How to change the email on your Apple ID (Apple Account)

Apple lets you swap the email address on your Apple Account (the new name for Apple ID) without losing anything. Your purchases, contacts and iCloud data stay where they are. What changes is where Apple writes to you and which address you type to sign in.

How do you change the email on your Apple ID?

On an iPhone, iPad or Mac, go to Settings (or System Settings), tap your name, then Sign-In & Security, and tap your primary email address. Remove it or turn off Primary Email, then add the new address and enter the code Apple sends to it. On the web, use account.apple.com.

Apple's page on changing your Apple Account primary email address, last published September 14, 2026, is the source for the steps below. Apple renamed Apple ID to Apple Account, and the same sign-in details still work.

What the primary email address is for

Apple's page about Apple Account email addresses separates three kinds:

Address type	What it does	Can you sign in with it?
Primary email	Gets all mail from Apple about your account; shown to people you collaborate with in iCloud	Yes
Additional email	Lets people find you in FaceTime, Messages, Photo Sharing and Find My	Yes
Rescue email	Security mail, only offered if you do not use two-factor authentication	No

Two details on that page make the primary address matter more than it looks. Apple sends account notices there and asks you to check it regularly. And with two-factor authentication on, Apple says you might be able to shorten account recovery, or reset your password right away, by entering a six-digit code sent to your primary email. If the primary is an address you never open, you lose that shortcut.

Before you change it

A short checklist saves most of the problems people run into:

Make sure the new address receives mail. Send it a test from another account. Apple will not finish the change until you enter the code it sends there.
Check your trusted device is at hand. Apple calls the iPhone or other device already signed in with two-factor authentication "the easiest and most secure way" to make the change.
Make sure the new address is not on another Apple Account. Apple will refuse an address already in use, including one sitting on a family member's account.
Allow mail from Apple. If the new inbox filters hard, allow messages from email.apple.com, as Apple's verification help suggests.
List the places that write to your old address. Changing your Apple Account does not change the email on any other site. Our guide to changing your email address everywhere has a checklist.

Change it on iPhone, iPad or Mac

Open Settings on iPhone or iPad, or System Settings on a Mac, and choose your name at the top.
Tap or click Sign-In & Security.
Tap or click your primary email address.
Choose one of two options. Remove from Account takes the old address off completely. Turning off Primary Email keeps the old address on the account as an extra sign-in but stops using it as the primary.
When prompted, pick another address already on your account as the new primary, or add a new one.
Follow the steps to enter and verify the new address with the code Apple sends.

Which option in step 4 should you pick? If you still read the old address, turning off Primary Email is the gentler choice, because you can still sign in with it and people who reach you on FaceTime or Messages through it still can. If you are leaving that address for good, remove it.

Change it on the web

Apple prefers you use a trusted device, and the Apple Account website will send you there when it can. If you have no trusted device, Apple says you might be able to make the change on the web:

Go to account.apple.com and sign in.
Open Sign-In and Security.
Choose Email & Phone Numbers and update the primary address.

The word "might" is Apple's. If the web page keeps pointing you to a device, the device route is the one that will work.

What happens to your old address

This is where Apple's rules are strict, and they cut both ways.

Your data stays. Apple says you will not lose access to contacts, purchases or other account information.
The old address is locked for 30 days. If you remove an address that is not an iCloud address, it cannot be linked to another Apple Account for 30 days, for security reasons.
After 30 days, someone else may claim it. Another person might then be able to tie that address to their own Apple Account for Messages, FaceTime and more. Apple tells you to let people who contact you that way know about the change. Our templates for telling people your email changed can help with that message.

If the old address was at a provider you are closing, the 30-day window is the point at which it stops being "yours" inside Apple's services, so tell people before then.

If you can't change your Apple Account email

The new address is "already in use"

Apple's advice is to check that neither you nor a family member already uses that address on another Apple Account. If a family member does, ask them to remove it from their account. You might then have to wait 30 days before you can use it on yours.

