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Apple Now Letting Apple IDs With Third-Party Email Addresses Be Updated to Apple Email Addresses
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I think the confusion is that it appears you now have two IDs with the same email. So you now have the following:
abc@me.com (former abc@gmail.com)
abc@me.com
abc@icloud.com
It might have been clearer if you called that new ID xyz@me.com
I'll give it a try! If it didn't work I was trying to determine whether it was the issue you're having, or because it was following a recent change.
Hopefully it works for ya. I think I've figured out the what the problem was for myself. Way back when they first rolled out MobileMe, I set up a @me account which attached itself to my primary @gmail Apple ID. Of course over time they switched to @icloud, thus adding another available email address to my available choices. So at this point, I had my primary (and only) Apple ID of 123@gmail, with the two Apple supplied emails of 123@me and 123@icloud associated to that Apple ID. Up until just a few days ago, we weren't allowed to switch our Apple ID's to an @me or @icloud domain. Now we are, however.
Now this is where my problems started, and perhaps the same thing is happening to others in the thread. At some point after the iCloud transition, I decided to move away from using gmail and started using my iCloud account as my main email. So, I created an alias off of that original 123@icloud email named 456@icloud. It was this alias that I was attempting to convert my Apple ID to. Keep in mind, that all these email addresses are under one single Apple ID. Apple does not seem to be allowing people to change to self created alias addresses. What I was allowed to do however is change my Apple ID to either of the original 123@icloud/me email address. Just not the alias. So that's what I did.
I've since gone back and tried to change it one last time, but now instead of being given a blank field to type an address into, I only get a list of two emails to choose from. There's simply no way to change it to the alias I created. A bit of a bummer, but I can finally ditch that old gmail account for once and all, so I'm not too upset about it.
I don't know why Apple cares about which email you choose to use, especially if you currently have access to it, but they seem to be restricting it just the same. It's created a bit of a mess. The terminology used on the support page isn't exactly clear either.
Ok, now I'm really confused. You already had an Apple ID of abc@me.com, and you were able to change your abc@gmail.com to the pre-existing Apple ID of abc@me.com? Isn't that the same as merging two different Apple IDs?
I thought the point was to change a third party email address being used as an Apple ID to a new Apple email address for use as an Apple ID, something which wasn't previously allowed. But how can it be changed to the exact same Apple email address already being used as an Apple ID?
I was worried about the purchases and the data associated with it. But after i managed to change my apple Id to @icloud. i went and did 'reset settings and all data' to wipe the slate clean and install everything again. So, while setting up my iPhone again when it asked me my apple Id i gave @icloud Id. it started restoring from my backup (backup done with older Apple ID). In the beginning sometime it prompted me for password of @gmail ID (my previous Apple ID) i skipped it fearing that it would not load my apps or maybe load my apps but not my data. But i thought if it didn't restore correctly i'll probably restore again and i'll use the @gmail password and probably live with it. But restore worked flawlessly, all apps and its data restored perfectly.
Just to inform, my @gmail ID and @icloud ID both were of the sample Apple account, both of them point to same Apple account. I could log in to my icloud using either of the IDs. I don't think you can merge 2 different Apple account to one.
I did change my AppleID in the end, however I had to use the main iCloud.com account NOT my Alias (as I really wanted). But hey, at least I can wind down my gmail account.
Hoping you’ll be able to promote an Alias at some point in the future.
All seemed to go OK, HOWEVER!!!! All the pictures in my iCloud Photo Library are coming up with a strange explanation symbol - and pictures aren't being uploaded etc... Has anyone that's changed their AppleID from external address to iCloud and using iCloud Photo Library had any issues? - Can you see previously uploaded photos OK when logging into your photos library via iCloud from Safari/Chrome etc?
***UPDATE: iCloud picture library seems to be working fine now***
Hoping you’ll be able to promote an Alias at some point in the future.
All seemed to go OK, HOWEVER!!!! All the pictures in my iCloud Photo Library are coming up with a strange explanation symbol - and pictures aren't being uploaded etc... Has anyone that's changed their AppleID from external address to iCloud and using iCloud Photo Library had any issues? - Can you see previously uploaded photos OK when logging into your photos library via iCloud from Safari/Chrome etc?
***UPDATE: iCloud picture library seems to be working fine now***
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Can anyone explain what "huge security risk" would result if they allowed merging of Apple IDs?
He said if they were allowed to do that, someone at Apple who gets mad at a customer or something could simply change the customer's email address to an email address that they control and basically steal that account.
