Some people wonder what Apple ID is and whether its data is permanent. The email you link to it and its password can change, just as you can with the other personal data you provide. The only thing you have to be a little careful depending on the situation, but Apple has made it easy for us to keep our account settings correct and to be able to change your Apple ID and its associated email whenever you want.
How to change your Apple ID and keep it always up to date
First things first, you need to know what your Apple ID is. You should know at least the email and password for that account. In times of unforeseen events that is information that you will be grateful to have memorized, because the Apple ID must be configured in all our apple products.
The best way to change our Apple ID data is to do it through our iPhone, since we will probably have to resort to it to be able to pass the two-factor authentication even if we use a Mac or a browser. If we do not have an iPhone, then we can do it through the Apple ID website.
On the iPhone we can make the relevant changes from the Settings application. As soon as we enter it we will see our name in the header, and if we click on it we will access our Apple ID options. The first of them, ‘Name, phones, email’ allows us to change all these personal data. But you must take into account the following restrictions:
– The new email you want to add cannot be the @icloud.com address of another Apple account you have.
– The new email you want to add cannot be one that uses another Apple ID, even if it is a simple recovery email.
– Your Apple ID should never be someone else’s email or one that you no longer have access to for whatever reason.
– The new phone you want to add must be yours, and Apple will perform a check via SMS message to confirm it. You can have multiple phone numbers associated with one Apple ID.
Under ‘Password and security‘ you will find the ‘Change password‘ option to do just that. We shouldn’t have any additional problems if the iPhone is set up correctly, and that includes taking care of all pending security requests in those sections.
Apple will not allow you to use passwords that are too simple, such as one that includes your name or year of birth. It also won’t allow passwords you’ve used in the past, for security reasons. It must be something with a minimum of complication. Remember that two-factor authentication is mandatory for most features of Apple applications and services.
As I said before, we can make the same changes on the Apple ID website. It’s less straightforward than with the iPhone, as you’ll be prompted for two-factor authentication to access all options, but it may be an option if you don’t have an iPhone or if you don’t have one handy. You will need another Apple device (a Mac or iPad) to complete the login.
By the way, you can also completely delete your Apple ID (you may have left the ecosystem or made another one). The process takes a few weeks to complete completely, but Apple guarantees that all your data is completely deleted. For everything to sync properly, the most important thing is to have the same Apple ID set up everywhere.