Apple ID and iCloud Account - they are different - should I change things

[IWT]

Because I started with Apple long before iCloud, I had, and still do, an Apple ID linked to my personal email address with its own PW.

Before there was iCloud, there was @me.com which synced things between my devices.

The @me.com became my iCloud account with its own PW.

So I have Apple ID with its own email & PW for purchases and the rest. Plus @me.com and different PW for iCloud purposes and syncing. Everything works okay; BUT

Apple, I know, would prefer a single ID for everything.

What is the advice of my colleagues here? Can one merge accounts? I'm almost certain not.

Keep the status quo - will it be future-proof? Or will @me.com go in the future?

Basically, do I need to do anything. If so, what?

Thanks to you all.

Ian

 

[mrplow]

I have a similar situation and am quite happy with it a mac.com ID and a me.com/icloud.com

Suits me to have a purchasing ID and a 'user' ID, though it wasn't a planned situation (think I needed a me.com address to sync notes).

There's no know way to merge IDs to my knowledge.

There's no way of knowing what will change in the future but I'm staying as-is until there's either a definite need or a clear working merge process.

 

[bobtomay]

I've never seen anything that would even hint that Apple "prefers" a single login for both your AppleID and iCloud account.

afaik,

There are some of us that have the same username/password for both logins. We are those that registered our AppleID with an @mac.com address (this was before me.com) rather than some other email address. While another email address can be added to our AppleID account for backup and verification purposes, our AppleID email address/login cannot be changed. I suspect this may be true of those whose AppleID is the newer (now gone) @me.com - I just don't know. As it stands now, my AppleID is now and forever more [email protected].

Everyone that used a 3rd party email address to setup their AppleID "will" have 2 separate logins - one for your AppleID (and you have the ability to change this login/email address if/when it changes) and your iCloudID login. They cannot be merged into the same login.

Because my AppleID is the old @mac.com, I can actually log into my AppleID or iCloud account using @mac.com, @me.com or @icloud.com - they are all treated as one and the same by Apple.

 

[IWT]

Great advice and very welcome. Thank you very much. I shall stay with the status quo.

I was almost certainly being over-concerned about my Apple ID and iCloud ID being different.

Thanks to both of you for responding so swiftly and in such a helpful & gentlemanly manner.

Ian