Apple Now Letting Apple IDs With Third-Party Email Addresses Be Updated to Apple Email Addresses

[MacRumors]

Apple today made a small change to the way Apple IDs work, and for the first time, Apple customers who have an Apple ID that uses a third-party email address can update that Apple ID to use an Apple @icloud.com, @me.com, or @mac.com email address.

Prior to today, an Apple ID that used a third-party email address could be changed to another third-party email address, but there wasn't an option to use one of the Apple email accounts that are created when an Apple ID is made.

The change was outlined by MacRumors reader Dillon, who sent an email to several executives earlier this month asking for the problem to be changed. Dillon was contacted by Apple Executive Relations last week and was told Apple's engineering team would look into the problem. He received a second phone call today, letting him know the issue had been fixed. From Dillon:

For a long time if you had an Apple ID that used a 3rd party email address as your Apple ID you were unable to change it to an Apple email address... even if the Apple address was on the same account.

I couple of weeks ago I sent an email addressed to Tim Cook, Craig Federighi, Phil Schiller, and Eddy Cue. I explained the situation and asked if they could fix it. Last week I received an email and phone call from someone at Apple Executive Relations. The women I spoke to told me that the problem would be sent to an engineering team and would be addressed. Today I got another call and email informing me that the issue had been resolved.

I tried it out and sure enough... I can finally set my Apple email as my Apple ID!

Apple's "Change Your Apple ID" support document was today updated to reflect the updates made to the Apple ID, and it now includes a section confirming a third-party email address can be changed to an @icloud.com, @me.com, or @mac.com email address.

When swapping from a third-party Apple ID email address to an email address ending in @icloud.com, @me.com, or @mac.com, Apple warns that there is no way to change it back to a third-party email account.

If you enter a new Apple ID that ends with @icloud.com, @me.com, or @mac.com, you see a message to confirm. When you change your Apple ID to an @icloud.com, @me.com, or @mac.com account, you can't change it back to a third-party email account. Your former Apple ID that ends with a third-party email, becomes an additional email address for your Apple ID account.

This should be a welcome change for all Apple customers who have wanted to change their Apple ID addresses to an official Apple email address. Those who want to go ahead and swap should read Apple's support document and follow all of the steps, which include signing out of all iOS devices before making the change.

Update: While this feature is working for some users, others report being unable to change their Apple IDs. It's possible this feature has not yet rolled out to all users, or that it's not fully functional as of yet. It's unclear at this point why it's not working for some people.

Article Link: Apple Now Letting Apple IDs With Third-Party Email Addresses Be Updated to Apple Email Addresses

 

[AppleFan91]

Finally. It always made it hard to go all Apple when I couldn’t change my Apple ID itself to an Apple domain. Glad to see

 

[moabal]

Who actually uses the Apple domain email address? I doubt many do.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

I wonder why that was ever a limitation

 

[ccrunner_tj]

Very glad to hear this! My Apple ID email has been deactivated for several years now.

 

[Dekema2]

And to think that I literally just posted about this yesterday. Goodbye Google.

I only use iCloud for email now, but cannot fully cut ties with Gmail because the primary Apple ID I have is tied to my old Gmail account. Has this quandary been solved yet?

 

[aforty]

Can anyone explain to me why I'm forced to have both @icloud.com and @me.com email addresses automatically added to my Mail.app on IOS just because I sign in with Apple ID? Is there a way to remove those?

 

[lsutigerfan1976]

How does this work? If my Apple ID is Apple@yahoo.com, then they are saying it can become Apple@icloud.com? And would my mail be forwarded to the icloud email account at that point automatically?

 

[Justin Iacobellis]

Does this mean we can change the iCloud address associated with our account now?

 

[penajmz]

I will switch to my @me.com address now.

 

[iapplelove]

How does this work? If my Apple ID is Apple@yahoo.com, then they are saying it can become Apple@icloud.com? And would my mail be forwarded to the icloud email account at that point automatically?

This is just your Apple ID. The only email you would get from this is just stuff related to your Apple ID. Other email shouldn’t be affected.

 

[JosephAW]

I originally used my @Mac account but apple killed if that email address and had to create a 3rd party address as a backup.
Are they reactivating @mac.com ? I don't think so. Someday iCloud will be phased out and email accounts canceled for new ones like steve@ios.com

 

[ActionJacksonHern]

So... if I have a feature request for Apple that I REALLY want fixed or added, I just send an email to Tim Cook, Craig Federighi, Phil Schiller, and Eddy Cue? And it will be changed within a couple weeks? Okay.

 

[staticoranges]

If only they would let us merge two accounts for those of us who created a second account in order to move away from our 3rd party email address...

 

[Black Magic]

Who actually uses the Apple domain email address? I doubt many do.

I do. Works like a champ.

 

[ChrisFerri]

My Apple ID was made before it was required to be an email. Its just a username. Apple keeps bugging me to update it to an email, but I just can't. I think its been the same since 2004

 

[wolfshades]

FINALLY. I've been after this ability for years.

 

[nwcs]

Finally! And hallelujah! I've been wanting to change mine for years. I made my Apple ID long before iCloud existed. I always wondered why they wouldn't let us change it.

 

[dominiongamma]

I’m confused what this is, could someone explain in simple terms what this is, my Apple ID is ending with Gmail will this effect me? I’m guessing this isn’t letting us change our iCloud email address?

 

[Mattzatt]

Ok, maybe I’m stupid.

But when I first started it was with an iPhone, and back then I used a @ gmail account. My the time I changed over to (MobileMe) iCloud, I’ve bought to much, so I did not want to rebuy everything.

So now I have one iCloud account, that obviously is @ icloud, and five other on my family sharing plan, and one @ gmail account that only used in iTunes and AppStore.

So will this solve my problem, and give me the possibility to transfer all my bought items over to @ icloud And will it in any other way affect my @ icloud account?

Any helpful response is much appreciated!

 

[AVonGauss]

Deleted.

 

[pauliaK]

Who actually uses the Apple domain email address? I doubt many do.

I do it too, and I also had it as my apple id for one of my accounts for years. It used to be possible at one point to register a brand new apple id without third party email back in a day.

 

[boogybren]

So can we take three different Apple ID’s with 3rd party email addresses and consolidate them into one Apple address? That would be an awesome way to finally put all purchases under one account.

 

[iapplelove]

I think this is great. I’ve been wanting to change my Apple ID for some time now. So this is a pleasant surprise.

 

[TMRJIJ]

So... if I have a feature request for Apple that I REALLY want fixed or added, I just send an email to Tim Cook, Craig Federighi, Phil Schiller, and Eddy Cue? And it will be changed within a couple weeks? Okay.

It probably varies from situation to situation. If you’re talking about simple bugs, I’m assuming they will redirect you to Apple Support.
Few years ago, I tried emailing Tim Cook for their source code on one of their kernel extensions. I think it was Federighi (or an engineer using his name) that replied saying that I needed to contact Intel about it.
Don’t expect a reply in a timely manner either.