You only have an iCloud address

If the only address on the account is an @icloud.com one, you will not see Remove from Account. You will see Change Email Address instead, and only on a device with iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1 or macOS 26.4 or later.

Apple says this option changes only your iCloud email address. You keep using iCloud Mail and keep the messages already sent to it, and the new iCloud address replaces the old one. If you want a non-Apple address as your primary instead, add it first, then make it the primary with the steps above.

The verification email never arrives

From Apple's page on missing verification emails:

Search the inbox for mail from "Apple", then check Spam, Junk, Trash, Deleted Items and Archive.
Sign in to your Apple Account on the web and check the address you typed. If it is misspelled, fix it and send a new verification email.
Click Resend next to the address you want to verify.
If no mail at all is arriving at that address, the problem is with the mail provider, not Apple.

Your Apple Account uses a phone number

In Brazil, China mainland, India and Mexico, people can create an Apple Account with a mobile number instead of an email. Apple's phone number page, published November 3, 2026, explains how to switch to an email:

Go to Settings or System Settings, choose your name, then Sign-In & Security.
Tap or click your primary phone number.
Choose Remove from Account, or turn off Primary Phone Number to keep the number on the account.
Choose Add New Primary Phone or Email.
Pick Existing Email Address, or New iCloud Email Address to create a free iCloud address.
Verify the new address.

The setting most people forget: Hide My Email forwarding

If you use Sign in with Apple and chose to hide your email from apps, those apps write to a relay address that Apple forwards to an address on your account. Apple's Sign in with Apple page says you can change that forwarding address to any address on file, and that the choice applies to every app and developer using Hide My Email.

After you change your primary email, check it:

Open Settings and tap your name.
Tap iCloud.
Under iCloud+ Features, tap Hide My Email.
Scroll down, tap Forward To, and select the new address.

Apple does not say whether this updates by itself when you remove the old address, so look rather than assume. The same Settings screen under your name also has a Sign in with Apple list, which is a fast way to see which apps use your Apple Account to log in.

Adding an extra address instead

Sometimes you do not need to change the primary at all. If you just want people to reach you on FaceTime or Messages at another address, or want a second address you can sign in with, add it:

Sign in at account.apple.com.
Select Sign-In and Security.
Choose Email & Phone Numbers, then the Add button.
Enter the address and the verification code Apple sends.

The same rule applies: the address cannot already be on another Apple Account.

If you are moving to a new address anyway

If the reason for the change is a new inbox, it may as well be one that never asks for your phone number. Signing up for Secria Mail takes a name, the address you want and a password, with no phone number and no card. The free plan includes 1 GB and 2 email aliases. Give services like your Apple Account their own alias, and if that alias starts getting spam you can trace it and switch it off by deleting it. You can import your old mail from Apple Mail, Gmail, Outlook and others under Settings, Import & export, Bring mail in. Create a free account before you start, so the new address is ready for Apple's code.

Frequently asked questions

Will I lose my purchases or data if I change my Apple ID email? No. Apple says you keep access to your contacts, purchases and other account information. The account is the same, only the address changes.

Can I change my Apple ID email without a password? Apple's steps run through a device already signed in to your account, or through account.apple.com after you sign in. If you have forgotten your password, reset it first, then change the address.

Can I use my old email again later? If you only turned off Primary Email, it stays on your account. If you removed it, it is blocked from other Apple Accounts for 30 days, and after that another person might be able to link it to theirs.

Can I change my @icloud.com address? Yes, if iCloud is the only address on the account and you have iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1 or macOS 26.4 or later. Use Change Email Address. Your iCloud Mail and existing messages stay.

Why does Apple say the email is already in use? Another Apple Account, possibly a family member's, already has that address. They need to remove it, and you might have to wait 30 days before adding it to yours.

Once the new address is verified, check the Hide My Email forwarding setting, then work through the rest of your accounts with our change-your-email checklist.