AppleID, App Store, and iTunes Store

I went to the App Store on an iPad Air 2. From there, I tried to update Numbers. I was asked to provide a password for the iTunes Store. I assumed this was the same password as for my AppleID, but it was refused. After two more attempts, I gave up.

I tried to login to icloud.com in Firefox, and my attempt failed. I tried to login to icloud.com from Safari and I was successful. This told me that I was using the correct password and that I hadn’t locked myself out (yet).

Out of curiosity, why did my attempt from Firefox fail? There was some message, but Firefox covered it up with a list of login credentials (containing one item) for icloud.com before I could read it. I thought it said something about my password needing to be reset, but I’m not at all sure, and I subsequently logged in from Safari.

More seriously, what password is the iPad looking for when I try to download the Numbers update? It shows my AppleID in the Accounts pane where it offers me a Numbers update, so I assume it wants the password associated with my AppleID, but then verification fails. Any help? Thanks.

I don’t understand why you weren’t let it with your Apple ID password. Any chance you just made a typo? I can only tell you that whenever I wanted to buy an app (or rent a movie) I was asked for my AppleID and its password. I don’t recall ever having to use any other password for that purpose.

The only thing I can remember is that if you use multiple AppleIDs you need to make sure to authenticate with the same one you used to originally purchase the app. But regardless, you should have been able to log on to icloud.com using either. I’m afraid I have no idea why that only worked for you in Safari.

What would explain that is if Numbers was initially installed using a different Apple ID.

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Sorry for the delayed response; I had a plumbing issue. (Actually, the residence had a plumbing issue, which is probably better than me personally having a plumbing issue.)

I doubt it; I tried three times, getting more careful each time.

Thank you for the confirmation. That occurred to me shortly after I posted (when I updated a different app and was not prompted for a password), and that’s my guess. (The iPad was obtained by my SO partially under a grant, and handed to me later.) If this is the case, my plan would be to delete Numbers and then install it using my AppleID. (It would not be a problem to provide the other AppleID and password, if required.) Does this sound like a good plan?

Rant mode on. Why doesn’t Apple tell me the AppleID for which it want a password, especially since it shows my AppleID in the same pane where it offers the Numbers update? Rant mode off. Thanks for the help.

I think this is a legitimate criticism of Apple’s tendency to not think too much about cases where multiple Apple IDs are in use on one device, and this can lead to confusing behavior at best and buggy behavior at worst.

Actually…depending on the relative severity of the plumbing issue…having one personally might be the preferred alternative in some situations. (Sorry about being off topic…but you left yourself wide open:-)

It doesn’t in the “ask password” dialog, but usually there is an indicator on the page with the app that says the ID used for that app. It’s not conspicuous, however, ad I’ve had this problem many times.

Another issue is that if Apple’s servers have a problem (or your internet connection is weak), you get the same “wrong password” error even though that isn’t the issue. I’ve learned to come back and try in an hour as often it works then.

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I sometimes encounter this problem if I try to update an old iOS app. This is because they were purchased under an earlier incarnation of my AppleID. Over the years I have been forced to change my AppleID from xxx to xxx@mac.com and now xxx@icloud.com (I managed to skip xxx@me.com). Unfortunately the iTunes app store system does not update with these changes.
The Firefox issue seems ominous. I regard its password saving system as a security hole and mostly avoid using it.

Why doesn’t Apple tell me which word is misspelled or has a grammatical error?

That would be the simplest way to resolve this. Another method that might work is to add the old Apple ID to your family plan. But personally, I’d just delete and reinstall.

I try to avoid saying never, and I recognize that there might be some pairing of plumbing problems where personal is preferable to residence, but I stand by my assessment. And I won’t complain about an off-topic comment, as I live in that glass house.

I do use it and would like to hear more about its defects. But in this case, I had
entered the password manually, as I had not visited iCloud.com since a mishap had deleted all my saved credentials.

I did, but something in the process gave me the impression that it might have used the original AppleID. I know of no way to test this other than wait for the next update and see if it asks for my password.

Interesting that you’ve had to change your AppleID. I still use my xxx@mac.com with no trouble. What really irks me is that Apple won’t allow a person to merge multiple AppleIDs into a single ID. I used a non-Apple e-mail way back when I first set up an AppleID. At some point, either a new OS install or a new computer “tricked” or forced me to set a new ID, so now I have two. I’ve used Family Sharing to try to get around that, but Family Sharing, in my experience, is pretty flaky and even Apple employees don’t know the best way to use it. (OK, rant off.)

I’ve concluded that the problem here is legal, not technical. Consolidating Apple IDs would be a way to transfer a set of purchases from one person to another, and I’m almost certain that Apple’s legal agreements with content owners require Apple’s sales to be non-transferable.

Any legal framework they could set up to prove that both accounts belonged to the same actual person would probably be more complex than the need would require, or else would require significantly more advance documentation of which specific person owned which account. (Right now, if your parent dies and you have full control over their email accounts and digital presence, you can change the name, outside email address and details of their Apple ID so that you can use it going forward. If Apple were going to allow a system where you could prove that two accounts belonged to the same person, it would likely have limitations that would prevent this form of informal transfer.)

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Thanks for that perspective, Dave. Makes sense and I hadn’t thought about any legal implications. Many of the problems of having 2 IDs are solved by Family Sharing (though that is a bit of a confusing mess at times). The most recent issue I had was with an Apple TV+ subscription. I got the free year with a new iPad, but because the Apple ID for the iPad was the one that I use for devices and iCloud syncing, that’s what was used for the TV+ subscription. When I tried to access the subscription through our Apple TV, the ATV wanted to use the ID I use for purchases and proceeded to charge me for the subscription. Frustrating to say the least.