@me.com address needed?

[BK.]

Hi,

I have an old expired .Mac account from years gone past. I managed to resurrect this somehow for iCloud, and I can now use my @mac.com login for accessing all services on icloud.com apart from mail. Calendars work, contacts work, everything else works with the @mac.com account that I have, except mail, which gives me the error saying a @me.com address is needed, and to create one. I could of course create one for free, but why can't I use my old @mac.com e-mail address? It's literally just the e-mail part which doesn't work, everything else works fine! Any ideas?

Anyone know what's up and if I can get around this?

 

[Matthew Yohe]

Hi,

I have an old expired .Mac account from years gone past. I managed to resurrect this somehow for iCloud, and I can now use my @mac.com login for accessing all services on icloud.com apart from mail. Calendars work, contacts work, everything else works with the @mac.com account that I have, except mail, which gives me the error saying a @me.com address is needed, and to create one. I could of course create one for free, but why can't I use my old @mac.com e-mail address? It's literally just the e-mail part which doesn't work, everything else works fine! Any ideas?

Anyone know what's up and if I can get around this?

Are you able to use: myoldmacaddress@me.com ?

 

[ilium007]

I am having exactly the same problem except I have a regularly used @me.com accoutn as well as my older @mac.com account (which is my Apple ID) - I can log in with both addresses and both give the @me.com Address Needed error message.

I have updated Lion and have added the @me.com account back in to Mail.app / System Prefs.

This whole go-live is a joke.

 

[dhy8386]

Hi,

I have an old expired .Mac account from years gone past. I managed to resurrect this somehow for iCloud, and I can now use my @mac.com login for accessing all services on icloud.com apart from mail. Calendars work, contacts work, everything else works with the @mac.com account that I have, except mail, which gives me the error saying a @me.com address is needed, and to create one. I could of course create one for free, but why can't I use my old @mac.com e-mail address? It's literally just the e-mail part which doesn't work, everything else works fine! Any ideas?

Anyone know what's up and if I can get around this?

When .Mac upgraded to MM years ago, everyone who continued to purchase MM was moved over. If your account expired, so did your email. However the AppleID part - your credentials - did not which is why you can login with them. Unfortunately, I believe you will need to set up a new @me.com However, if your .mac is unique enough like billsimmons1@mac.com you should also be able to get this @me.com.

 

[BK.]

When .Mac upgraded to MM years ago, everyone who continued to purchase MM was moved over. If your account expired, so did your email. However the AppleID part - your credentials - did not which is why you can login with them. Unfortunately, I believe you will need to set up a new @me.com However, if your .mac is unique enough like billsimmons1@mac.com you should also be able to get this @me.com.

That doesn't make sense though, because Apple have resurrected all the old expired MM accounts - one would assume that this resurrection would also include expired .Mac accounts. Apparently not?

So if you had an expired MobileMe account, it's brought back to life for you, but if you had an expired .Mac, that hasn't? That doesn't even make sense - especially as I can sync contacts, calendars, documents and so forth. Why would they just resurrect those things and deny access to mail?

 

[dhy8386]

That doesn't make sense though, because Apple have resurrected all the old expired MM accounts - one would assume that this resurrection would also include expired .Mac accounts. Apparently not?

So if you had an expired MobileMe account, it's brought back to life for you, but if you had an expired .Mac, that hasn't? That doesn't even make sense - especially as I can sync contacts, calendars, documents and so forth. Why would they just resurrect those things and deny access to mail?

you can sync all those things with a gmail iCloud/appleID only @me is needed for email. This is how it works now. .mac is no diff than a gmail account unfortunately. Only a true @me can do email.

 

[BK.]

you can sync all those things with a gmail iCloud/appleID only @me is needed for email. This is how it works now. .mac is no diff than a gmail account unfortunately. Only a true @me can do email.

Some people apparently have their @mac.com address working. So I assume those are the people whose .Mac accounts never expired in the first place then? That would make sense.

 

[dcoxjr]

I have an @mac address from long before MobileMe. When MobileMe came along I did not purchase a subscription, but continued to use my @mac address in iTunes and everywhere else an AppleID is required.

Yesterday I set up iCloud on my iPad, iPhone and Mac. Everything was fine until I attempted to setup Mail. This is were I ran into the problem is seems many others are having.

