Apple ID Apple Alias Converted to Primary Apple Account

[Apple_Robert]

That’s what I wanted to do… just wondering the exact steps you took as I tried it several times yesterday… both from my iPad and iPhone running 18.1
It would allow me to set my alias as the primary email… (and it would show my Alias email as my Primary Apple Account email), however…. Mail stopped working correctly both in the mail app, and iCloud Webmail. It wouldn’t let me delete, send or open emails. With various error messages coming up…


When I looked at the mail settings it was still showing my original iCloud email as my primary (so conflicted with what my Apple account was showing).

Apple support said others reported the same.

I’m wondering, as my original iCloud email also has a @me.com email whether that is causing issues?

The only way to get mail working again was to revert the Primary back to my normal iCloud email (not the alias).

Did you try wiping the devices and logging in with the new primary account ?

 

[Cliantyeo]

Did you try wiping the devices and logging in with the new primary account ?

No, not wiping the device… but logged out and logged back into iCloud (web) everything was ok apart from mail.

 

[Apple_Robert]

No, not wiping the device… but logged out and logged back into iCloud (web) everything was ok apart from mail.

Try clearing the Mail cache (if you can).

 

[Sami13496]

I did this: https://support.apple.com/en-us/109353

And it went great. Old email myfirstname.myoldlastname@icloud.com is gone and I successfully added new myfirstname.mynewlastname@icloud.com address. Also checked account.apple.com on browser and the old address was gone, new address is there. So it seems that old address is gone from the account just like I wanted.

But. When I go to iMessage or FaceTime settings the old address is still in the list under “You can be reached at”.

Any idea why? I tried to delete FaceTime app and download it again, didn’t help.

 

[Cliantyeo]

I did try again this morning (following Apples guide above), and still the same (worse if anything) - I'm sure when I did it the other day my changed address showed everywhere apart from in iCloud Mail - however, this time it was still showing my original email everywhere.

As soon as I change it, mail everywhere stops working both on iPhone, iPad, Mac and web iCloud.
Mac shows the mailbox as offline (I've tried turning mail off after 20 secs and back on like someone else posted - but didn't have any affect).

It's frustrating that it doesn't 'just work', and worse that it actually causes things to break.

My situation is trying to change oldemailaddress@icloud.com to my (long standing) myalias@icloud.com

One thing which I think may be getting in the way, when looking in Mail I have:
oldemailaddress@icloud.com
oldemailaddress@me.com
basically showing as one thing... I'm not sure if that's the issue.

When changing the Primary back to oldemailaddress@icloud.com mail starts working again fine.

 

[ZEEN0j]

That’s what I wanted to do… just wondering the exact steps you took as I tried it several times yesterday… both from my iPad and iPhone running 18.1
It would allow me to set my alias as the primary email… (and it would show my Alias email as my Primary Apple Account email), however…. Mail stopped working correctly both in the mail app, and iCloud Webmail. It wouldn’t let me delete, send or open emails. With various error messages coming up…


When I looked at the mail settings it was still showing my original iCloud email as my primary (so conflicted with what my Apple account was showing).

Apple support said others reported the same.

I’m wondering, as my original iCloud email also has a @me.com email whether that is causing issues?

The only way to get mail working again was to revert the Primary back to my normal iCloud email (not the alias).

All I did was (my phone is not set to English)

Open settings
Tap your name
Sign in and security
In the top list I tapped my alias and checked the box setting it as my primary
Then I deleted my old primary email from this list
Then opened iCloud settings
Tap mail
Account information - emails/addresses
In here I could still see my old primary so I deleted it here as well

I've had no issues with sending or receiving emails. No idea if other combinations of account creations could be the cause of some people still having issues. Before 18.1 released I got an error after step 4.

 

[ZEEN0j]

I did this: https://support.apple.com/en-us/109353

And it went great. Old email myfirstname.myoldlastname@icloud.com is gone and I successfully added new myfirstname.mynewlastname@icloud.com address. Also checked account.apple.com on browser and the old address was gone, new address is there. So it seems that old address is gone from the account just like I wanted.

But. When I go to iMessage or FaceTime settings the old address is still in the list under “You can be reached at”.

Any idea why? I tried to delete FaceTime app and download it again, didn’t help.

Check my steps above. I think I had the same issue and that's the reason I deleted the old primary from iCloud mail settings.

 

[Cliantyeo]

All I did was (my phone is not set to English)

Open settings
Tap your name
Sign in and security
In the top list I tapped my alias and checked the box setting it as my primary
Then I deleted my old primary email from this list
Then opened iCloud settings
Tap mail
Account information - emails/addresses
In here I could still see my old primary so I deleted it here as well

I've had no issues with sending or receiving emails. No idea if other combinations of account creations could be the cause of some people still having issues. Before 18.1 released I got an error after step 4.

Thank you…. The only thing I didn’t do was delete my original iCloud address, I guess I’m worried if I do that and it doesn’t work then I may stop everyth8mg working and/or get locked out of my account completely.

 

[Sami13496]

Check my steps above. I think I had the same issue and that's the reason I deleted the old primary from iCloud mail settings.

Thanks. Very interesting. I didn't have old primary under iCloud>Mail>Account information>Addresses. But still when I go to iMessage or FaceTime settings the old address is still in the list under “You can be reached at”. Very strange.

 

[Sami13496]

Hey, actually, this just resolved itself after I went online with my iPad and Mac. Apparently, since those devices still had the old information (while offline), things showed up a bit mixed in the iMessage and FaceTime settings on my iPhone. But once those devices connected to the internet and everything synced, the old address no longer shows up in the iMessage or FaceTime settings. Yay!

 

[arc of the universe]

this thread has been a great source of info.
its been some time since the last post in this thread.
but maybe i can use this thread to clarify some questions about changing my primary apple account ID.

goal: i want to use one of my current email alias as my primary account ID, and, i would like to entirely delete the primary account ID that i have been using.

current primary account id is a@icloud.com
i also have the a@mac.com and a@me.com "legacy alias" as well

i have 2 email alias (b@icloud.com and c@cloud.com)
both of these were created while i have had the current primary account ID, so these are "associated" with my current primary account.

i am clear that i can easily change my current apple account id to one of my current email alias.

my questions concern what happens to my current primary account ID:

1 does that account ID become available as just an email alias ?
or, is it completely disappeared and I dont need to worry about it? (that would be the best for me).

2 if the current account ID doesn't just disappear and becomes available as an email alias, if i delete it does it also delete the current associated email alias as well ?

i am assuming that if i delete the primary account id or it gets disappeared through the process, then the legacy alias of @Mac and @Me Also go away right?

thanks so much for your advice.