Unable to create a new Apple Account for a separate macOS instance

If you are creating a new account, check Apple’s list of solutions for seeing that message —> If you can’t create an Apple Account or see “your account cannot be created at this time” - Apple Support

If it’s not a problem with your connection to Apple then it may be a problem with your data entry. “At this time" is unfortunately a somewhat vague Apple catch-all error message. It could mean that you cannot connect to the Apple service you need to use, or it could mean there is something invalid or missing in your information entry and once you correct that, _then_ it is time. ;-)

- Check if the problem actually is at Apple’s end of things and if there’s an issue with Apple's servers: Apple - Support - System Status

- Completely remove (don’t just disable) any VPN you are using.

If those do not resolve the issue, there is probably something Apple doesn’t like about your information. Check what you are doing is valid (such as when creating an account, that all your information is internal to the country in which you are creating the account) and has ALL the information required (scroll down to see if there’s more off the bottom of a page). Confer with Apple's documentation about the action you are trying to do.

If you still have problems, contact official Apple Support:

For help with Apple Account issues, click here ➞ https://getsupport.apple.com/?caller=cups&PGF=PGF63005

Click here --> Choose your country or region - Official Apple Support Select your country, then a product. If you don't see one that handles your issue then keep experimenting with selections until you reach one that gets you a chat session or a telephone call and get the representative to redirect you.

or:

Contact Apple for support and service --> "See a list of Apple phone numbers around the world."

Click here --> Contact Apple Support - Apple Support

Computers can easily accommodate multiple user accounts, each with a different Apple Account (or the same for that matter), or do you truly need two entirely different sets of macOS?

Add a user or group on Mac

Add a user or group on Mac - Apple Support

If you install a non-Apple app you can set it up so it is only accessible to one account.

If you need two entirely different macOS installations I would suggest you ask this question on the macOS version support forum on this support community. They would be more familiar with doing that. You would have to re-partition the drive or have a second drive. My understanding is you would still have to have a primary Apple Account as the machine owner though. Dual boot systems have become somewhat trickier to set up with all the added security features on modern computers.

I had already done all the regular processes.

The link you provided for people for whom the regular processes don't work.

However, it too fails to address my situation. It DOES suggest what to do if you're trying to set up accounts for employees of a business, as seen here:

• If you’re trying to set up multiple accounts for a business or employees, learn how to use Managed Apple Accounts in Apple Business.

But I'm just trying to set up a second account for me so that I can maintain two separate iCloud accounts and so that the two macOS 27 instances on this 16" M5 Pro laptop can be isolated from each other.

I do have a separate email address to use and I can even use a different phone number from my older iPhone 13 Pro Max. My current phone is the iPhone 17 Pro Max on iOS 27.

Note that if I'm writing here in Apple Support, I have an Apple Account that I have had for a long time and tied to several devices, all in the USA.

I have a VPN that is not running when I tried creating a second Apple Account that I need for reasons I described. Are you suggesting that I also need to uninstall the VPN app in order to make sure VPN is not the issue? (I initially tried this from my wife's M1 iMac that is on macOS 27 too, and had the same rejection about a week ago).

My speculation was that if they didn't like anything about my information, it would have to be one or more of the following:

1) Both accounts are for a person of the same name and birthday.

2) Both accounts specify the same phone number BUT it also doesn't work if I use a different phone number that I know is NOT tied to any Apple Account unless the prior owner of that number had an Apple Account that is still active.

3) For the second account, I tried using an email address that I might possibly have used in the past, AND that email address is also referenced as a recovery contact for my wife's account for her M1 iMac running macOS 27.

BUT I also tried yet another email address that I'm pretty sure was never referenced in any Apple Account, and that too doesn't work.

All the issues of whether I'm connected to the Internet, and other such beginner stuff do not apply here. I am sitting with several phones and computers WiFi connected with fiber to the Internet and it's easy to see that I can connect to Apple from them and have no difficulty seeing my Apple Account information and managing the iCloud for that Apple Account.

I back up all the phones and sync photos with no problems. My 16" M5 Mac Pro running macOS 27 is not the problem.

Thanks. I will follow up on your suggestions.

Note that I created a separate volume by using Disk Utility to take 1TB of my 4TB storage, to create that separate volume. There, I installed macOS 27.

Now, to download Xcode 27, I need to have an Apple Account for this instance of macOS. Note that I read in many places that one can run a second instance this way and Apple has no problem with it. In fact, when you boot one of them, it offers to connect to the other volume if you supply that login password. If you want to keep these instances isolated as I do, then you click "Cancel" to NOT make that connection. But is still lists that other volume name under "Locations" in Finder.

Note that when you power-on the machine, you have to hold the power button down and then it will instruct you to keep holding it so it can load the boot options. I let go of it once that instruction disappears and then I see the two volumes listed as boot options. It all goes very well. Only one is running at a time. Unlike a VM where the host would also be running.

I already have multiple different users running under the 2 different macOS 27 instances I can boot to.

I also created a /etc/fstab file containing the appropriate instruction to NOT even mount the volume from the other instance. This is needed because, by default, it finds and mounts compatible volumes. Fortunately, if you don't supply the password for the other volume's macOS user, then all the folders seen in Finder in that other volume are empty except "System".

Note that each of these two instances have their own FileVault key, and once I have a separate account so I can use iCloud from the second instance, then I will apply ADP (Advanced Data Protection) to that second iCloud as I did for the first one.

See this article.

How to create a new Apple Account - Apple Support