I have an iPad mini 5 that I do not use very often. I use it when I go on trips, mostly for games, so very little personal information on it. So, getting ready for a trip, I wanted to add some games, and when I try to download, I get the message, “Apple Account Password
Enter the password for jmilt7@gmail.com to enable new fingerprints for purchases made using your Media and Purchases account.” The thing is, my Apple account’s email address is my “Mac.com” address. I don’t know how or why my Gmail account got associated with my Apple account. I don’t even use my Gmail account anymore. Needless to say, neither my Apple account nor my Gmail passwords worked. I also don’t know what a “Media and Purchases” account is. I can’t find it in settings. And just last week, I downloaded a game, and I was successful. The message I got asked for my Apple account password, but it had my Mac.com address in the message. So, it worked then, but not now. The only thing I have changed is that I have enabled TouchID. Thanks for any help anyone can provide.
Okay, so as soon as I posted this, I thought of something. I went to Settings → to my Account at the top and noticed that my Gmail.com address is the one associated with my account. I do not know how that happened. I didn’t do it, unless by accident somehow. But I cannot change it to my Mac.com address. When I try to delete the Gmail address, I am asked to enter another, which I enter my Mac.com address, but I get a message that I can only add the Mac.com address that is already on file in my account. And when I go into my iCloud account using a browser, my Mac.com address is listed as my account email address. I am thinking maybe wiping the iPad clean and starting again?
Settings / Apple Account, scroll to the bottom and click “Sign Out”, and then try logging in with your real Apple ID again.
If that works, you may need to open the App Store app, tap the icon top-right, and make sure that it’s your mac dot com address, too. If I remember right, I think that they can be different.
If that doesn’t work, that sounds like a perfect reason to call Apple Support and see if they can help (or, if you are close to an Apple Store, try the Genius Bar, if you can get a reasonable appointment.)
Thanks for the quick response. Unfortunately, when I try to Sign Out, it asks for my “Apple Account Password” with the Gmail address listed, and the passwords don’t work. I guess, my Gmail password doesn’t work because this is my Apple account, and my Apple account password does not work because the wrong email (Gmail) is associated with my Apple account. Catch 22 anyone? But worth a try. I just don’t understand how my Gmail got mixed up in this. Thanks again.
Yikes this gets complicated. Here’s all I can think of, I’ve used Macs and various iPads for many years but not encountered this.
If it works, first connect iPad to the Mac and in Finder do a Sync, to preserve its state
If you have no worries about deleting everything, consider trying:
connecting iPad with a cable and from Finder choosing to reset the iPad
go into Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPad and see if any of its options works
If I think of any other ideas, I’ll add later.
Recently I did one or more of these on 2 iPads as troubleshooting for a problem and although I selected every option to nuke and reset to like new, plenty of Settings and personalized info was still there afterwards (Erase iPad, set up as new, uh, didn't).
Thanks for all the options. I don’t want to go into all the details, so I will say at the top that everything I tried always resulted in having to enter my Apple Account Password, which, of course, I cannot do since it is associated with my Gmail email address. (And I am able to sign in to my Apple account with my Mac.com email and password.). But if want the details, here they are:
I was able to do the first thing, the Sync. But after that…
Your next suggestion about resetting the iPad: When I opened a Finder window and chose the iPad, I couldn’t find “reset the iPad”. The only thing close was “restore iPad”. So I tried that, but I get a message that “Find My” has to be turned off, but to do so, it wants my Apple Account Password, which, of course, is associated with my Gmail address, and neither my Mac.com nor Gmail passwords work. And the third suggestion, first, the reset actually worked, but it did not change my email that is associated with my Apple Account. That is, the Gmail address is still there. Then I tried the “Transfer”, but again, eventually it asked for my Apple Account Password. Is there any other way to delete everything? Some kind of nuke it option?
Oh, I did see that I could create another user account for downloading apps, which might solve my problem in the short term. I just wonder if it is wise to do so. I am a little concerned about how my Gmail email became associated with my Apple Account on the iPad. Could I have been hacked or something somehow?
