I figured as much. I’m not sure then how this really helps anyone. It’s not like all the decent icloud.com email addresses aren’t already taken.
Last edited:
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Now Letting Apple IDs With Third-Party Email Addresses Be Updated to Apple Email Addresses
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I figured as much. I’m not sure then how this really helps anyone. It’s not like all the decent icloud.com email addresses aren’t already taken.
Not working in Canada from the apple site
EDIT
Apparently you can't change it to an iCloud email alias
EDIT
Apparently you can't change it to an iCloud email alias
Last edited:
[doublepost=1509507255][/doublepost]So I have to sign out of all the devices that are using the third party email and then I can switch it over? Will that remove the message that says, "it cannot end @icloud.com ..."
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: 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.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
This is exactly my situation as well. Hope we get the answer.
Someone help me explain what is this article trying to say.. I'll tell you what have understood from my previous experience..
I created a abc@gmail.com Apple ID. The day I logged into iCloud, I got a abc@icloud.com ID too.. both of them have my data stored , and I can access my Apple ID via both.. is that correct?
So what do they mean by changing the Apple ID?
I created a abc@gmail.com Apple ID. The day I logged into iCloud, I got a abc@icloud.com ID too.. both of them have my data stored , and I can access my Apple ID via both.. is that correct?
So what do they mean by changing the Apple ID?
Interesting. If I have TWO Apple IDs, one with me.com and one with notappledomain.com, if I change the notappledomain.com ID to me.com, will the apps I bought with the notappledomain.com ID still work and transfer to me.com ID?
[doublepost=1509507891][/doublepost]
[doublepost=1509507891][/doublepost]
I JUST asked that same question. Hope we get an answer
I think my issue is the same but does it mean that I have to create a brand new iCloud email address or one that is currently being used by me not separately as another Apple ID but within the same one?
I wonder if the following will work, although I don't know all the rules to be sure this is possible.
2 accounts right now, called oldpurchases@yahoo.com and desiredaddress@icloud.com. Oldpurchases@yahoo.com is being used just as a store account, desiredaddres@icloud.com is currently used for everthing else.
Change desiredaddress@icloud.com to throwaway@icloud.com (I am not sure how to get this step done.)
Disasisociate the link between desiredaddress@icloud.com & throwaway@icloud.com, effectively freeing it up to be reused. (This is the step I am not sure is possible either.)
Now change oldpurchases@yahoo.com to desiredaddres@icloud.com. Run everything from this one renamed account, and keep the purchases originally made.
2 accounts right now, called oldpurchases@yahoo.com and desiredaddress@icloud.com. Oldpurchases@yahoo.com is being used just as a store account, desiredaddres@icloud.com is currently used for everthing else.
Change desiredaddress@icloud.com to throwaway@icloud.com (I am not sure how to get this step done.)
Disasisociate the link between desiredaddress@icloud.com & throwaway@icloud.com, effectively freeing it up to be reused. (This is the step I am not sure is possible either.)
Now change oldpurchases@yahoo.com to desiredaddres@icloud.com. Run everything from this one renamed account, and keep the purchases originally made.
Last edited:
I wouldn't want an Apple email address -- not now, and probably not for a long time. It's bad enough that you have to pay for Apple email -- and then it just doesn't work.
Take the Apple Mail app -- Apple hasn't done anything substantial to take it into this part of the century. Google is again, getting ahead of the game. With the way we have to manage email these days, Apple has dropped the ball and lacks the foresight to come up with a product that actually helps. So sad to see that DNA missing in Tim Cook's "Apple".
For example -- how hard is it to program AI to sort through unopened email and figure out it is junk? Make it put it all aside for review (so the user can easily delete or archive it)? Google Inbox sort of does this, but still isn't there yet in terms of interface.
Apple already has the ground work with its search engine -- but lacks any implementation that makes the job easy. If only they go a step further with smart mailboxes -- instead of the user having to create the rules, why not design the AI so it suggests its own rules?
Take the Apple Mail app -- Apple hasn't done anything substantial to take it into this part of the century. Google is again, getting ahead of the game. With the way we have to manage email these days, Apple has dropped the ball and lacks the foresight to come up with a product that actually helps. So sad to see that DNA missing in Tim Cook's "Apple".
For example -- how hard is it to program AI to sort through unopened email and figure out it is junk? Make it put it all aside for review (so the user can easily delete or archive it)? Google Inbox sort of does this, but still isn't there yet in terms of interface.
Apple already has the ground work with its search engine -- but lacks any implementation that makes the job easy. If only they go a step further with smart mailboxes -- instead of the user having to create the rules, why not design the AI so it suggests its own rules?
All I wanted was to create a new email-alias for my existing Apple ID.
myname@mac.com instead of myname@me.com
It says I need to confirm the change with a six-digit code, which was already sent to my new email address. One to which I won’t have access to, until the whole process is completed.
AppleID account management — it just does not work!
myname@mac.com instead of myname@me.com
It says I need to confirm the change with a six-digit code, which was already sent to my new email address. One to which I won’t have access to, until the whole process is completed.
AppleID account management — it just does not work!
I would if I knew how to sign up
[doublepost=1509510560][/doublepost]
its not that complicated. Just like when Steve scored some computer parts and ultimatly a job annnnd the land for apple park from Bill Hewlett by looking him up in a phone bookSo... 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.
I got the same thing, called to see if I could get assistance and felt "reassured" when the rep I spoke with had no idea what I was talking about. He put me on hold, got back on and said it's for newly created icloud/me.com/mac.com addresses. So I asked him how it is physically possible today to create a me.com or Mac.com address. He of course said I couldn't. So the website instructs how to change a 3rd party Apple ID to an iCloud/me.com/mac.com address for your Apple ID so long as the addresses you cannot physically create are created. This article got my hopes up and now it has me totally befuddled.
It remains beyond my comprehension why Apple will insist that I must keep that damn gmail account that I have wanted to get rid of forever because of the timing that I created my Apple ID before I got my first MacBook and purchased Mobile Me. So because I made a large amount of purchases with that gmail account before I purchased my first Mac, I am now forced to keep that gmail account open specifically for that Apple ID. SMH
I'll leave my Apple ID the way it is for now, but in case I ever have to give up my ISP email address (Spectrum) which I've used for a long time as my Apple ID, it's good to know I can use my Apple email address instead.
FINALLY!! I use my @me.com address for everything but am stuck with a gmail address for my Apple ID. I’ve contacted Apple many times about this issue and recently had it escalated to a senior advisor who ironically had a gmail Apple ID as well. I’ll be changing mine right away and saying goodbye to Google for good.
So many restrictions is a dangerous thing.
When you get so much spam at an address and you want to change it these restrictions make that hard to do.
This is the reason I never moved off my 3rd Party Email Addresses to the Apple mail system.
So unless Apple changed some things, folks should consider the following:
- Anybody setting up a new Apple Email address should use something unique and not guessable as the address. Then not use that except as a top level address which your Apple mail aliases can dump into.
- You can change and dump aliases but not the top level address. If it becomes known to spammers you are stuck with it.
Pity that by the time most folks are in a position to read the above advice, they have already created that permanent iCloud email address.
When you get so much spam at an address and you want to change it these restrictions make that hard to do.
This is the reason I never moved off my 3rd Party Email Addresses to the Apple mail system.
So unless Apple changed some things, folks should consider the following:
- Anybody setting up a new Apple Email address should use something unique and not guessable as the address. Then not use that except as a top level address which your Apple mail aliases can dump into.
- You can change and dump aliases but not the top level address. If it becomes known to spammers you are stuck with it.
Pity that by the time most folks are in a position to read the above advice, they have already created that permanent iCloud email address.
I'm still waiting for the ability to "merge" a no-email-address AppleID with an iCloud AppleID.
Way back when, Apple created AppleIDs that were just a user name, no email address. I have one of those. Later, they created iTools (.Mac, MobileMe, iCloud) which, in the process, created an AppleID of the same name as the email address.
I didn't realize this. I had two AppleIDs, one AnonymousFreak*, one AnonymousFreak@mac.com. But you'd log in to iTools (and .Mac, and MobileMe) with just the "before the @" part of your email address. So anywhere I was logging in, I would log in with just "AnonymousFreak". I didn't realize that these were two separate accounts. Later, when the iTunes Store came about, I logged in as I always had, with just "AnonymousFreak". Much MUCH later, when iCloud was introduced, it became clear that these were two separate accounts. I had "iTunes purchases" under one AppleID, and "everything else Apple" under a separate AppleID / iCloud account.
Now I still have this discrepancy. My iCloud account has 99% of what I do, but I still have all those iTunes purchases under the "emailless" AppleID. Thankfully, since the addition of "Family Sharing", they have added the ability to "link" the two together, but it's still not perfect. I'd rather just roll them in to be a single AppleID, especially since they use the same "user name!"
* Note, while I do have "AnonymousFreak@mac.com" as an email addresses, this dilemma is actually for my email/AppleID that use my real name. Just used AnonymousFreak in this post because it's my user name here.
Way back when, Apple created AppleIDs that were just a user name, no email address. I have one of those. Later, they created iTools (.Mac, MobileMe, iCloud) which, in the process, created an AppleID of the same name as the email address.
I didn't realize this. I had two AppleIDs, one AnonymousFreak*, one AnonymousFreak@mac.com. But you'd log in to iTools (and .Mac, and MobileMe) with just the "before the @" part of your email address. So anywhere I was logging in, I would log in with just "AnonymousFreak". I didn't realize that these were two separate accounts. Later, when the iTunes Store came about, I logged in as I always had, with just "AnonymousFreak". Much MUCH later, when iCloud was introduced, it became clear that these were two separate accounts. I had "iTunes purchases" under one AppleID, and "everything else Apple" under a separate AppleID / iCloud account.
Now I still have this discrepancy. My iCloud account has 99% of what I do, but I still have all those iTunes purchases under the "emailless" AppleID. Thankfully, since the addition of "Family Sharing", they have added the ability to "link" the two together, but it's still not perfect. I'd rather just roll them in to be a single AppleID, especially since they use the same "user name!"
* Note, while I do have "AnonymousFreak@mac.com" as an email addresses, this dilemma is actually for my email/AppleID that use my real name. Just used AnonymousFreak in this post because it's my user name here.
I have 3 associated IDs with my account and none of them can be associated with an Apple email.
CNN FAKE NEWS! LOL
CNN FAKE NEWS! LOL
Wait, so Apple is letting anyone sign up for an "@mac.com" email address? I hold this email address with a sense of pride, knowing that me, hopefully to other old school Mac users, that we go way back to the .Mac days... not so cool anymore if anyone can just sign up for it.
The responsiveness here on the part of Apple is nice to hear.
Usually when getting a callback from exec relations, at least here in Europe, they are nice enough but rather useless as they, at least in the half dozen times I had a callback, don’t seem to be informed of what’s happening but claim they are and then say they can’t tell you.
One experience I had, was with a safety recall (risk of electrocution) so I wrote to I think Tim (too tired to look for mail.). Anyhow, I get a call from an ER staffer from Cork and I explained to her why and how the recall is incomplete (defective standard part for which only some of the using products, of which I had a sample of each at home, were being recalled.)
It felt more like a PR exercise as she argued with me about how the Apple team could never make such a mistake and that I must be mistaken.
I gave more examples, based on my parts at home, and she held firm.
Frustrated, I told her that I was going to end the call now, and that she better communicate my concerns to Apple’s recall organization before somebody gets killed, and that I would look forward to her call of apology after she finds out that I was right. (It was really a stupid way to end but I was so mad.)
To her credit, she called back a day or two later, may have apologized or thanked, I don’t recall that now except I did Apple a big solid favor and I had to fight to deliver it and I didn’t really feel much appreciated for it in the end.
Subsequently, Apple did expand the recall, but even then they failed to do it comprehensively and forgot a number of affected items. I noticed this, but because of time wasting hassle number 1, I didn’t bother to inform them about this because I just didn’t want to experience time wasting hassle number 2.
After a subsequent similar experience, I asked them not to call in follow up if it was just going to be a pr exercise because my ego doesn’t really crave that and I don’t want the frustration of such a time wasting exercise.
There are ancillary parts to this story, equally short sighted on the part of Apple recalling dangerous things, but I’m going to skip them for brevity.
Epilogue: Ok, I’ll add a part of what really frosted me, as it kind of relates to the Apple ID topic.
