Problem with: Action Required: Your AOL Username login must transition to Apple ID

Question

In the early days of the iTunes store, it was possible to log in and make purchases with an AOL screen name. This has since been discontinued. In March 2015, Apple sent out a message to legacy iTunes account holders who have not yet converted their iTunes accounts from an AOL screen name to an Apple ID.
However, the conversion program seem to be completely mismanaged and full of glitches and problems. If Apple does nothing about this, the company will face costly class action lawsuits by disgruntled consumers who purchased music but will in the future be prevented from playing it.
I tried to follow the directions, but I am not able to log into the iTunes account under the AOL screen name. I tried to initiate a password recovery through the recovery email, but the recovery message with the re-sent link never arrives.
I contacted Apple support several times. During very lengthy (several hours long) conversations, we were able to locate the account. However, I was told that Apple cannot reset the password and give me access to the account - I should contact AOL. My appeals that this would be illogical because AOL does not have the power to change passwords on an iTunes store account were ignored, and it was clear that each Apple employees I spoke with just wanted to push the problem on someone else.
So I contacted AOL and was told that they have nothing to do with this. Nevertheless, we reset the password for the AOL screen name. As I predicted, this made no difference for the iTunes account: I still cannot log in.
Today I contacted Apple again, and after we we made certain that I we identified the correct iTunes account, the Apple employee manually initiated a recovery e-mail sent to me. However, the confirmation message I received refers to resetting the existing Apple ID (not the iTunes store account we are trying to turn into an Apple ID).
Clearly, there is a glitch in the system. It somehow intermingles and confuses information from the Apple ID and the AOL Screen Name / iTunes store ID and thinks that we are trying to reset the Apple ID.
Apple's response was ridiculous: Talk to AOL. (I already have done that and established that changing the AOL SN password does not allow me to gain access to the iTunes account).
This is my 4th call to Apple. Each lasted several hours (including hold time). Now I've been on hold for about 3 hours while I'm waiting to talk to a higher tier tech support person.
Does anyone have similar problems with this conversion? Any solutions?

Answer 1

You need to sign in with just the user name. not with the @aol.com at the end.
Example: If your AOL username is AOLUSERNAME & your AOL email is [email protected], you must log in with only AOLUSERNAME & your AOL email password & it will prompt you to change it. You can’t use your @aol email, it must be something else.