Once you know the Apple Account password for for Gmail account, then you can sign out of from Settings / Apple Account and then sign in your dot Mac account.
I am finding your terminology confusing. When you say your “.mac” or “gmail” passwords, are you referring to the passwords that let you read those email accounts?
If so, that is not your Apple ID password which is (or should be) completely different.
You can associate any email you want with your “Apple ID” – so it appears at one time you hooked your gmail address with your iPad. But that does not necessarily mean you used your gmail password with that – you should have used a different password.
You may be able to reset that password in which case Apple would email you a reset key to the gmail email account – if you have access to that you could authenticate the reset from there, and then create a new password for that Apple ID. Once you’ve done that, you can use that to remove that Apple ID from that iPad and reconnect it with your normal .mac address and Apple ID password…
This all started when I tried to download a game for an upcoming trip. So, I just tried again so that I could write down exactly what the message said and other pertinent information. But, it didn’t ask for my Apple Account Password this time. So, something happened, probably when I did the reset. Now it actually asked for the password to my Apple Account. When I hit “Get,” I get a window that says “Sign into Apple Account. Enter the password for (my mac.com email address) to authorize this transaction.” This is a different window than before. At least somewhat different. The other message, the one that has been giving me trouble and why I wrote all the above messages, just said, “Apple Account Password”. And then below that, it actually would have my Gmail email address in the message. And the only thing I had to enter was the password. Neither my Apple account password nor my Gmail (Google account) password worked. The one I just did now, I had to enter my credentials, both my username and password. So, for now, I guess I can live with this. My Gmail email address is still in Settings up at the top where my name is. So, I think I may still have problems if I want to do anything else besides downloading an app from the App Store, like trying to install an update.
To clarify (hopefully), when I say Apple account password, I mean the one I would use if I were to go to the Apple homepage or iCloud.com and click on “Sign In”. I would enter my mac.com address as my username and then my password. Is that not the same as one’s Apple ID? Same thing when I talk about my Gmail password, I guess it is actually my Google account name and password, which is the same for my Gmail.
Anyway, thanks to everyone. As I said, I think I am set for now. I may still have problems if I need to update the OS, for instance, security/virus updates, but then I will return if it doesn’t work.
Actually, what I would really like to know is how the email address associated with this iPad (in Settings at the top where my name is) switched from my mac.com address to my Gmail address. It was still listed as my mac.com address last week, and the only thing I did recently was enable TouchID.
Apple ID is now called Apple Account, but, yes. The password for iCloud.com for a mac.com address is also the password for the Apple Account.
Yes, but this is where it gets confusing. A Gmail.com account can be used as an Apple Account, but the password for the Apple Account should be different from what is used for logging into Gmail. It’s like using the Gmail account to log in to Amazon - that would be the password for your Amazon account. It could be the same, but probably should be different from the Gmail account password.
Yes, that is correct. When iTunes was released, I had to set up an Apple ID to have an iTunes Account using my email address. At the time I only had my AOL address so that is what I used. Then when Apple replaced Disk Tools with Dot Mac, I had to create another Apple ID for it using my Dot Mac email address. So now I use the first account for iTunes & Mac app stores purchasing and the second account for Mac hardware purchases, AppleCare, and iCloud syncing.
Oh, okay. Good to know. However, I still don’t know how my Gmail became the email address in my Settings Personal information. I rarely if ever use Gmail or anything Google anymore. I transitioned from Gmail to Protonmail one or two years ago. No one sends me anything anymore finally to my Gmail account and I never use it. I just still have it for, well, just in case, I guess. And every blue moon I do get something, but it is usually spam. So, again, how the heck did my iPad change over. As I said, it was okay last week and the only thing I have done is enable TouchID. And as I said, my Gmail password did not work. Anyway, thanks.
There is only one way: you did it. Turning on TouchID does not do this. There is no malware that does this.
As I said, it shouldn’t - they are two totally different accounts, using the same email address. The Gmail password is your Google account password.
You do need to determine what that Apple Account password is at some point, or the iPad will be worthless, because it will be activation-locked to that Apple Account. For example, in order to trade it in, Apple will insist that Find My be disabled for the iPad so it is not locked to your Apple Account (the one that uses the Gmail address.) I really suggest using the process I suggested above to reset the Apple Account password as soon as you can. And then you can change the iPad so it is using the email account you want it to use.
