what threw me off was that when I attempted Apple ID recovery with the same address it then decided not to recognise it. Using his email address without the full stop in his name worked and an Apple ID was found to be linked to that account. Problem Solved.🙂 And yes my nephew lied, he had created an Apple ID.

If Apple ID recognised the email address with the full stop in it when trying to create the account, I am not sure why it then could not find the address during the recovery side of things. I am unsure of what version of the email address was used to create the account.

I hope this all makes sense.

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Unable To Create Apple ID - Email Address Is Not Available

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