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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!


Let me know if you get an answer I would love to merge my accounts as well
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So I have two accounts:

- oldemail@gmail.com
- personalname@me.com

I use oldemail@gmail.com for App Store purchases and iCloud. I use personalname@me.com for email. Would I be able to update oldemail@gmail.com to personalname@me.com so I could have App Store, iCloud, and email all under the one login?

Let me know of you get an answer to this, I want to know the saem thing
 
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I've been reading more and more of people that have their accounts set up like this and want to change them. I'm curious why this was done in the first place? I can't remember when I first signed up for iTunes but it looks like I switched to iCloud in December 2011. I have a receipt from iTunes in 2008, well before my first iPhone. But everything's under one account.
It happed because I had an iTunes acct before mobile me came out when signing up for mobile me aka iCloud it made me create an @me.com address for iCloud services. Now I have two Apple ID’s one for purchases and another for iCloud so annoying and I can’t merge them because they are both considered Apple id’s this whole problem is Apple created they should solve it
 
Let me know if you get an answer I would love to merge my accounts as well
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Let me know of you get an answer to this, I want to know the saem thing
This new procedure is not for merging accounts, it's just to make an @icloud.com email as the primary AppleID address.

Here a fictive scenario:
A person once created an AppleID like mrx@mycompany.com with a mrx@icloud.com as the secondary AppleID address, both linked to the same AppleID user space. Because back in time, when he created his AppleID, he've chosen a custom domain email address as the primary AppleID address, and icloud.com did not exist.

After 3 years his company goes bankrupt, and the domain mycompany.com becomes unavailable.
Till now, this User could not simply make the mrx@icloud.com as the primary AppleID email address, he was forced to change mrx@mycompany.com to a other third party email address like mrx@gmail.com.

Since today this user can simply make the mrx@icloud.com as primary address and ditch the third party email address all-together.

His old AppleID user space did become independent by running fully over the mrx@icloud.com address.
 
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What about iTunes? I still have a GMail account only because I had it when I opened my iTunes account a million years ago. I'd rather get rid of it in favor of my me.com account.
 
It happed because I had an iTunes acct before mobile me came out when signing up for mobile me aka iCloud it made me create an @me.com address for iCloud services. Now I have two Apple ID’s one for purchases and another for iCloud so annoying and I can’t merge them because they are both considered Apple id’s this whole problem is Apple created they should solve it

This is an issue for anyone who created Apple IDs to make iTunes purchases before MobileMe (now iCloud) was implemented in iOS 3 in 2008. When these users created a free MobileMe account for iOS they were left with an Apple ID for iTunes purchases and a separate Apple ID for iCloud functionality in iOS.

Most of the people affected by this have @me.com or @mac.com email addresses that were created before 2008, but there are probably a number of people who switched from Android to iOS since then that have the same problem.

Apple has been promising a way to merge the legacy Apple IDs for nearly seven years, but looks like it will never happen.

https://www.macrumors.com/2011/09/16/apple-working-on-allowing-the-merging-of-multiple-apple-ids/

https://www.wired.com/2011/09/apple-icloud-sync-mess/
 
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I really cannot understand why Apple does not permit the merger of two or more accounts. I have a .me/.icloud and a private email address accounts for historical reasons. There is no reason whatsoever that they should not be merged, which as lots of others have said, makes life simpler for everyone. I have been asking for this for years but of course, Apple is the ultimate practicer of NIH (Not Invented Here). I suspect it derives from one of Jobs' more wacky prejudices and nobody at Apple is brave enough to change it.
 
This new procedure is not for merging accounts, it's just to make an @icloud.com email as the primary AppleID address.

Exactly. MR is making this out to be an incredible development, but in reality it's just changing the primary email associated with the iCloud account. The email that you change it to cannot be another iCloud account, which is why the above posters are having issues.
 
What about iTunes? I still have a GMail account only because I had it when I opened my iTunes account a million years ago. I'd rather get rid of it in favor of my me.com account.
Yes thats possible now, that new way allows you to make your me.com email address as the primary email address for your AppleID. And if you want, you could simply ditch the gmail address.
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Exactly. MR is making this out to be an incredible development, but in reality it's just changing the primary email associated with the iCloud account. The email that you change it to cannot be another iCloud account, which is why the above posters are having issues.
Yes it can't be another existing icloud.com address, because it has a different user space.
Well I think that a few of them can create a new one, but just if their AppleID was never linked to an (icloud.com, me.com, mac.com) address.
 
Apple has been promising a way to merge the legacy Apple IDs for nearly seven years, but looks like it will never happen.
I believe one side-effect of allowing this is people could "share" or transfer purchases that they've made.
 
I really cannot understand why Apple does not permit the merger of two or more accounts. I have a .me/.icloud and a private email address accounts for historical reasons. There is no reason whatsoever that they should not be merged, which as lots of others have said, makes life simpler for everyone. I have been asking for this for years but of course, Apple is the ultimate practicer of NIH (Not Invented Here). I suspect it derives from one of Jobs' more wacky prejudices and nobody at Apple is brave enough to change it.

Part off it may be legal obstacles. iTunes purchases cannot be sold or transferred, and the account owner is identified by the email address. Merging two emails each with purchases may run afoul of Apple's license agreements with content provides (music, apps, books, etc).
 
