Seems like Apple implemented some strange solution to merge me.com accounts with iCloud environment. Like keeping two independent accounts in backend and merging it artificially as one in frontend (GUI)? Just improvising.
This happened to me as well. Please check out my Reddit post here from over a week ago, which has been thoroughly updated since.
There’s a way to ping emails to see if they exist. Google that and find a site you like and try it out, don’t have any site recommendations but they’re out there.
Honestly, this entire feature may be a bug. Not bad advice though, but we may see this “feature” go away soon enough lol
Why do you think so? This feature was expected and required by many users (including me). Microsoft Account has such feature for years. Even more flexible.
I don't follow these things, so when you say that this feature was expected and required, I'd love better understand what you mean. More specifically, was this announced?
Unfortunately I cannot provide the prove. It's just my experience from the past. I visited many sites/threads where the topic was discussed and just found out that I'm not the only one who expected iCloud primary e-mail /aliases configuration be more flexible. A lot of such users provided feedback to Apple concerning this constraint I suppose.
No I think I'm going to wait until the official releases. If it's giving errors now I dont want to risk it working from my phone but then something dumb happening like I can't receive emails on my iPad without being on the beta etc. Or iCloud.com not working until they update it.
I remember requesting Apple to do this about 15 years ago. Bravo!
In iOS 18.1, there is a new option to set a "Primary" email address in the Settings app, which means it is easier to change the main email address associated with your Apple Account. The Primary email address is the one that is visible to other people when collaborating on and sharing documents, sending calendar invites, and more.
Apple did not previously make it easy to change an Apple Account (or Apple ID) email address, despite the fact that it is sometimes visible to other people. To change an Apple Account email before, you had to delete the email you were using, choose another, and go through a verification process.
You can now change the email address and continue to use the prior email for login purposes right alongside the new primary. This setting also comes with an option to change an iCloud.com or me.com email address, so if you have an address you're not fond of, it can finally be swapped to something else.
Prior to iOS 18.1, Apple did not allow users to delete, change, or turn off a primary iCloud Mail address. You could set an alias and use that instead, but the primary email would still sometimes be visible to others. For those who have an embarrassing iCloud email address, there's now an option to change it entirely rather than relying on an alias.
(Thanks, Converseallstar95!)
Article Link: iOS 18.1 Includes Option to Set 'Primary' Email Address and Change iCloud Email
I have to do this because my original acct is based in USA. Now I’m posted overseas and I have to have a 2nd App Store acct to be able to sign into to install the local country apps (not in USA store).
Sorry to hear this.
Same here. Ive stuck with my mac.com address. And when using it over the phone on occasions to Apple, a couple have been impressed how long I've been a customer for.
Thanks a lot for referring this very helpful explanation! I´m a victim of having both created my account that time using a third-party email suffix, and now erroneously tried to change it into one using a legacy Apple email suffix.
You can set more than one e-mail address as login id to Apple Account. One of them is primary e-mail address and this one is used when sending invitations. Or ... it should be like this? The feature is still in quite strange state now, in iOS 18.1 stable release. The feature is available for some (at least when swapping addresses from iCloud.com domain) but documentation still claims that primary address is not changeable, so be careful. Example:
What exactly did you do? Replaced me.com/icloud.com addresses with new iCloud.com primary address? How does list of addresses look like now?
My Apple Account looks like this now:
Thx for update. I still don't understand why Apple took such strange approach. They allowed modifying/editing internal iCloud.com primary/alias e-mail addresses out of the blue without officially announcing it nor updating documentation. Not Apple way, definitely.
