The time may come when you might want to change or switch your Apple ID. Users who use multiple Apple IDs have to switch their Apple ID in order to check their app purchases or subscriptions associated with the account. To do so on your Mac or PC, follow the directions below.
- Click the small right-facing button next to the reset it using your Apple ID text. Enter your Apple ID and password and then click the Reset Password button. A warning message will display, telling you that resetting the password will cause a new keychain file to be created.
- (If you instead see a Change button next to the Apple ID entry, your ID is already associated.) IDG Enter an incorrect password three times and you'll be prompted for an Apple ID.
- Switch Apple ID on Mac; Switch Apple ID on Windows PC; How to Sign-out and Switch Apple ID on iPhone and iPad. Launch Settings app on your iOS device → Now, tap on Apple ID banner. Next, Scroll down and tap on Sign Out → Enter your Apple ID password in the popup and hit Turn Off.
Contents
In some macOS versions, you can use your Apple ID to reset your login password. At the login screen, keep entering a password until you see a message saying that you can reset your password using Apple ID. If you don't see the message after three attempts, your account isn't set up to allow resetting with Apple ID.
- 1 Change your Apple ID
- 2 Third-Party Email
- 3 Switching Apple IDs on Your Devices
- 4 Why Change Your Apple ID?
Change your Apple ID
How to change your Apple ID depends on whether you’re using an Apple-based email address such as @mac.com, @me.com, or @icloud.com, or a third-party email.
Using an Apple Email
If your current Apple ID is tied to an Apple email, following these steps.
- Go to appleid.apple.com and sign in through a web browser on your Mac or PC.
- Next, click Edit in the Account section.
- Under your existing Apple ID, click on Change Apple ID.
At this point, you’ll be given a choice of Apple emails to use as your new Apple ID. The only email addresses you can use are those that are already an alias with your account. If your @icloud.com address was created in the past month, you might have to wait a mentioned number of days before being allowed to change your Apple ID. Regardless, you can only change your Apple ID to an @icloud.com, @me.com, or @mac.com email.
Once a change to your Apple ID has been made, you’ll receive an email from Apple confirming the notification.
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Third-Party Email
It’s much trickier to change your Apple ID when you’re currently using a third-party email address. To do so, you must log out of every device that uses the email before attempting to make a change. If you plan on changing the Apple ID using an iPhone or iPad, you can stay logged into your account on that device before making the change.
When you decide to make a change to your Apple ID when you have a third-party address, you can use another third-party email address or select one from Apple. If you decide to use a @mac.com, @me.com, or @icloud.com email address, it must already be a login alias or alternate Apple ID for your account. You can find this information by logging into the Apple ID account page from a web browser.
- After logging into your account, tap Edit next to Accounts.
- Scroll down until you see the section Reachable At and see if there’s an Apple email you can use to replace your Apple ID.
Most likely, if you’re using a third-party email as your Apple ID, you’ve never added an Apple email as an alias. Therefore, your best bet at this point is to add an all-new Apple email to use as an alias.
Changing Your Apple ID on Your iOS Device
After logging out of your third-party Apple ID across all of your devices except for the one where you’ll make the change:
- Go to Settings > Your Name > Name, Phone Numbers, Email.
- Tap Edit, then delete your current Apple ID next to Reachable At.
- Select Continue, then add the new Apple ID.
- Tap Next.
![Apple Apple](https://www.macobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Rest-Apple-ID-mac.jpeg)
Making the Change on Your Computer
- Go to appleid.apple.com through a web browser and sign in.
- Click Edit in the Account section.
- Under Apple ID, click Change Apple ID.
- Enter the Apple ID you’d like to use.
- Click Continue.
If your @icloud.com address was created in the past month, you might have to wait up to 30 days before being allowed to change your Apple ID. Lingon x 5 0.
Once you’ve changed your Apple ID email, you’ll need to confirm using the verification code you’ll receive from Apple through email. Once complete, you can log into your other machines using the new Apple ID.
Note: When you go from using a third-party email to an Apple email for your Apple ID, you won’t be able to change it back to a third-party email.
