With the newly revamped free iCloud service fast approaching its fall release, one of the warts in Apple’s otherwise beautiful system has been gaining a lot of attention in recent months: The inability to consolidate multiple Apple IDs into one, particularly for existing MobileMe users stuck with one for iTunes purchases and another for everything else.
MacRumors is reporting that Apple may soon address what is rapidly becoming a thorny problem for many of its users on the eve of iCloud and iOS 5. Currently, Cupertino does not allow multiple Apple IDs to be merged into one account under any circumstances, a particularly baffling limitation considering that many longtime users have been stuck juggling at least two of them -- especially if you’ve used iTunes from the beginning and also have a MobileMe account, for example.
While Apple does allow users to change their Apple ID, devices are locked to a single account name for 90 days, which means you can’t simply switch back and forth at will. The situation is made uglier for those of us who have been with iTunes from the beginning, prior to when email addresses and more complicated passwords were required, which is now the norm for new Apple ID accounts.
Thankfully, it appears new Apple CEO Tim Cook may be coming to the rescue. MacRumors reports at least two of its readers have emailed Cook about the dilemma and were soon contacted by someone from Apple to discuss the situation.
“She had spoken to the team responsible for Apple IDs and acknowledged that they understood the issue and that more people would run into the problem with iCloud,” the website reports. “She also repeated that there is no way yet to combine accounts but revealed they are working on it. In the meantime, she recommended picking a single account to plan on keeping indefinitely and to make all future purchases on that account.”
While it’s not a definitive answer, it’s good to hear that Apple is clearly aware of the problem and working to resolve it. Here’s hoping a solution will present itself close to the launch of iCloud this fall…
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