About Apple ID

If you've bought or downloaded anything, whether it's music from the iTunes Store or apps from the App Store, it implies that you already have an Apple ID. If you have used OS X for a long time, you should have an Apple ID, since Apple prompted you to have one when you booted your Mac for the first time.

So then, what is an Apple ID? It's an account created for you to use all services that Apple provides. It's easy to get one and it's free! However, sometimes you do not realize that you've already had one. Apple ID is used not only in their stores but also for the Apple Developer Program, Discussion Forum, Game Center, and Facetime.

Mostly, Apple IDs are easily recognized if an e-mail address ends with @mac.com, or @me.com, or @icloud.com as username for its account. These addresses are coming from Apple services (@mac.com from .Mac and @me.com from MobileMe). It's okay if you're using some other e-mail address as your Apple ID username. But if you want to use iCloud, you need to create a new e-mail address that ends with @icloud.com.

Everyone is allowed to have more than one Apple ID, but I recommend you to have only one account as a primary one that will be used for iCloud. It's not possible to merge multiple accounts into a single Apple ID account. If you want to check your Apple ID account or change the password, go to appleid.apple.com, as shown in the following screenshot: