Do you need an alias? From what I understand, .iCloud, .mac, and .me are all the same account. I always log in with .me and the account on top says .mac. I think you can use any of the three and Apple will appropriately route your mail.
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iOS 18.1 Includes Option to Set 'Primary' Email Address and Change iCloud Email
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Thanks dude. I have 2 Yahoo email addresses, each of which I use for my US and Canadian accounts. I want to change these to icloud email addresses. Would this be possible?
Than you. I'll check out the link tomorrow. Long day. Brain's switched off.
After the questions I've asked here, I really don't think that domain is apt for me 🤣
What is an alias?
As for the Apple email addresses. Same here. I can switch between mac.com, icloud.com, and me.com.
It's been possible (for many years) to change external (e.g. Yahoo) e-mail back to *primary* (the one that was provided during activation of E-mail service) internal icloud.com e-mail. Should you prefer to change it to different iCloud.com e-mail address (now it's possible in iOS 18.1) than you would have to:
1. Create alias (Settings/Apple Account/iCloud/Mail/Addresses/Add alias...) that you want to use as primary e-mail address for Apple Account.
2. Replace Yahoo Apple ID (Settings/Apple Account/Login&Security/Primary e-mail address -> Change e-mail address / provide new alias that you want to be primary e-mail address for Apple Account).
Just be careful! Once you make a change it could be irreversible (it's possible to change primary Apple ID only once every 30 days!). Be sure that you understand what you're doing.
The procedure may be possible much simpler (or just different?). I did similar change only once (this morning), so .... not quite experienced yet. YMMV.
EDIT: Also - once you create e-mail alias for one Apple Account it's bound to this account FOREVER. You won't be able to use it for different Apple Account. At least that was the case until iOS 18.1.
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Mine won’t let me change the iCloud email. The option is there, but it fails every time I try to proceed with changing it. Wonder if it’s because my account is old enough to still have the me.com tied to it. I really want to get rid of that one, I receive so much spam from it, even with filters/rules set up to throw it all in the trash.
I’d like to change my email to something else so that it drops my current @ icloud and @ me, and then change it back to what I currently have it as, so that it hopefully proceeds with only @ icloud from that point forward. But since it won’t let me change anything anyways, I guess none of it matters.
I’d like to change my email to something else so that it drops my current @ icloud and @ me, and then change it back to what I currently have it as, so that it hopefully proceeds with only @ icloud from that point forward. But since it won’t let me change anything anyways, I guess none of it matters.
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I’m on the latest developper beta… and still getting the error.
FYI, the latest Public beta is the same build.
I'm still confused by this whole thing. I thought it was already possible to change the primary email on icloud.com (the website) and I've definitely helped friends doing this before. So what's new exactly?
I’m in the same boat. I escalated the issue several times and they said if I can show them evidence of it ever having been used as an email address they would reactivate it for email. I produced said proof and then they threw up a bunch more roadblocks and I eventually gave up. Why even have an iCloud sign in that looks exactly like an email address but prevent it from being used as one?
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I was able to switch my primary email address to my custom domain email address. But my old iCloud address which I no longer want is still sticking.
I’ll try later (tomorrow) to remove it again.
Nope. Didn’t get an answer and cannot figure it out. I can change it to another email address but not iCloud email address. I worry about changing it to my own domain email as I use it through Apple. If I do that and I need to change something I worry I will not have access? Don’t know what to do now. Haha
Actually, I just tried again and figured it out. I used an iCloud email address I used to have. Was able to delete it and change to a new iCloud email address then make it primary. But I think it worked as I had an iCloud email address in the account that was an i plus my phone number. Then changed that to name then made it primary. Worked fine. Just takes some digging.
If the account for which you change the email was the account that made the purchases then the answer is yes.
My current wife doesn’t like seeing my Apple ID email since it was hyphenated with my first wife who passed.
Wasn't there a time when Apple did that for a one time thing? I remember that happening many years ago.
Is the Primary email the one that will be concealed so you can only use for your login or is that the one that everyone will see when you share stuff ?
