For ll those wanting their *NEW* me.com address as their Apple ID

[James Godfrey]

Hi all,

Just received an email back from support, and they have said the following in regard to using our new @me.com accounts as our apple ID's primary email (and not an alternative email):

Dear James,

Welcome to iTunes Store Customer Support. My name is Saptarshi and I will be glad to assist you today.

I'm glad to hear you recently got a MobileMe account, and I understand you'd like to use your new MobileMe account name as your iTunes Store account name. I realize the importance of your request. Let me check what information I can provide regarding this.

James, please note that as of now it is not possible to merge or convert your iTunes account with or to your MobileMe Account as both are two independent Apple IDs. Each Apple ID must be unique.

You cannot use the me.com account to rename your hotmail.com iTunes Store account, as they both are individual Apple IDs.

If you create a new iTunes Store account with the MobileMe ID as the account's email address, it will be separate from your current iTunes Store account. They will have separate purchase histories, and you won't be able to transfer purchases from one account to another.

I want your iTunes Store experience to be as enjoyable as possible, so if you have any questions, concerns, or need any additional assistance with this matter, please don't hesitate to reply to this email.

Thank you for choosing the iTunes Store as your source for entertainment. We truly appreciate your interest in the iTunes Store. Have a good day!

Sincerely,

Saptarshi
iTunes Store/Mac App Store Customer Support

I cant see how this can ring true in my opinion as both my hotmail.co.uk email address and my me.com email address both log into the same account, I think to be honest the question asked is being avoided for some unknown reason.

James

 

[jdguggs10]

Just left an Apple Store

It is true. An employee and I were trying to work though the issues for about half an hour before we both just gave up. Yes, it seems wrong, and shouldn't be the case.

I took his card and agreed that I would stay in touch with him in case something changes or he hears of a solution.

 

[James Godfrey]

It is true. An employee and I were trying to work though the issues for about half an hour before we both just gave up. Yes, it seems wrong, and shouldn't be the case.

I took his card and agreed that I would stay in touch with him in case something changes or he hears of a solution.

Thanks for letting me know, so even the staff of apple are confused about this situation... I think that something has gone wrong here somewere along the line... as it is impossible that they are seperate Apple ID's at the end of the day @me.com addresses are jus the same as any other email addresses and should be able to be used as a primary email address/apple ID.... there is nothing preventing customers to create another email address with hotmail or gmail and using that as there Apple ID so why this is holding true for me.com email addresses is beyond me.

Quite frustrating tbh.

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Thanks for letting me know, so even the staff of apple are confused about this situation... I think that something has gone wrong here somewere along the line... as it is impossible that they are seperate Apple ID's at the end of the day @me.com addresses are jus the same as any other email addresses and should be able to be used as a primary email address/apple ID.... there is nothing preventing customers to create another email address with hotmail or gmail and using that as there Apple ID so why this is holding true for me.com email addresses is beyond me.

Quite frustrating tbh.

Further to this, if what Apple customer service are saying is true that means they have basically just merged two apple ID's together which they say is not possible at this time.... sort of contradicting what the are saying.

xxx@hotmail.co.uk (current apple ID)
xxx@me.com (is a seperate apple ID according to customer services)

they both log into the same iTunes account, doesnt that mean they have just merged two apple ID's????

Confused!

 

[James Godfrey]

Just to see if my me.com email is in fact an apple ID I ran a search for it via the Apple ID page and it has come with:

No Apple ID found.

We can't find an Apple ID matching the information you provided. You may have entered a name that doesn't exactly match our records. Try again

mmmm....

 

[jdguggs10]

To help with the understanding...

You have created a MobileMe email address, which is different from an Apple ID.

And yes, I can also log into my Apple ID with my @gmail & @me addresses. While it is not exactly merging accounts, you point still stands. The current policy is a huge failure and Apple is going to need to back down from their current stance, which is to have multiple accounts.

 

[idkmybffjon]

this is a huge annoyance for me. both my verizon.net email and my free iCloud @me.com email will login to the same apple id account, but yet i cannot remove my verizon email and let the me.com be primary.

further more, if you create a new apple id setting up iCloud today, you get the option to make your me.com email your apple id.

so old users are just screwed?

such a huge huge annoyance.

 

[James Godfrey]

this is a huge annoyance for me. both my verizon.net email and my free iCloud @me.com email will login to the same apple id account, but yet i cannot remove my verizon email and let the me.com be primary.

further more, if you create a new apple id setting up iCloud today, you get the option to make your me.com email your apple id.

so old users are just screwed?

such a huge huge annoyance.

Could be a ploy to make us all get new Apple ID's, and thus Apple will relish in us all re-purchasing apps, when we get sick of logging into old accounts to update them... is this confirmed that if you open up a new apple ID it will allow you to use your new me.com email as your apple id????

 

[Claefer]

I thought my @me.com ID would also act as a new Apple ID but it's tied to an old Apple ID. Why can't Apple just create one ID to rule them all? Jesus.

 

[HiRez]

I think currently the only way to do it is to completely delete your current AppleID, then re-create it. But of course you're going to lose your entire purchase history that way. If you only have a few apps purchased, it might not cost you that much. Especially if you want iTunes Match, which should, in theory, obviate the need to retain your music purchases from that account.

But yeah, it's far from ideal and frustrating. They really need to fix this because there's a lot of people who are confused and getting angry about something that really does not seem like it should be a huge technical hurdle for a company like Apple. I've got to think it has something to do with rights-holders (music and video) holding things up and trying to extract additional fees, but I dunno, maybe it's just Apple being lazy/stubborn. There really is no good excuse.