I figured out the issue for people unable to change their Apple ID to an existing me.com address, from something else. My AppleID was a gmail.com address, but my main email address was a me.com address which I've had for many years. Like others, I was met with the typical error messages when initially attempting to change my AppleID from gmail.com to me.com. The solution I found was to change my AppleID from gmail to another NON-APPLE email account (I used my work email address). After this, I was able to then change my AppleID yet again, from my work email account, to finally my me.com account. Everything is working as it should now.

TLDR: Those who can't change their AppleID from what is to an existing me.com address; change your AppleID to another email address from what it is currently and then try changing to the me.com address after that.
 
This is stupid. It forces me to change my Apple ID or it won't let log in, but I have to use a third-party email address. I cannot use my iCloud/MobileMe/.Mac email accounts.

why_not_apple.jpg
 
I believe one side-effect of allowing this is people could "share" or transfer purchases that they've made.
Not an easy task, because of e.g. AppID collisions, if e.g the two accounts you want to merge bought the same app.
The only way around this would be to ask you for every app purchase collision.
Anyway, not an easy task to dev this in a user friendly way.
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This is stupid. It forces me to change my Apple ID or it won't let log in, but I have to use a third-party email address. I cannot use my iCloud/MobileMe/.Mac email accounts.

View attachment 730031
Maybe it doesn't work with mac.com or me.com?
Is that mac.com currently linked to the same user space?
 
I’m not exactly sure what you’re asking, but @mac.com email addresses absolutely still work. That’s what I use to log into iCloud, and it’s the email address I send email from through iCloud
Same here. I think it's been my primary personal email address for 15years or so…
 
Wow, finally I can have my iCloud as my login? It has been so lame that I’ve had to login with a gmail account I don’t even use anymore.
 
I figured out the issue for people unable to change their Apple ID to an existing me.com address, from something else. My AppleID was a gmail.com address, but my main email address was a me.com address which I've had for many years. Like others, I was met with the typical error messages when initially attempting to change my AppleID from gmail.com to me.com. The solution I found was to change my AppleID from gmail to another NON-APPLE email account (I used my work email address). After this, I was able to then change my AppleID yet again, from my work email account, to finally my me.com account. Everything is working as it should now.

TLDR: Those who can't change their AppleID from what is to an existing me.com address; change your AppleID to another email address from what it is currently and then try changing to the me.com address after that.
Nope, this didn’t work.
 
Maybe it doesn't work with mac.com or me.com?
Is that mac.com currently linked to the same user space?

It won't let me use @me.com or @icloud.com either. I tried. I called, they said I can us Gmail though! That's kind of stupid. For example my mom has an iTunes account only username like mine, but she only have an iCloud email account. She simply does not have any other email accounts.
 
If you have a .Mac account it is linked with your iCloud account already and has been for years.
My question regarding Apple's so called logic is this, I used Apple pay for the first time recently to buy something and my Apple ID email is (for instance) whatever@mac.com, they sent an invoice to that address but it is not useable since Apple dumped the .mac email service, they would not send an email to another address I offered to them, so what it the point of using a dead end email address for an Apple ID at all ???
 
anyone know what will happen if i just change the ID on one device leaving others signed in with old ID, later i can just go and update it when those device prompts me to. I feel that would be easier.
But the way apple has stressed to sign out i think theres lot more to know in it.
 
Off topic somewhat, but one thing I don't understand about Apple authentication is that with two factor authentication, I frequently get the numeric code required as the second factor ON the device I'm logging in from. This seems like it defeats the purpose entirely.

Anybody else seeing this? It started after iOS 11.

Yes, and I have always wondered why it works like this. Getting the confirmation code on the same device pretty much ruins the extra security from Apple's 2FA.
 
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 to Intel about it.
Don’t expect a reply in a timely manner either.

WOW, Apple had to get CEO's involved to resolve a common sense problem, that should not of been a problem to begin with. But, after all, it is Apple, somethings they love to do thru an a butt...
 
I wanted to do this long ago so it's a good change. But everytime I have changed *anything* about my Apple ID - either the e-mail address or just the password - it has been a real pain resulting in a variety of confusing error messages across different apps on my three macs, two Apple TV's and iPhone. Eventually it gets sorted out but whole process is very annoying.
 
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Exactly. MR is making this out to be an incredible development, but in reality it's just changing the primary email associated with the iCloud account. The email that you change it to cannot be another iCloud account, which is why the above posters are having issues.

I think some people are thinking they are able to merge two separate Apple IDs, this is not the case. This is still helpful because it allows those of us who signed up for an Apple ID with another provider like gmail, Yahoo, etc. to get rid of those addresses if we later created an @me.com/@icloud account underneath that Apple ID.

Any and all @icloud or @me addresses are an Apple ID, unless it is an alias which is tied to your main Apple ID. If you had an old Apple ID and then created a new Apple ID (i.e. separate account) for any reason, you cannot 'merge' those Apple ID's. For instance, if you had username@Yahoo.com as an Apple ID and then signed up for iCloud with that, and created username@iCloud.com, you can now get rid of @yahoo.com and use username@iCloud.com as your Apple ID. However, if you have another Apple ID, let's say username2@iCloud.com, you can't use that address to replace username@Yahoo.com. That would be, in essence, merging two separate Apple ID's. There should be a way to transfer purchase history and such to another Apple ID though, but that's not the case.
 
Off topic somewhat, but one thing I don't understand about Apple authentication is that with two factor authentication, I frequently get the numeric code required as the second factor ON the device I'm logging in from. This seems like it defeats the purpose entirely.

Anybody else seeing this? It started after iOS 11.
Yes, I get this on my Mac.
 
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