I created a new @me address as it requested, but have never been able to access Mail from icloud.com and I get a password incorrect message in iOS Mail.

Just a little while ago I went to discussions.apple.com and attempted to sign in as I have in the past and received an error saying they couldn't create my account. I tried using both my @mac and @me addresses with the same result.

My @mac AppleID is still working in iTunes, Apple Online Store, iCloud... basically everything except mail.

 

[Supermoto99]

Same problem as everyone else...if I use the apple mail application on my iMac I can access my mobileme/icloud mail. However if I go to icloud i get the error above

 

[alaskanjackal]

I have an @mac address from long before MobileMe. When MobileMe came along I did not purchase a subscription, but continued to use my @mac address in iTunes and everywhere else an AppleID is required.

Yesterday I set up iCloud on my iPad, iPhone and Mac. Everything was fine until I attempted to setup Mail. This is were I ran into the problem is seems many others are having.

I created a new @me address as it requested, but have never been able to access Mail from icloud.com and I get a password incorrect message in iOS Mail.

Just a little while ago I went to discussions.apple.com and attempted to sign in as I have in the past and received an error saying they couldn't create my account. I tried using both my @mac and @me addresses with the same result.

My @mac AppleID is still working in iTunes, Apple Online Store, iCloud... basically everything except mail.

Kind of in the same boat (ancient expired iTools/mac.com Apple ID). I created the requested new @me.com address after entering my @mac.com Apple ID on my iPhone after installing iOS 5.

However, unlike dcoxjr, everything works--except sending mail on my iPhone itself.

I can log into iCloud.com with my old Apple ID (let's call it ajackal@mac.com -- not my real ID), which then lets me send and receive mail at my new Me.com address (let's call it (alaskan.jackal@me.com -- not my real address). I can also receive mail to alaskan.jackal@me.com on my iPhone.

However, the iCloud section in my iPhone's preferences is confused. It records my account name and Apple ID as ajackal@mac.com...as well as shows (on the Mail sub-screen) my email address as ajackal@mac.com. I cannot edit it -- it's grayed out.

However, if I send an email to ajackal@mac.com, it bounces back as an "illegal alias." And even more oddly, if I try to send an email from my phone, the "from" address is listed as ajackal@mac.com...and when I click send, it pops back with an error of "The sender address "ajackal@mac.com" was rejected by the server."

So, ajackal@mac.com is an old, depreciated address (and I'm not attached to it, although it shows I've been a Mac loyalist forever ). However, I cannot change the email address to the new alaskan.jackal@me.com, since the fields are grayed out.

I tried re-adding iCloud using the alaskan.jackal@me.com address, but it just complains that I've already added that iCloud account to my iPhone. And I really don't want to start over, since not only did I grab the @me.com address I actually wanted, but I've already linked everything to that Apple ID (including iCloud backup as well as all of my iTunes music and app purchases).

Any ideas?

I can't contact iCloud support without paying, either, since I haven't yet decided to spring for the iPhone 4S, and my iPhone 4 is out of warranty...

--

Edited to add: I tried changing my primary email address from ajackal@mac.com to alaskan.jackal@me.com at the Apple ID management site (http://appleid.apple.com), which was down last night, and then deleting and re-adding iCloud to my device. Nothing changed; same problem.

I did locate this KB article from Apple that seems to address the issue...but then doesn't illustrate anything we don't already know:

I have an expired MobileMe or .Mac account. How do I sign up for iCloud?

To use your expired account for iCloud, follow the iCloud setup instructions and enter your expired MobileMe or .Mac email address as your Apple ID. If you have an @me.com address, it will be reactivated for email when you sign up for iCloud. @mac.com addresses will not be reactivated for email, but you can set up a new @me.com email address.

Important: You will need a verified email address associated with your expired @me.com or @mac.com Apple ID to set up iCloud. To add a verified email address, go to appleid.apple.com, sign in with your expired @me.com or @mac.com email address, and add a valid email address to your account.

Also, it appears that my problem has already been posted about on the forums (without an answer, though) -- see https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1249081/. Mods, please feel free to move this post over there, since it applies more to that issue.

 

[alaskanjackal]

Problem (mine, at least) solved. See https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/13605556/