Just want to add—as someone who has multiple Apple Accounts/Apple ID’s—a few extra things.
Note that an Apple Account and an Apple ID are the same thing (Apple truly has not made keeping things straight easy with all the various name changes and cloud services it has launched over the years).
It is possible to have a non-Apple email address as the user name for an Apple Account (example: if I bought my first Mac today and I’m a Gmail user with the existing address chilidog@gmail.com , I could create an Apple Account with user name chilidog@gmail.com and password 1234. I then could use this new Apple Account to register the Mac with Apple and set up iCloud.)
Staying with the above example, whenever I do something that requires an Apple Account login (example: buying software on the Mac App Store or using iCloud via a web browser), the Mac would ask me to login with the user name I chose when setting up my Apple Account (chilidog@gmail.com) and the associated password (1234). This is independent of the the credentials I use to login to Gmail or to my Google Account.
Well, I beg to differ. But tell me how I did it. What is your theory on how I was able to do this, considering, 1. I have no idea how to do it if I wanted to do it, 2. As I said, it worked correctly last week, and the only thing I did was enable TouchId, 3. I am familiar with computers. I worked in IT, although I retired 8 years ago and don’t really keep up with things anymore. 4. I have seen things like this happen via syncing. I don’t have anything synced but sometimes that just doesn’t matter especially with Google. So, I am all ears.
My best guess is that you initially set up the iPad using that Gmail address as the Apple ID/Apple Account, but you’ve been using the dotMac account for installing apps from the App Store. That’s the only thing that makes sense.
But that doesn’t really matter. What matters is that you’d get control of that Apple Account’s password while you have a chance.
I have an almost pathological aversion to Google and all things Google. It has been two years+ since I stopped using Gmail and switched to Protonmail. I only have it set up to forward Gmail to my Protonmail. I only watch YouTube videos from DuckDuckGo’s own Duck Player. In other words, I find it highly unlikely that I set up the iPad using my Gmail address. There would have been a disturbance in the force if I had. Also, I bought that iPad just one year ago, so again, since I have not used Gmail for two years, I just don’t see how I would have set it up using the Gmail address. I would have noticed. So, I would say with 99% certaintly, I did not set it up with my Gmail address.
But as you say, it doesn’t matter. I just don’t like being accused of something I am pretty sure I did not do. Although I have learned to never be 100% sure of anything. I would still like to know how it happened, if anyone else can venture a guess. Even though I don’t work in IT anymore, I am always curious as to why or how things happen and want to fix them.
Here’s a second guess at what’s happening, based on things I see on my Apple gear. I’m posting this because I like troubleshooting and figuring out how things work, not to say anybody did something “wrong” or “bad”.
I’ve owned a series of iPods, iPhones, and iPads that support the App Store, beginning with the original iPod Touch (and later, other downloadables and online services).
At first, I used an Apple Account I set up using a Yahoo email address to get iTunes songs and apps.
After a few years, I began using an Apple Account I set up using a Gmail email address and stopped using the Yahoo-based Apple Account.
Whenever I bought a new device, I used Apple’s automatic “transfer-stuff-from-my-older-device” process at setup. This has resulted in a mix of apps, music, and subscriptions on my current devices: those obtained using my Yahoo Apple Account and those obtained using my Gmail Apple Account.
Nowadays, my devices are logged into Apple, including iCloud and the App Store, with my Gmail Apple Account.
This means that when an app that I got using my Yahoo Apple Account needs to be updated, I have to logoff of the App Store (to unhook it from my Gmail Apple Account) and re-login using my Yahoo Apple Account credentials.
So it is possible the OP’s situation is caused by apps that were bought using a different Apple Account than their current Apple Account and are now installed on the iPad Mini 5.
Yes, my setup has evolved to be convoluted and a bit of a hassle but as time passes, I’ve been slowly replacing the Yahoo Apple Account-registered apps with Gmail Apple Account-registered apps or deleting them.