Thursday 14 June 2012

My AppleID has been hijacked – by Apple



I have had one Apple account ever since buying my first iPod. I have now four iPods and four iPhones in the house as well as two Macs and several PCs. All that time I have used my one AppleID for everything. (The kids also occasionally need it for their apps.)
Yesterday I found out that I could start using “Find my iPhone” for my iPhone 4, but for some reason when I tried it, all I got was the message that my email address annex Apple ID account name could not be used for the “Find my iPhone”. “The email address has already been verified for a different account.” That’s weird. I only have one AppleID and one email address.
So I added a second email address I have for work just to enable to “Find my iPhone”. But apparently to FIND your iPhone you have to LOSE your email address/AppleID. So now my AppleID has apparently acquired my work email address as its name and I can’t change it back. No one can explain to me why. I also have no idea what an AppleID actually is. I am not supposed to share it – even with relatives (the children) – but they don’t have credit cards, so I have to.
How many computers/iPods/iPhones can I have on one account? Is there a limit and if so why? How does one communicate with Apple? I haven’t even started on the problems one can have with a Google account, but will Apple please solve this issue first?
The bottom line – according to a very amiable Apple iTunesStoreSupport staffer who wanted to help – “Your email had been already used on your account and Apple identifies this as an Apple ID. This is the reason you are not able to change the mail.”
(This blog from March 2011 seems to have disappeared...)