Live data from Hacker News

Apple users are being locked out of their Apple IDs with no explanation

9to5mac.com

61–70 of 548 posts

Re: Apple users are being locked out of their Apple IDs with no explanation

#61
One frustrating thing about Apple is that if you try to get help, there isn’t really any way to do it. There isn’t any way to open a real support ticket that will be seen by an engineering team there. The store staff can only do basic things. And if you go to their forums, you will get bot-like responses telling you to follow some useless generic steps that do nothing for your specific problem, or weird replies justifying some obviously incorrect thing with an Apple product like asking why you would even want to do whatever you’re trying to do. I am not even sure who those people are that troll those Apple forums and serve as Apple apologists - like if they are employees of Apple or random users - but they are completely useless and basically deter anyone from seeking help in the first place.

It is staggering that a company this big has nonexistent support and I think given the decline in their quality over the years, this will become a bigger and bigger problem. Unfortunately for most people the alternative is Windows, where Microsoft is abusing their monopolistic market power to shove ads and their services everyhwere.

We really need new antitrust laws to break up these companies and support fair competition, and we also need regulations to reign in the biggest technology companies.

Re: Apple users are being locked out of their Apple IDs with no explanation

#62
post #30
post #20

Apple says there is nothing wrong.[1] When your identity provider has total control over your life, and you signed away your right to sue for damages, this is what happens. [1] https://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/

Not only does the "walled garden" keep you safe, the walls are also too tall to escape it.

How's that? All my contacts can be stored locally, photos backed up both on my computer and to a separate service plus iCloud, it's pretty easy to set up Dropbox or Box in-place of iCloud Files. Apple Wallet is handy but it really just stores digital copies (over-simplifying) of my physical cards, any of which I can request a replacement for outside Apple.

I don't use Safari but if I did any of its bookmarks/history are easy to import into other browsers.

Re: Apple users are being locked out of their Apple IDs with no explanation

#63

Couldn't see older photos/videos in the Photo app. Reminder for any iOS user that needs instant iCloud Photos backups (instead of manual monthly), get a Mac Mini, enable the Photos app, disable optimize for storage and keep it on to keep your memories safe. Always check the recently deleted folder on the Mac every month since iCloud by design is a two-way sync and not a backup, unlike most clouds that are one-way upl…

Adding to that, also suggest having a self-hosted Immich on a home server.

Re: Apple users are being locked out of their Apple IDs with no explanation

#64
post #30
post #20

Apple says there is nothing wrong.[1] When your identity provider has total control over your life, and you signed away your right to sue for damages, this is what happens. [1] https://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/

Not only does the "walled garden" keep you safe, the walls are also too tall to escape it.

"Garden" is too good of a word. "Prison" is more apt.

Re: Apple users are being locked out of their Apple IDs with no explanation

#65
post #30
post #20

Apple says there is nothing wrong.[1] When your identity provider has total control over your life, and you signed away your right to sue for damages, this is what happens. [1] https://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/

Not only does the "walled garden" keep you safe, the walls are also too tall to escape it.

You can use a Mac or iPhone without an iCloud account. Doing so works fine for Mac, most applications can be downloaded outside an app store. Sadly on iOS it makes the phone pretty useless if you want to install any third-party apps.

Like others say, it's fairly easy to escape, just keep backups outside iCloud. Also, it's probably best to use a password manager that is not iCloud Keychain.

Re: Apple users are being locked out of their Apple IDs with no explanation

#66
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only does the "walled garden" keep you safe, the walls are also too tall to escape it.

How's that? All my contacts can be stored locally, photos backed up both on my computer and to a separate service plus iCloud, it's pretty easy to set up Dropbox or Box in-place of iCloud Files. Apple Wallet is handy but it really just stores digital copies (over-simplifying) of my physical cards, any of which I can request a replacement for outside Apple. I don't use Safari but if I did any of its bookmarks/history…

[deleted]

Re: Apple users are being locked out of their Apple IDs with no explanation

#67

One frustrating thing about Apple is that if you try to get help, there isn’t really any way to do it. There isn’t any way to open a real support ticket that will be seen by an engineering team there. The store staff can only do basic things. And if you go to their forums, you will get bot-like responses telling you to follow some useless generic steps that do nothing for your specific problem, or weird replies justi…

Can't you go to an Apple Store? Every time I see some customers seem to have a problem around Apple ID and such and staff helping. The opposite of Google, Microsoft etc. And there is a recovery process for Apple ID if you don't use a recovery key (and I guess if you have some government ID or such).

Re: Apple users are being locked out of their Apple IDs with no explanation

#68

Only tangentially related, but I have been trying to enroll for Apple's developer program for almost 3 months now. Understanding what the problem is is essentially impossible. Going to a physical store doesn't help, calling their customer service has them telling you to go to www.apple.com/support (???), and writing for support has them rotate you through 4 different, and decreasingly useful, representatives. The las…

Register yourself as a company

Re: Apple users are being locked out of their Apple IDs with no explanation

#69

One frustrating thing about Apple is that if you try to get help, there isn’t really any way to do it. There isn’t any way to open a real support ticket that will be seen by an engineering team there. The store staff can only do basic things. And if you go to their forums, you will get bot-like responses telling you to follow some useless generic steps that do nothing for your specific problem, or weird replies justi…

For a non-business user, the situation with support (or rather lack thereof) is pretty much the same across Microsoft/Google/Apple. It's amazing that this is even legal, especially when it comes to account suspension/recovery.

Re: Apple users are being locked out of their Apple IDs with no explanation

#70
As a tip: use your AppleID to generate a secondary email that you use for your day to day email, while keeping the login email secret.

The problem stems from nefarious groups getting a hold of email addresses and running distributed dictionary attacks.

Apple’s response is to prevent all logins (including valid ones) from accounts that are under attack.

Unlocking the account involves calling Apple, they’re not going to tell you why the account was locked.

Post reply on HN