Your Apple ID is your unique identifier as an Apple customer – your gateway to access all of Apple’s services like iTunes, iCloud, and the App Store. You most probably would have set one up when you purchased your new iPhone, iPad, or Mac. It’s fairly easy to change your Apple ID email address to a new one, in most cases (more about that later).
Before you go ahead and change your Apple ID email, there are a few things you should ensure:
- Sign out from all your devices signed in to with the Apple ID you want to change
- It’s also a good practice to have an updated iCloud backup before starting the process
It’s also not possible to change your Apple ID email if it’s an @icloud, @me, or @mac email address. You can only change it if it’s a third-party email address like @gmail, @yahoo, etc.
Changing your Apple ID email address on Apple.com
Once you have signed out of all your devices, you can change your Apple ID email address by following the steps below:
- Visit appleid.apple.com
- Sign in with your existing Apple ID email address and password
- In Sign-In and Security, choose Apple ID.
- Enter the email address you want to use as your new Apple ID email.
- Choose Change Apple ID
- You will receive a verification code to the new email address you entered. Enter the code.
You can now sign in to all your devices with your new Apple ID email address. You will not lose your app and music purchases history as they will all transfer over to the new associated email address.
Changing your Apple ID email address in Settings
You also have the option to change your Apple ID email using Settings on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Simply follow the steps below:
- Open Settings
- Tap your name at the top left of the screen, then open Name, Phone Numbers, Email.
- In Contactable At, tap Edit
- Now tap the red minus icon (-) next to your email address and tap Delete
- In the next screen, select Continue to verify the removal of your current Apple ID email address.
- Enter the email address you want to use as your new Apple ID email.
- Verify the new email address by entering the verification code you receive.
You can now go ahead and sign in to your devices with the new Apple ID email address.
Changing your @icloud, @me, or @mac Apple ID email address
Unfortunately, you cannot change your Apple ID email address if it’s an Apple email. Although Apple does claim that you can create what is called an email alias for your Apple email address and then associate that to your Apple ID but in practice, it doesn’t seem to work.
So your only option remains to create a new iCloud email address and set up an entirely new Apple ID. But this is the same as starting from scratch.