Primary Email:
This email address can be used to sign in, verify your identity, and help recover your
account. It can also be used to reach you with iMessage, FaceTime, Game Center, and more.
Primary Email Primary email address is used to receive emails from Apple. It is also visible to people you collaborate
and share documents with using iCloud.
Its unclear how you conceal your address and only use it for login if the primary is available for all functions.
Primary Email:
This email address can be used to sign in, verify your identity, and help recover your
account. It can also be used to reach you with iMessage, FaceTime, Game Center, and more.
Primary Email Primary email address is used to receive emails from Apple. It is also visible to people you collaborate
and share documents with using iCloud.
Its unclear how you conceal your address and only use it for login if the primary is available for all functions.
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It looks like my « old » iCloud/me email address will stay in my account forever.
I remember a long time ago my apple account as my Gmail address. At some point I switched to an iCloud.com email adresse. I remember it said there was no going back after… once switched to iCloud, it would be impossible to go back to something else. I’m under the impression my old iCloud email address is there to stay
I remember a long time ago my apple account as my Gmail address. At some point I switched to an iCloud.com email adresse. I remember it said there was no going back after… once switched to iCloud, it would be impossible to go back to something else. I’m under the impression my old iCloud email address is there to stay
I can’t wait till the day when I could merge my two accounts. I have one that has all my songs and purchases on it and the other one has iCloud and everything else and it’s very annoying. They really should make a tool so you can merge these now that we’re always able to change email addresses. I want to use the one for iCloud, but I don’t wanna lose everything so there’s really no way around it right now. I know they’re worried about security and what not but this has been an ongoing thing for like 20 years and I can see from the comments here I’m not the only one in this situation
I haven’t seen a comment from anyone that has successfully changed their primary what happened to their purchases.
Do your purchases transfer to the new primary? Do you have to redownload them? What happens with existing subscriptions? What about third party apps that are live services? Are your Hide My addresses still active? Any other issues?
Do your purchases transfer to the new primary? Do you have to redownload them? What happens with existing subscriptions? What about third party apps that are live services? Are your Hide My addresses still active? Any other issues?
Changing primary e-mail address has been possible for many years (I did it many times) but only using primary icloud@com e-mail or any external e-mail address (gmail.com, etc.). The only difference now is that you can swap primary iCloud.com e-mail width different internal icloud.com e-mail address and delete previous one (which I did as soon as I learned of such possibility).
One or another, you're just changing user identifier used to log in to the same Apple Account. Why do you think any of services/subscriptions/purchases linked to certain Apple Account would suffer from such change at all?
I use iCloud+ and Apple Music and haven't noticed any problem with them. Applications passwords (I use one for IMAP/SMTP interface where I had to change username in configuration of course) are not affected. All changes to Apple Account were immediately visible on my macOS, even though it is a stable 15.0.1 version, not beta. Mail application shows new list of e-mail addresses properly (new primary one + one alias, without previous primary e-mail address).
Can I change the iCloud email address to the alias I’ve been using or can I just delete the address? The iCloud address is not my Apple ID.
You must be referring to specific scenarios - e.g. concerning "old" accounts, whatever?
I'm just describing how Apple services work now (at least for me) - for last couple of years. Subscriptions/purchases are bound to Apple Account not to specific email address which is just login name for Apple Account.
Could you provide more details, what scenario are you referring to? What do you mean by "new email address" to which purchases do not transfer?
Hey, I'm currently maintaining the original discussion here on Reddit. Can you confirm if you were able to change your @mac.com address to a new @mac.com address? Many people trying this but having no luck.
Thanks for any insight!
Hey, I wouldn't recommend deleting an original @icloud.com address in the event this isn't a feature but is actually a bug.
Better to wait for Apple to announce something before deleting any primary email addresses.
More here.
I talk more about this in the original discussion on Reddit.
A few people are having difficulty with doing this, and I wonder if it could be for the reasons you described.
Does your current primary email end in @icloud.com? And if so, did you try changing to an alias created in Apple Mail online, also ending in @icloud.com?
Thanks for sharing your experience.