easiest way to switch from old .me/.mac email to gmail?

[ipadsinthecity]

I have had a .mac/.me email address for years and all of my Apple services (Music, iTunes, iCloud sync) are tied to this Apple ID.

Now that it's 2017 I'd like to switch to gmail. I like the web interface better and it seems to play nicer with some of the newer mail apps (like Airmail).

However, there doesn't seem to be a way to change my Apple ID (either the ID itself or the email account associated with it).

So, I could just switch everything in my life over to gmail and have iCloud forward all Apple services emails to my gmail account for the rest of time. However, that seems like an inelegant solution.

Has anyone else figured out a streamlined way to switch from an old iCloud email to gmail?

thanks!

 

[Tartarus]

You can manage this kind of stuff on http://appleid.apple.com.

Here is a blog from iMore about it: https://m.imore.com/how-change-email-address-associated-your-apple-id

 

[ipadsinthecity]

I'm afraid that won't work in my case. From the iMore article:

If the email address associated with your Apple ID is an @me.com, @mac.com, or @iCloud.com address, you can't change your Apple ID. You won't even be able to see the option to change the email address. There is nothing you can do about this.

 

[Ledsteplin]

I'm afraid that won't work in my case. From the iMore article:

If the email address associated with your Apple ID is an @me.com, @mac.com, or @iCloud.com address, you can't change your Apple ID. You won't even be able to see the option to change the email address. There is nothing you can do about this.

I never used iCloud, me, etc for my email Apple ID. But I did change the email address for it. You may not can, but you can still use Gmail as your default email address. I only use my Apple ID email for Apple stuff. All other email activity is on other addresses.
I don't see why you can't change your email address for your Apple ID. Maybe this will help.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202667