Switching Apple IDs on Your Devices
If for whatever reason you have two or more Apple IDs, you can change the one you’re using on any of your devices. To do so, you merely need to log out of one account and into another.
On iOS
- In the Settings app, tap on Your Name.
- Scroll down and tap Sign Out.
- Enter your Apple ID password, and tap Turn Off.
- Turn on the data that you want to keep a copy of on your device.
- Tap Sign out for a second time.
- Tap Sign out for a third time to confirm that you want to sign out of iCloud.
- Choose Sign In to use another Apple ID.
Switch Apple ID On Your Mac
- Go into System Preferences and click iCloud.
- Choose Sign Out.
- If you want to keep a copy of your iCloud data, be sure that you select the appropriate checkboxes. Then click Keep a Copy.
- If you want to keep a copy of your Safari passwords on your Mac, click Keep on This Mac.
- Select Sign in and log in using your other Apple ID and password.
Switch Apple ID On Your PC
- Open iCloud for Windows.
- Click Sign out.
- Select Sign in and log in using your other Apple ID and password.
On Windows, you can turn off a selected service. To do so, go into iCloud for Windows, then select or deselect that service. To save your changes, click Apply.
Why Change Your Apple ID?
As you can see, changing your Apple ID isn’t a simple process, especially if you’re currently using a third-party email address. The primary reason to do so is when you detect that your Apple ID has been compromised. Apple offers a lengthy support document detailing what you should do. Read this document when in doubt.
The biggest takeaway: “Because you use your Apple ID for so many Apple products and services, you should make sure that your Apple ID is as secure as possible. You should be the only person who knows your password and can sign in with your Apple ID. If someone you don’t know or don’t trust can sign in with your Apple ID, your account is not secure.”
Beyond this, you should also take a look at our report on what to do when you no longer have access to the email tied to your Apple ID.
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Keep your passwords safe
Get Secrets, a secure password manager app for Mac.
We all have dozens and even hundreds of passwords to remember. Your Mac password, like a credit card PIN number, is one of the most important, so it can be a nightmare if you forget it. But it’s not the end of the world. There are a few easy ways you can reset your Mac password and make sure you don’t lose it ever again. Video transfer software, free download.
How to recover a forgotten Mac password
Secure experience is something you can’t emphasize enough while dealing with Apple devices. Hence the importance of a safe Mac password. While it could be easy to physically steal a computer, there’s little chance someone can mess with your data unless they know the password. So it’s wise to take a few precautionary measures to avoid losing it and make it easier to recover.
Easy way to reset passwords
Setapp has a reset scenario catered for you if you forget Mac login password. Just saying.
Use Recovery Mode
Hope this is just a “what-if” for you, but let’s imagine it happened. You forgot Mac password and can’t access any of your accounts. There are no password hints and you can’t call it to mind, even though you’ve already tried to enter all pet names. For such cases, there’s Apple’s Recovery Mode.
To activate the Recovery Mode:
- Turn off your computer and hold the power button + Command R. Wait for the loading bar to appear on the screen while your Mac boots to Recovery.
- Next, choose Disk Utility > Continue > Utilities Terminal.
- Type “resetpassword” (in one word) and click Return.
- Go to the main hard drive and choose your user account.
- Lastly, change Mac password, create a hint to easily recollect it in future, and click save. You’ll be able to use the new password after a restart.
Reset password with Apple ID
If you have an Apple ID tied to your user account on Mac, you can use it to reset password from the login window. The option should be available by default. Otherwise, you can enable it in System Preferences > Users & Groups > Allows user to reset password using Apple ID.
To make a go of this, click on the question mark next to the password field that you see on the login screen. Agree to the option to reset with Apple ID and enter wrong login credentials three times to be able to create the new password. Once you get to the reset screen, input a new password two times, create a hint, and save.
Change password from another account
Lucky you if you have more than one user account on your Mac. Or, if your mother/brother/girlfriend/dog ever use your computer to log in to their personal accounts (yes, now you owe them a thank you). Here’s how to recover Mac password, using another account you have a password to:
- Log out of your admin user account
- Choose another account and enter the password
- Go to System Preferences > Users & Groups > Lock icon
- Use the password for the alternative account to unlock
- Reset the password for your admin account (type in a password > verify > create a hint > save).
