Your Apple ID is Not Recognized

Do not subaddress your Apple ID.

As a software engineer I value my security and subaddressing adds an extra layer of protection to my online accounts. If someone wants to break into my account they not only have to guess my password but also the email address I used for login. GMail has a handy feature where you can dynamically subaddress your email:

• johndoe@gmail
• [email protected]
• [email protected]

These all go to the same inbox. A handy feature for when you want to filter out spam and protect your online credentials.

Apple does not play nice with subaddresses. You can create an Apple ID with a subaddress, but I do not recommend it. Just about everything works: I can sign in everywhere from my phone to my computer.

If you are a developer, you will not be able to provision or use your subaddress with the developer center. Many developer center forms do not recognize the subaddress format and will not allow you to join an organization. I have tried to reach upper tier developer support and they are aware of this issue but it falls under the “wont fix” umbrella.

If you need a repair you will have issues. I needed to send my Apple Watch in for a repair and Apple’s own repair website was unable to locate my proof of purchase and any attempt to do so would take me to an error page. The only way to prove that I purchased my device was through phone support as they issued me an archived invoice.

Save yourself the trouble and choose the less secure option. I would hope that an Apple developer would see this message and think twice about this issue. But for now I hope to save others the trouble.