Cancel and then re-use iCloud email address?

[iTundra]

My wife's primary apple account that she uses for her devices, iTunes, etc is currently using her work email address. A bit ago she wanted to setup a separate email for personal stuff so setup a new .icloud email address and which I believe is effectively a new and separate iCloud account.

She's leaving her former company and wanted to change the email on her primary account to the one she setup last year but as we've seen previously you can't combine accounts. She wants to keep the email address she setup last year mostly since she's given it to many people (so not overly concerned with keeping old/existing emails).

Best options? If she cancels the .icloud address she setup last year then how soon would it become available for her to re-use on her primary account? (it's somewhat unusual so I don't think anyone else would grab it too quick). What headaches would ensue if she makes up an address for her primary account but used the new one for email and calendar?

Thanks,

 

[Rigby]

A bit ago she wanted to setup a separate email for personal stuff so setup a new .icloud email address and which I believe is effectively a new and separate iCloud account.

Are you sure it's a separate account, or could it be that she just set up an email alias in the original account?

She's leaving her former company and wanted to change the email on her primary account to the one she setup last year but as we've seen previously you can't combine accounts. She wants to keep the email address she setup last year mostly since she's given it to many people (so not overly concerned with keeping old/existing emails).

Best options? If she cancels the .icloud address she setup last year then how soon would it become available for her to re-use on her primary account? (it's somewhat unusual so I don't think anyone else would grab it too quick).

To my knowledge Apple does not release old email addresses for re-use, so when it's gone it's gone. And BTW, if it's really a separate iCloud account, it's not that easy to delete to begin with (you have to go through phone support).

What headaches would ensue if she makes up an address for her primary account but used the new one for email and calendar?

Not sure what you mean, but she could set up a new .icloud alias in the new account and set up forwarding from the old .icloud address so at least so she wouldn't miss any mail. If there are no app/video purchases tied to the old account, she could also just switch everything over to the new one.

As to the old account, she can switch to any non-icloud email address (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, ...) before she loses the work address.

 

[iTundra]

Gal at the genius bar said similar about re-use though she thinks they do release them at some point, like 5 years. She was able to get the address my wife wanted to keep over to my wife's main account but only as the alternate email. No way for it to be primary. We setup a gmail account to act as primary. According to genius gal we should be able to ignore the gmail address and use her .icloud address for everything.