Good news: You have a new password. Bad news: You still won’t be able to log in to your account if you don’t have the Keychain password and can’t create the new one. The thing is, to unlock all the features that require Mac Password, you should be able to access the Apple’s password management system, Keychain. Unless you remember the access data, you’ll have to create the new password with an admin account. If the account you used isn’t registered as admin, you’ll have to go for the Recovery Mode option.
Get a hint for your password
If you forgot Apple password, you can recover it with a hint. This is, by far, the most painless way to win back your access. Therefore, we encourage you to create hints each time you choose a new password. It takes a few simple actions:
- Access System Preferences > Users & Groups
- Click on the Lock icon > user name
- Select the option to change password and add a phrase/word you associate with a newly created password in “Password hint (recommended).”
One more important thing. To ensure your password hint shows up when you need it, you should allow your Mac to display hints. In the Users $ Groups, click on Login options and check the box next to “Show password hints.” Ready to go.
To see the hint you created, access User Groups in the System Preferences, unlock to make changes, and press Return three times. After the third time, your hint will appear right below the password field. Unless you’ve created the hint ages ago, this should help to refresh your memory.
Resort to Target Disk Mode
Another option is to access the hard drive of your Mac via another computer. Basically, Target Disk Mode allows you to save any data from the your Mac’s hard drive.
To enter the Target Disk Mode
- Shut down your computer and use FireWire or Thunderbolt cable to connect another Mac.
- Click on the power button while holding the T button and wait for the hard drive to appear on the screen.
That’s it. You can now easily access and recover any data from your Mac.
Always protect your data
Resetting password could make your Mac vulnerable. Particularly, Recovery Mode is kind of a security hole: If someone can get access to your computer, it’s pretty easy to boot into recovery and reset password. To prevent this from happening you should encrypt the data on your hard drive with a built-in FileVault utility. Ensure you unlock Password Reset with Disk Utility and activate FileVault on your Mac.
To activate FileVault in the Apple System
- Go to System Preferences
- Click on Security & Privacy > FileVault
- Unlock to enter your login and password
- Select “Turn on FileVault”
- Save Recovery key and password that you receive upon activating FileVault
Find lost passwords using Keychain Access
In case you’ve lost one of your internet logins or don’t remember the password to your WiFi, it’s very likely that you can recover it using your Mac’s native password manager — Keychain Access.
To recover a password with Keychain Access:
- Launch the utility from your Applications folder
- Use the search field in the top-right corner to filter for what you’re looking for
- Double-click on the wanted item
- Check Show Password and enter the Keychain Password to reveal it
Although Keychain Access can be very useful in finding passwords you thought were lost forever, it’s rarely used intentionally due to its clunky interface and messy save-all password behavior. However, using a password manager nowadays in general is a must. And if you have to start somewhere, look no further than Secrets.
Store passwords on Mac, securely
Grab Secrets along with your Setapp perks and worry not about privacy.
Store passwords using Secrets
Secrets is a simple but robust password manager that can become your central point of reference when looking for passwords, WiFi passcodes, secure notes, credit card numbers, and other personal information.
The app is supported by the industry-standard PGP encryption so none of your files will ever get exposed. And no, saving your passwords in the Notes app or on paper is not a good idea. Thankfully, Secrets is very easy to use.
- Download and launch Secrets
- Proceed through the setup guide
- To save your first password just click on the plus icon next to the search field and fill out all the necessary information
Additionally, Secrets has an importing feature where you can download all your existing passwords from other managers or even as a simple .csv file. And moving forward, Secrets can be populated through a handy browser extension with a quick built-in password generator.
Taking all the necessary measures to stay safe online is a must. This includes having good password hints for your Mac, knowing how to navigate through the Recovery Mode, and of course using a good password manager like Secrets, which is available for a free trial through Setapp, a platform of over 120 best Mac utilities that can help you out in just about any scenario.
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