One of the bigger arguments we had in the initial call was my contention that Apple was being negligent in pursuing the recall. In that:
- the posted to their website but didn’t bother to contact customers;
- they could have pretty much contacted all concerned parties because every damn device that is out ther is pretty much connected to iCloud;
- so even if the device had changed hands, once it was connected to a new AppleID, Apple could have contacted both the old and the new owner just to be safe;
- could have even sent an email with a fill in questionnaire that would have kicked the suspected item change into gear (essentially the same methodology they use to measure customer satisfaction for Apple store purchases/visits or Apple care calls), but this didn’t happen;
- I asked her why such a simple thing wasn’t being done in the name of doing the right thing to actively protect customers and she said “some customers don’t want to get mail from us”;
- I asked her if she thought this might be an exception where a customer might be thankful, I don’t recall her reply, but there was no intelligent resonance to my point;
-(I don’t think I mentioned it to her, but maybe I did, but I thought in such cases, it would have been appropriate for Apple to contact all customers as outlined above, and incentivized them to complete the recall process by apologizing for the inconvenience and offering them something like an iTunes credit);
- I also had a complaint that Apple was making no obvious effort to capture serial numbers of the remediated devices (this seems to have been subsequently corrected);
I wish I was in charge of Apple’s recall department (having done this in another industry) as they seriously need(ed?) to up their game. For trivial on-cost, Apple could have both protected customers, and deepened customer good will to legendary levels.
[doublepost=1509516263][/doublepost]
Is that the case? I think only new iCloud coms are being created anymore.
Usually when getting a callback from exec relations, at least here in Europe, they are nice enough but rather useless as they, at least in the half dozen times I had a callback, don’t seem to be informed of what’s happening but claim they are and then say they can’t tell you.
One experience I had, was with a safety recall (risk of electrocution) so I wrote to I think Tim (too tired to look for mail.). Anyhow, I get a call from an ER staffer from Cork and I explained to her why and how the recall is incomplete (defective standard part for which only some of the using products, of which I had a sample of each at home, were being recalled.)
It felt more like a PR exercise as she argued with me about how the Apple team could never make such a mistake and that I must be mistaken.
I gave more examples, based on my parts at home, and she held firm.
Frustrated, I told her that I was going to end the call now, and that she better communicate my concerns to Apple’s recall organization before somebody gets killed, and that I would look forward to her call of apology after she finds out that I was right. (It was really a stupid way to end but I was so mad.)
To her credit, she called back a day or two later, may have apologized or thanked, I don’t recall that now except I did Apple a big solid favor and I had to fight to deliver it and I didn’t really feel much appreciated for it in the end.
Subsequently, Apple did expand the recall, but even then they failed to do it comprehensively and forgot a number of affected items. I noticed this, but because of time wasting hassle number 1, I didn’t bother to inform them about this because I just didn’t want to experience time wasting hassle number 2.
After a subsequent similar experience, I asked them not to call in follow up if it was just going to be a pr exercise because my ego doesn’t really crave that and I don’t want the frustration of such a time wasting exercise.
There are ancillary parts to this story, equally short sighted on the part of Apple recalling dangerous things, but I’m going to skip them for brevity.
Epilogue: Ok, I’ll add a part of what really frosted me, as it kind of relates to the Apple ID topic.
One of the bigger arguments we had in the initial call was my contention that Apple was being negligent in pursuing the recall. In that:
- the posted to their website but didn’t bother to contact customers;
- they could have pretty much contacted all concerned parties because every damn device that is out ther is pretty much connected to iCloud;
- so even if the device had changed hands, once it was connected to a new AppleID, Apple could have contacted both the old and the new owner just to be safe;
- could have even sent an email with a fill in questionnaire that would have kicked the suspected item change into gear (essentially the same methodology they use to measure customer satisfaction for Apple store purchases/visits or Apple care calls), but this didn’t happen;
- I asked her why such a simple thing wasn’t being done in the name of doing the right thing to actively protect customers and she said “some customers don’t want to get mail from us”;
- I asked her if she thought this might be an exception where a customer might be thankful, I don’t recall her reply, but there was no intelligent resonance to my point;
-(I don’t think I mentioned it to her, but maybe I did, but I thought in such cases, it would have been appropriate for Apple to contact all customers as outlined above, and incentivized them to complete the recall process by apologizing for the inconvenience and offering them something like an iTunes credit);
- I also had a complaint that Apple was making no obvious effort to capture serial numbers of the remediated devices (this seems to have been subsequently corrected);
I wish I was in charge of Apple’s recall department (having done this in another industry) as they seriously need(ed?) to up their game. For trivial on-cost, Apple could have both protected customers, and deepened customer good will to legendary levels.
[doublepost=1509516263][/doublepost]
Is that the case? I think only new iCloud coms are being created anymore.
I have been using my @mac.com address for many years, and I know others that do. Maybe give them a call and ask to find out why yours isn't working.
[doublepost=1509516979][/doublepost]
Exactly