Q and A: Help, I have too many Apple IDs!

Q. I have too many Apple ID’s. Is there a way to combine them all? – Joshua Schnell

A. Thanks for contacting us, Joshua! This is a great question as I know many people that have multiple IDs as well. From Apple’s support document FAQ on Apple IDs, it appears you may be able to do it, but you can’t do it yourself online:

“I have multiple Apple IDs. Is there a way for me to consolidate them into a single Apple ID?

Sorry, but this is not possible at this time via our online tools. You can speak with an AppleCare representative, who can help you consolidate your registered Apple products. They can also help register your iPods, iPhones, or Mac computers under a single Apple ID.”

Generally when you call to speak to an AppleCare representative, if you’re not under your 90 day complimentary support or under your 3 year warranty, they may try to charge you. It doesn’t hurt to try though. One of the other interesting things I gleamed from the support FAQ is that there isn’t a way to delete extra Apple IDs.

On another note, if you’re like me and legitimately have a need for multiple IDs, and you need a better way to handle them, 1Password has been a lifesaver. I’m able to go to a login page, hit commad+\, and I get this little floating list of my 5 Apple IDs to choose from. This is much better than the old way where one may auto log in and I would post or register something under the wrong ID. This also works great if you have multiple Google, YouTube or Flickr accounts.

If this helped or you have other related tips, please leave them in our comments below. If you have a question that you would like answered, please email ask@macgasm.net

Apple Systems Admin for mac-fusion, which is just a fancy name for a tech. For the last 12 years I've been fixing Macs and we specialize in helping businesses run their company on a Mac. If you like Mac tweets, follow me on Twitter.