Unable to change child's Apple Account primary email

Change Child Apple Account primary email

I’m trying to change the primary email for my child’s Apple Account. I already have a second, verified email address added to the Apple Account in question.

The instructions at the Apple support page: Change your Apple Account primary email address (https://support.apple.com/en-us/109353) are incomplete, as they do not address the process for a Child’s account. The article provides information for changing the Apple Account primary email from 1) a trusted Apple device, or 2) through the browser via account.apple.com. I tried both of these and the process does not work.

Changing Child Apple Account primary email in Safari 27.0.1:

See the image below to see how the process does not work if you have a trusted device configured, which follows with the above-linked support article stating: "The Apple Account website redirects you to a trusted device to manage your Apple Account, when possible."

I also tried in iPadOS 15, which didn’t work for another reason, but I don’t expect any workaround for an unsupported version of iOS, nor that a bug report would accomplish anything:

Changing Child Apple Account primary email in macOS 27.0.1:

See the image below to see how the process fails. The numbered list below corresponds to the number annotations in the image.

1. In Settings -> Apple Account , click "Sign-In & Security"
2. Two email addresses are shown; the current primary email and a second email that I wish to make the primary email; click the second email in the list
3. In the dialog that opens, click the toggle to make the second email the new primary email
4. Click "Make Primary" in the confirmation dialog. (There is a split here; sometimes it takes you to step (5); other times to step (7) below)
5. Click "OK" in the dialog that states "A parent or guardian must sign in with their apple account"
6. No sign-in dialog is shown for a parent/guardian to use to sign in. No email/sms/notification is sent to the parent/guardian. Instead it just returns to the dialog from step (3). The "Done" button does nothing. Pressing the esc key dismisses the dialog, returning you to step (2), and the primary email has not changed.
7. SOMETIMES, after clicking "Make Primary" in step (4), it shows an administrator authentication dialog asking for the logged-in macOS user’s admin password. Enter password and click "Allow"
8. The same dialog from step (5) shows, but now it shows without the dialog from step (3) shown underneath. Click "OK"
9. Again, no sign-in dialog is shown for a parent/guardian to sign in; no email/sms/notification. Just returns you to step (2). However, now the red "traffic light" button to close Settings is greyed out and not usable; also no other section of Settings is able to be clicked. You have to quit with cmd-q. The primary email address has not changed.

As you can see, the process for changing the child’s Apple Account primary email is broken in macOS 27.0.1.

Shall I file a bug report, or is there a workaround for this?