How to change the email address linked to your Apple ID
If you own an iPad, iPhone, iPod or Mac, your Apple ID is the gateway to accessing the App Store, iCloud and iTunes, making it a crucial part of your digital identity. If you ever need to change the email address associated with your Apple ID, AppleInsider shows you how.
First, a word of caution. When you do this, you risk disassociation of "unlock"-style in-app purchases from your account. Consumables don't seem to be affected, but in many cases, a one-time expense will be removed from the new account, never to return. Proceed with caution!
Before anything else, log out of utterly everything associated with the Apple ID that's going to get modified. If "Find my iPhone" is enabled, then turn that off too.
Next, head over to appleid.apple.com, then sign in using your existing Apple ID.
Once logged in, press the small Edit button located in the upper-right corner of the Account section, followed by Change Email Address.
Enter your new email address and click Continue.
You will now be asked to input a verification code that's been sent to your new email address. After you've entered the 6-digit number, press Continue, then hit Done to save your changes.
In most cases, your Apple ID will be transferred between devices. But if you ever change email addresses, you'll want to be sure to update the address associated with your Apple ID to maintain control going forward.
First, a word of caution. When you do this, you risk disassociation of "unlock"-style in-app purchases from your account. Consumables don't seem to be affected, but in many cases, a one-time expense will be removed from the new account, never to return. Proceed with caution!
Before anything else, log out of utterly everything associated with the Apple ID that's going to get modified. If "Find my iPhone" is enabled, then turn that off too.
Next, head over to appleid.apple.com, then sign in using your existing Apple ID.
Once logged in, press the small Edit button located in the upper-right corner of the Account section, followed by Change Email Address.
Enter your new email address and click Continue.
You will now be asked to input a verification code that's been sent to your new email address. After you've entered the 6-digit number, press Continue, then hit Done to save your changes.
In most cases, your Apple ID will be transferred between devices. But if you ever change email addresses, you'll want to be sure to update the address associated with your Apple ID to maintain control going forward.
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Comments
This happened a few years back but: I care for a friend's electronic gear and every two years her husband switched between Verizon cable and Comcast and changed her email address in the process. So, she was stuck with using an email address that no longer existed as her Apple ID. When I contacted Apple on how to change it, I was told you couldn't.
I don't know when they added the ability to change it, but it was a good change. Now, if they could just stop using email addresses as IDs! Why? An ID is an ID. It doesn't need an @ sign!
Failing to do so can lead to problems: in my case (did this a week ago) one of my devices (a mac with latest OS) failed to automatically update the icloud account to the new AppleID, and in order to sign out and do it myself, I was asked to provide the password to the AppleID email that was nonexistent already at that point in time. One does not simply log out a turn off findmydevice with a single tap. And that makes sense.
I ended up having to switch AppleID back to what it used to be, log off, confirm password to turn off findmymac, change it again, login again. All that pain with two factor auth... oh man, I wasted about an hour.
Long story short: SIGN OUT before you change your AppleID or spend the fool's hour.
mb
I know that if you borrow a program (copy) from another iTunes user or another account and that user change his or her password, you will not be able to activate that program anymore, especially if he or she changes her Apple ID.
- to ensure you know where any help emails are going to go
- to enable you to have a personal, memorable ID.
On #2, "joe@mydomain.com" is a nice username and easy to remember. But "jsmith62b" (or some derivative to ensure uniqueness) is not. Multiply that by every site you use and it becomes a nitemare.
Yeah pretty sure sharing your paid memberships isn't really a use case they're going to promote.
I have a feeling it has to do with the fact that vendors keep their own records maybe?
... Sorry, Apple is a hold out requiring an email address instead of an ID. I have no problem remembering my ID. I think it's safe to assume that most people don't make up stupid, hard to remember IDs.
That's great for you. But with most common name combos being taken, people need to come up with something (first initial, last name, partial digits of birth year, plus anything else needed for uniqueness are all commonly used). And clearly people forget them as even as been said on this thread when somebody inadvertently created themselves two IDs. My senior friends sure as hell can't remember what usernames they were able to come up with on various systems -- but they can remember their email address which is static to them.
As with most things Apple, it's about keeping it the most simple for the most people.