Multiple Apple logins and pws

Joined
Aug 5, 2012
Messages
67
Reaction score
3
Points
8
OK, call me a duffs, but in the frustration of trying to get a crippled password manager to work across 3 platforms, I have someone managed to get two login names and 3 passwords for my Apple ID. First of all, how can this be? I have to try various combinations on various platforms (iMac,IPad,IPhone) to log in.

Second, how can this be cleaned up to ONE ID and ONE password????
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2007
Messages
7,163
Reaction score
275
Points
83
Location
UK
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini i5 (2014 High Sierra), iPhone X, Apple Watch, iPad Pro 12.9, AppleTV (4)
I'm a little confused.

An Apple ID can only have one username (which can never be changed), a nominated contact email (which you can change at will) and a single working password.

Can you explain exactly what issue you're facing?
 
OP
W
Joined
Aug 5, 2012
Messages
67
Reaction score
3
Points
8
Multiple logins and pws

I'm a little confused.

An Apple ID can only have one username (which can never be changed), a nominated contact email (which you can change at will) and a single working password.

Can you explain exactly what issue you're facing?

That's what I thought, too, but when I update my apps, e.g., I get one popup login requiring one pw. When I log into iCloud I get another login and pw. I haven't correlated whether these are peculiar to a device or if they correlate to the application I am logging into. Even worse, some login names require different passwords at different times.

So, it is not true that you can only have one. Do the devices store these locally? I thought they were stored in the cloud. Is there one place I can go to and change these to just one?
 

Raz0rEdge

Well-known member
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Jul 17, 2009
Messages
15,745
Reaction score
2,071
Points
113
Location
MA
Your Mac's Specs
2022 Mac Studio M1 Max, 2023 M2 MBA
Go to Apple - Support - Apple ID and click on the manage account section, then login with all of your apple ID's and passwords and figure out what you have..

Your end goal is to have one Apple ID with a single working password..
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2007
Messages
7,163
Reaction score
275
Points
83
Location
UK
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini i5 (2014 High Sierra), iPhone X, Apple Watch, iPad Pro 12.9, AppleTV (4)
I'm sorry but I stand by my original post.

What you're describing is multiple accounts not multiple users for the same account.

Depending on what you're doing you will be prompted for the password for a particular user because it was either the last user you logged in with or it will be the user associated with the app, book, music, video etc that was used when it was purchased.

You simply can't have multiple passwords for one username.

Go to appleID.apple.com and you can manage you IDs
 
OP
W
Joined
Aug 5, 2012
Messages
67
Reaction score
3
Points
8
I'm sorry but I stand by my original post.

What you're describing is multiple accounts not multiple users for the same account.

Depending on what you're doing you will be prompted for the password for a particular user because it was either the last user you logged in with or it will be the user associated with the app, book, music, video etc that was used when it was purchased.

You simply can't have multiple passwords for one username.

Go to appleID.apple.com and you can manage you IDs


I see what has happened. I have two different Apple IDs with different passwords. I am sure this happened in a fit of frustration over trying to log in with Roboform, which does not always seem to copy the password correctly into the form. How do I kill an Apple ID completely?
 
OP
W
Joined
Aug 5, 2012
Messages
67
Reaction score
3
Points
8
OK. I see you can't remove it from the forums. Bummer. This is a blunder on Apple's part and just makes life more difficult.

One last question. I have set up alternative email addresses. I assume these will all have the same password I have set up for the main email address, right? Surely, you can't set up different passwords for each address!
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2007
Messages
7,163
Reaction score
275
Points
83
Location
UK
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini i5 (2014 High Sierra), iPhone X, Apple Watch, iPad Pro 12.9, AppleTV (4)
If all your purchases are on one ID. Just kept using that one and don't use the other. Simple.

I'm not sure what you're getting at with the second part of your post. But here goes.

An AppleID is a username (this is often an email address) and a password associated with the username.

Now as people don't always keep the same email addresses you can add a registered email address that's used for contact purposes and just that. You can change it whenever you like for whatever reason but your username will never change and the password will only change at your request.
The contact/alternative address doesn't have anything to do with the password
 
OP
W
Joined
Aug 5, 2012
Messages
67
Reaction score
3
Points
8
OK. I just encountered what I am talking about. I changed my password for my Apple ID and assumed all of my other backup addresses would carry the same ID. I also changed the email I would use as my primary Apple login.

Then, just now I got a message on my iMac that iCloud could not log in. It was using a different login name and it required an old password for me to get in.

To make matters more confusing, my iPhone just gave the same message that it couldn't log into iCloud, and it used one of my secondary emails as the login. This one required the master password I had just reset for my Apple ID.

Why? What is going on? Does Apple have a different password for iCloud, for the Apple apps, for the Apple ID?????? On different devices???


--- upon reflection, this must be because I have set up two Apple Ids. ??? and, I understand you cannot delete an Apple ID once it is set up. Is that correct?
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2007
Messages
7,163
Reaction score
275
Points
83
Location
UK
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini i5 (2014 High Sierra), iPhone X, Apple Watch, iPad Pro 12.9, AppleTV (4)
Youn 'can' use separate AppleIDs for iCloud and everything else. That's an option.

I have it setup that way so that I have one for purchasing and one for iCloud. But equally you can use the same Apple ID for everything. Really depends how you've set it up.

You need to establish which IDs you have and then you need to make a decision which you're going to use for what.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top