By the way... what do they mean when they say both addresses point to the same account??
For this reason, only the user can make changes to their account.
I had this exact problem in the summer when I got my iPad pro.
I had changed my apple id address to an outlook one couple of months earlier, and everything had been working fine.
When I got my iPad, I set it up as a new device, but I couldn't download apps from the App store, I kept getting the error message that my account didn't exist. I then tried restoring from backup and ran into the same problem you are facing. No apps would download and I kept getting an incorrect password error.
To resolve it, I had to change my apple id back to what it was previously.
Have you managed to resolve your issue yet?
I’ve got eye pain trying to setup the X on that day..... now it is ok, when I restored from the backup it asked for both my aliases password, so I tried clicking “ignore” when it asked for the old one, and incredibly the iCloud backup was fully restored, so I think it is a bug and I didn’t find any item that was requiring the old email to restore, I really don’t know!
You can do this kinda, by linking them with Family Sharing. Merges the purchases and iCloud Storage space, at least.
I think I figured it out folks, for those of us having an issue changing our IDs and getting the error with @me.com or @icloud.com.
Here is what you do. On an iOS device, go to setting then accounts and passwords. Next, add and iCloud account. Use your Apple ID. As an example mine was xxx@gmail.com. Next toggle on the Mail setting. It will ask you to create a new iCloud email address ending in @icloud.com. Next, sign out of the account. Now go to the applied webpage and then click manage. It will now let you change your Apple ID from @gmail.com to the newly created iCloud Id. (The same process will likely work on a Mac)
I no longer get the unable to use @me.com or @icloud.com error message. Though I do get a new error message saying I can’t make the change at this time and to try again later. I think I just need to give it a few hours until the newly created iCloud emails propagate through the system. I will edit this post later when it is fully resolved.
Here is what you do. On an iOS device, go to setting then accounts and passwords. Next, add and iCloud account. Use your Apple ID. As an example mine was xxx@gmail.com. Next toggle on the Mail setting. It will ask you to create a new iCloud email address ending in @icloud.com. Next, sign out of the account. Now go to the applied webpage and then click manage. It will now let you change your Apple ID from @gmail.com to the newly created iCloud Id. (The same process will likely work on a Mac)
I no longer get the unable to use @me.com or @icloud.com error message. Though I do get a new error message saying I can’t make the change at this time and to try again later. I think I just need to give it a few hours until the newly created iCloud emails propagate through the system. I will edit this post later when it is fully resolved.
Right. I'm doing this, and it works great, but someone mentioned that Family sharing doesn't share in-app purchases. I haven't really explored this, since I don't think I have any apps with in-app purchases on my old accounts I'm sharing. All of my devices are now only logged into my main Apple ID, and I access the older apps if I need them on a device via family sharing.
While I can see this limitation being an issue for an actual family, where each member is logged in under their own Apple ID, it seems like less of a problem for someone who is merely trying to merge their own individual accounts.
So I created a brand new Apple ID just to finally swtich from the old gmail account I've been using for years. It keeps telling me I can't change it to an icloud address. I've tried every workaround found here and on Reddit and still can't get it to work. Did I shoot myself in the foot by creating that new one to replace my current gmail AppleID?
You want to create a new icloud mail address associated to the appleid not a new apple id. See my post above. It gets rid of that error you are experiencing.
I too am a family admin. The old appleid is a gmail account, but we all have @me addresses for our individual accounts. Set up back in the MobileMe days (in 2009??)
I tried all the other steps on this thread, which included logging out of the app store on all my devices and anything else that seemed to be tied to the gmail address. My family members were logged in through their @me accounts (because of family sharing....), but I still couldn't get it to work. Eventually, I noticed my family sharing was still showing the account as my *@gmail.com appleID (even though I was logged out of the app store). So I decided to change the Sharing account under family sharing. When I did this, a warning popped up and said I wouldn't be able to update sharing to another account for 90 days if I made this change. So I went ahead and did this, because I'm not smart. Still no dice. The error was always the same..."your apple ID can't end @me"
So frustrating. It seem convoluted enough before I realized family sharing was tied to the gmail ID. Not worth the effort until apple makes it clearer what we can/can't do, or just allow us to outright merge accounts.
0 out of 10...would not try again.
It's not working for me. When I try and add my Apple ID, which is my gmail, it says "......@gmail.com is already added. This iCloud account has already been added to your iPhone/Ipad."
I even deleted the account and tried your instructions again, but when I added the account, the mail toggle was already on and it didn't ask me to create a new iCloud address.
