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Change Apple ID to an @icloud.com

A

Azy

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 13, 2012
103
1
Hello,

I currently have my Apple ID set as my gmail e-mail address which has worked fine for a long time. I will be upgrading my phone to the 5S when that is released and when doing so I understand that GMails exchange services will stop working. So I am now thinking of changing to an @icloud.com instead for my e-mails. Upon doing so I would like to change my Apple ID to the same e-mail address and maintain all my purchases etc.

If I go to appleid.apple.com I can update my apple ID to any e-mail address I want except to any domain owned my apple. Therefore I can make my apple ID be any e-mail address such as @yahoo.com or @live.com but cant use @icloud.com

Does anybody know a way around this or am I now stuck with having an apple ID that can't be an icloud address.



Thanks
 
You'll need to create a new appleid using an iCloud id, that's the only way around this AFAIK. The downside is all music/app/video purchases will be tied to the other apple id.
 
as above for the work around, the reason you cant use it on an existing account is apple email addresses see to automatically generate an itunes account on setup, well thats what ive found anyway.
 
Thank you for your responses, this is pretty much what I was expecting to hear. It's a shame they can't add another option to the page to enable this to be done as I hate the idea of using two Apple ID's when all I want is one iCloud for all.
 
Apple support did this for me last week. I had originally called because I was having issues with duplicate mails coming from gmail servers, and mails not being moved on all devices if moved on one.

After discussion with support, it became obvious that the solution was to move all my mail accounts to iCloud, and use alias addresses. Since gmail was my AppleID, I checked this could be changed to iCloud. The support guy did it there and then.
 
Martin29 said:
Apple support did this for me last week. I had originally called because I was having issues with duplicate mails coming from gmail servers, and mails not being moved on all devices if moved on one.

After discussion with support, it became obvious that the solution was to move all my mail accounts to iCloud, and use alias addresses. Since gmail was my AppleID, I checked this could be changed to iCloud. The support guy did it there and then.
Click to expand...



Hello Martin29,

Thank you for that little gem of information! Before I start a support request with apple, did you change the Apple ID to a brand new icloud email address created by the apple support chap, or did he change it to an icloud email address you already owned?

Thanks,

--- Edit

I just spoke to Apple Support who tried to take me through to the appleid page to do it myself but when I explained to him that it says you can't change it to an apple one he said then it's not possible and he could not do it his end... Always annoying when everybody gets a different answer when they call!

Martin I would still be interested to know if they created a new @icloud.com e-mail for you or they changed your ID to an existing @icloud.com address..
 
Last edited:
I thought about doing this myself when I setup icloud a couple weeks ago. I assumed Apple wouldn't let me use icloud as an ID because it could create a loop where they couldn't contact you. In other words, if you couldn't login to icloud (forgot your id or password), then they wouldn't be able to contact you. I have no idea if that's correct, but it's what I assumed.

Anyway, after I set up iCloud I just forwarded my other two e-mail addresses to it. Then I moved everything from my imap inbox, sent mail and other folders over to iCloud (easily done with Apple Mail). Finally, I disabled my other e-mail accounts on my Mac and iPhone. So now I get e-mail in all 3 accounts via iCloud and it works really well.

I setup a rule in Apple Mail to color code the messages according to the address they were sent to. Unfortunately it doesn't seem possible to do this on iOS 6 however.

So why can't you do something similar, keep your Apple ID at gmail and just forward everything to iCloud?
 
Azy said:
Thank you for your responses, this is pretty much what I was expecting to hear. It's a shame they can't add another option to the page to enable this to be done as I hate the idea of using two Apple ID's when all I want is one iCloud for all.
Click to expand...
You will have to have 2 AppleIDs, one just for purchases and one for everything else.

What you can do is have Apple send Apple ID related (iTunes/App Store) email to your iCloud address. Note that you will not be able to verify the address as it is attached to another Apple ID. I have had it this way for a few years now and have had no issues.

That was my old Apple ID used for buying hardware and software from Apple. It was never used for iTunes or App Store purchases as the switch to my @mac address happened before those existed. However, since it had my old Apple purchase history and no way to delete the old Apple ID, I redirected the email since I no longer had the old email address and at the time I still had stuff under AppleCare tied to that AppleID.
 

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Hey all,

I have a sort of work around, it will still bug me a little but its as good as it's going to get I believe.

Essentially if I get my iPhone out, Go to Settings -> iCloud I will see my gmail.com apple ID at the top. If I turn Mail on from there it will ask if I want to create an @icloud.com email address. I can say yes and go ahead and do this, it will link the @icloud.com to my gmail.com ID.

This leaves me with a primary apple ID of @gmail.com but as an alias I will also have an @icloud.com listed on my apple ID page. Although its not the primary ID, I can use it that e-mail address for logging into everything iCloud and for making purchases etc as if it were and get all my e-mails to that apple ID.

Obviously I will always know that my Primary apple ID will be a redundant e-mail address, but it works just the same being an alias. Hope that makes sense to anybody trying to figure it out.
 
For those who are forwarding from gmail: don't you still have to log into gmail to delete the email there? Or is there a way to delete it after forwarding automatically?
 
I don't use gmail but on my other accounts forwarding means that the message is forwarded and not kept on the server. There may be some preferences that you can set that have an effect on this however. I have two mail accounts forwarded to iCloud and never need to login to them directly now. The fowarded messages never appear in their inboxes, only at iCloud.

Have you tried it to see what happens?
 
Azy said:
Hello,

I currently have my Apple ID set as my gmail e-mail address which has worked fine for a long time. I will be upgrading my phone to the 5S when that is released and when doing so I understand that GMails exchange services will stop working. So I am now thinking of changing to an @icloud.com instead for my e-mails. Upon doing so I would like to change my Apple ID to the same e-mail address and maintain all my purchases etc.

If I go to appleid.apple.com I can update my apple ID to any e-mail address I want except to any domain owned my apple. Therefore I can make my apple ID be any e-mail address such as @yahoo.com or @live.com but cant use @icloud.com

Does anybody know a way around this or am I now stuck with having an apple ID that can't be an icloud address.

[url=http://i1180.photobucket.com/albums/x403/EvilSmoothie1/ScreenShot2013-09-03at113951.png]Image[/URL]

Thanks
Click to expand...

The problem is when you create an iCloud account is that it also creates an iTunes account. So if you already have an iTunes account with your gmail email it also technically has an iCloud account associated with it. U can use iCloud features without having an iCloud email address if that makes sense. You just can't use mail or notes. So the problem is the accounts attached to these email addresses. I have the same issue. I have a gmail account I use for purchases only. On iPhone and iPad in the settings for my wife and I we have myname@gmail.com listed. Under iCloud she has her own name@me.com and I have my own name at me.com. So all backups and iCloud features are through a me.com account. All purchases for us both are the same gmail account. Unfortunately, this can't be fixed unless they somehow let you merge accounts and purchases into one account. Hope this helps
 
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