{"id":102,"date":"2013-02-10T23:30:31","date_gmt":"2013-02-11T04:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yourmacexpert.com\/blog\/?p=102"},"modified":"2013-02-11T15:45:30","modified_gmt":"2013-02-11T20:45:30","slug":"understanding-your-apple-id","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.yourmacexpert.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/10\/understanding-your-apple-id\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Your Apple ID"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you want the short version of this post, here it is: Any time Apple asks you to log in, just enter your Apple ID and password. Buying a song from iTunes? Enter your Apple ID and password. Visiting the\u00a0Apple Online Store<\/a>\u00a0to buy a new Mac?\u00a0Enter your Apple ID and password. Making\u00a0a\u00a0Genius Bar<\/a> reservation? Enter your Apple ID and password.<\/p>\n

There are not separate accounts for iTunes, iCloud, etc. They all share a single account, and that account is known as your Apple ID.<\/p>\n

If it’s so easy, then why do some folks find it so confusing? Mostly because Apple hasn’t done a good job of explaining it. Many users don’t realize that every Apple service and online store share a single sign-on.<\/p>\n

Any newly created Apple ID\u00a0must be an email address that does\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0use an Apple-owned domain.\u00a0So john.doe@example.com\u00a0is a valid Apple ID, but john.doe@icloud.com\u00a0is not. ((Under the old rules, Apple IDs could end in mac.com\u00a0or me.com, and those users have been grandfathered-in. For technical reasons unknown to me, those are also the only users who may not change<\/em> their Apple ID.))<\/p>\n

When you sign up for an Apple ID, your email address becomes your Apple ID. If you ever change your email address, you will need to change your Apple ID to\u00a0match the new address.<\/p>\n

You can sign up for an Apple ID using any web browser, even on Windows and Linux. But the Mail feature of iCloud can only be set up on a Mac or iOS device.\u00a0To create an iCloud email address, go to System Preferences and clicks on iCloud:<\/p>\n

\"Choose<\/a><\/p>\n

If you set up an iCloud email account (i.e. john.doe@icloud.com<\/a>), you will now have\u00a0two<\/em>\u00a0email addresses associated with your Apple ID. Apple conveniently accepts either address at any login prompt, but don’t let that confuse you. Even though your Apple ID is now linked to an iCloud address, your Apple ID is still your primary email address.<\/p>\n

Making things even more confusing, the iCloud account panel incorrectly labels the email address as an Apple ID. This is just plain wrong.<\/p>\n

\"iCloud<\/a><\/p>\n

Just remember this: your Apple ID is\u00a0your primary email address<\/strong>. If you enter a new primary email address, you will change your Apple ID, but not your iCloud email address (which cannot be changed).<\/p>\n

If you visit the My Apple ID<\/a>\u00a0page and click “Manage your Apple ID,” you’ll see something that looks this:<\/p>\n

\"Apple<\/a><\/p>\n

As a practical matter, any time you’re prompted for your Apple ID, you can enter either your primary email address\u00a0or<\/em> your iCloud.com address. ((If you’ve been around long enough to also have a mac.com\u00a0or me.com\u00a0address, those may<\/em> work too; see this article<\/a> for details.))<\/p>\n

Any questions?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you want the short version of this post, here it is: Any time Apple asks you to log in, just enter your Apple ID and password. Buying a song from iTunes? Enter your Apple ID and password. Visiting the\u00a0Apple … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apple","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2JgYQ-1E","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yourmacexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yourmacexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yourmacexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yourmacexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yourmacexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"http:\/\/www.yourmacexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128,"href":"http:\/\/www.yourmacexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions\/128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yourmacexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yourmacexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yourmacexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}