The maximum number of free accounts have been activated on this iPad

[[DT]]

Figured I'd post this here too, it's on a couple of other sites, including the official Apple support forums. Been through 2 phones calls and a chat and I'm not getting any closer to anyone who can do anything about it.

I determined I want to use my old/orignial Apple ID (the wife and I both have our company email setup as IDs). We use hers as our "joint" accout for purchasing apps, and I want to use mine for my iCloud setup.

I wound up using her's for my first iCloud setup, then, without realizing this "free account" limit, I setup two different @me.com accounts (I was just experimenting with the configuration, and different account names).

Now I'm getting this error/dialog when I try to use my AppleID for iCloud:

"The maximum number of free accounts have been activated on this iPad".

I don't really want or need the two @me.com accounts and I've removed them from the iPad, but from my research it sounds like the device gets registered upstream with Apple[?] I see the two accounts still have active AppleIDs (I'm still able to login to the ID manager and iCloud with both). I don't need another account, I simply want to use my old, existing Apple ID.

What appears to be happening is when I setup iCloud, the message is saying I already have existing iCloud(s) and that no more are allowed. I agree with this policy since Apple can't have people creating dozens of accounts and sucking up resources. However, there needs to be a way to purge them if there's some kind of limit. I also wonder what happens if you sell an iPad?

Any solution beyond going back into the support black hole?

Would a full factory reset also reset this "counter"?

Thanks!

 

[[DT]]

Solved this myself after two calls and a chat to Apple.

I simply created an iCloud instance on the wife's iPhone, then deleted it (then reactivated hers). Once it was created, I was able to connect to it via the iPad.

I suppose that decrements hers by one, but no sweat, she's setup, I'm setup, both with our preferred AppleIDs.