 

[hafr]

When you say "new" @me.com address, you're talking about iCloud, right? The support is talking a MobileMe account. Could there be a misunderstanding that causes the statement that the @me.com address is a separate Apple ID?

 

[JayDH]

I have the same problem: an old Gmail Apple ID with my purchase history and a new me.com Apple ID for iCloud.

I decided to see what happens if I use the me.com ID for everything (including the stores) on my iPhone. Nothing! All my apps still work fine. When I upgrade apps purchased with my other ID< it just asks for the password for that account in stead of my me.com account. So, it appears you can just use me.com from here forward.

Anyone have other experiences?

 

[quasinormal]

My me.com ID is my Apple user name. This has been for a couple of years though.

 

[hafr]

*deleted* I was all wrong

 

[James Godfrey]

I think currently the only way to do it is to completely delete your current AppleID, then re-create it. But of course you're going to lose your entire purchase history that way. If you only have a few apps purchased, it might not cost you that much. Especially if you want iTunes Match, which should, in theory, obviate the need to retain your music purchases from that account.

But yeah, it's far from ideal and frustrating. They really need to fix this because there's a lot of people who are confused and getting angry about something that really does not seem like it should be a huge technical hurdle for a company like Apple. I've got to think it has something to do with rights-holders (music and video) holding things up and trying to extract additional fees, but I dunno, maybe it's just Apple being lazy/stubborn. There really is no good excuse.

We have an update from another user, he has phoned them and they are being bombarded with calls regarding this and the ability to merge multiple ID's and said with call volumes like it will raise eyebrows, fingers crossed!

 

[idkmybffjon]

Could be a ploy to make us all get new Apple ID's, and thus Apple will relish in us all re-purchasing apps, when we get sick of logging into old accounts to update them... is this confirmed that if you open up a new apple ID it will allow you to use your new me.com email as your apple id????

yes i created one for my mom on her iMac via 10.7.2

in the iCloud pref pane i clicked new apple id and it said "would you like to use a free @me.com email as your apple id"

 

[James Godfrey]

yes i created one for my mom on her iMac via 10.7.2

in the iCloud pref pane i clicked new apple id and it said "would you like to use a free @me.com email as your apple id"

I think this is wrong, basically trying to force people into creating new accounts....

 

[idkmybffjon]

I think this is wrong, basically trying to force people into creating new accounts....

i think the issue is honestly more of a legacy MobileMe problem. the apple id system thinks our @me.com emails are mobile me accounts

 

[James Godfrey]

i think the issue is honestly more of a legacy MobileMe problem. the apple id system thinks our @me.com emails are mobile me accounts

Quite possibly, still doesnt explain why there isnt an option to make alternative email addresses into primary ones.

 

[idkmybffjon]

Quite possibly, still doesnt explain why there isnt an option to make alternative email addresses into primary ones.

i completely agree. all of my friends are currently upset over this. our only hope is to make enough noise and hope this gains some traction.

 

[iLog.Genius]

I thought my @me.com ID would also act as a new Apple ID but it's tied to an old Apple ID. Why can't Apple just created one ID to rule them all? Jesus.

This. I had to create a new e-mail for iCloud because the old one won't work.
My .Mac e-mail was user@mac.com and I should've had user@me.com when I setup iCloud but now I had to setup a new e-mail user_name@me.com. I thought I would still have my user@mac.com/user@me.com but that isn't the case. I don't know what happened.

 

[at2wells]

Count me in on this. To this point Im not entirely sure what has happened. somehow my @me.com set as my primary iCloud account. once I figured this out i switched my iPhone and iMac over to my apple id, which is @hotmail.com. Now I have all my music and crap "in the cloud" but now my @me.com email account is missing when I open mail on my Mac. When I go to system preferences ---> iCloud on my Mac and enable the Mail & Notes it asks me to set up a me.com email address. When I enter my information, naturally, it says the name is is ready taken.

So here is where I am. I have my music et al. in the cloud and can access it just fine with my current setting. But I have no mail. Conversely I could switch it all back around and have my mail, but no contacts, calendars and all that jazz.

Not a very good set of choices. Frankly for the first time in my 5 years as an Apple buyer I am pretty upset at this whole situation. I had heard a lot about this "merging" in the weeks leading up to yesterday and thought to myself "what could those people possibly need that for" and dismissed it as some sort of uber tech or uber geek type of thing. Well, guess what? The joke is on me. Here I am, apparently stuck, with Apple pretty much having told me before the release to go "F" myself, were not merging id's.

If Im over-looking something and there is anything at all that could be done to remedy my situation I would greatly appreciate any help that could be rendered.

 

[toetactic]

Apple really have to fix the bug that unables users to change the primary email address of their Apple ID. In my case I have an exclamation mark in a yellow triagle telling me I should make my Apple ID email address the primary email address for the account. Except that's not possible! Nothing happens when you attempt to do that. Apparently the bug occurs when you have a user@me.com-address as primary email address for your account. It's also possible to have this user@me.com address as a different Apple ID, while it's also this same Apple IDs primary email address, which really messes up iCloud and related services. Currently my user@me.com Apple ID has no email address associated with it, which should not be possible. It's not possible to fix either. I've found numerous posts about this in different forums, so it's safe to say it's been buggy and messed up for quite some time. Really un-Apple-like.