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Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

hey.paris

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Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#301

Post by userbinator »

subscribed wrote: post #219
userbinator wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if the Chinese have figured out a way for the newer ARM-based ones yet (I realise it's already been several years since the M1 was released...) but I believe most of the older x86 ones have been cracked. I've unlocked some old Thinkpads that were similarly left locked with a BIOS password by departed employees, officially not possible, but actually possible if you reflash the BIOS and EC ROMs.

Thanks, that gives me hope - my SO bricked their Thinkpad by forcibly powering it off in the midst of the firmware upgrade of all things. Don't ask. I was looking for the flashing hardware around here, but i should probably peek on AliExpress :)

A CH341A-based programmer with the accessories ("chip clip" cables and adapters) is available on AE for cheap (~$10) and will work to read/write the main BIOS.

If you need to recover the EC, then I believe anything that can work as a generic JTAG device, like an FX2LP dongle (~$5 or less, and useful for other things like a logic analyser) will also be needed.

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#302

Post by 14 »

amelius wrote: post #293
14 wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think it is stupid but the golden rule is multiple backups. I personally believe 3 backups is the minimum. A physical one and 2 others. Either another physical copy stored at another location to protect against things like fire or 2 cloud backups to prevent situations like this. But I have only ever met one person who did this. His house burned to the ground and lost all data at his house but had back ups at…

I don't think the customer should be required to implement their own redundancy on top of the services they subscribe to.

I don’t think so either in the sense we are seeing in this case. As in there should be some legal protections like sure Apple can choose to close his accounts but should allow him a reasonable amount of time to export his data. But one should in best practice always have their own redundancies as too many times we have seen companies lose data for various reasons.

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#303

Post by arendtio »

unsnap_biceps wrote: post #143
beala wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I self host an Immich [1] instance to backup photos on my iPhone. It’s OSS and has a level of polish I’ve rarely seen in free software. Really, it’s shockingly good. The iOS app whisks my photo off to my home server several times per day. What I’m not sure about is how to backup things like iMessages, Notes, and my Contacts. Every time I’ve looked, it appears the only options are random GitHub scripts that have rever…

I run a nextcloud [1] instance and use it for contacts, calendars, and reminders 1. https://nextcloud.com

I use Nextcloud for files/contacts/calendar/etc. as well, but for photos I use PhotopPrism [1].

The reason is simple: photos require much more processing and focus on performance. In addition, photos take up much more space, so while my Nextcloud instance runs on an SSD, the photos reside on an HDD, mostly in sleep mode.

[1] https://www.photoprism.app

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#304

Post by amelius »

14 wrote: post #302
amelius wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the customer should be required to implement their own redundancy on top of the services they subscribe to.

I don’t think so either in the sense we are seeing in this case. As in there should be some legal protections like sure Apple can choose to close his accounts but should allow him a reasonable amount of time to export his data. But one should in best practice always have their own redundancies as too many times we have seen companies lose data for various reasons.

Yes, therefore it is better to stick with services that have open protocols, so you can rely on FOSS tools to handle redundancy for you.

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#305

Post by hollow-moe »

left-struck wrote: post #215
knallfrosch wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

read the TOS before agreeing

Let’s be real, the number of people who read it approaches zero. Not only does no one read it but it seems like they are intentionally designed to be difficult to read. They are written by lawyers for lawyers, not for common people to read.

You don't even have to actually read them, just assume the worst case for the customer and you'll be right.

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#306

Post by jeroenhd »

thelittleone wrote: post #207
Beijinger wrote: post #9

Since your money is gone, I would file a complaint here: ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission): The primary enforcer of gift card laws, ensuring businesses comply with the three-year minimum expiry, clear terms, and fair practices.

It's baffling that gift cards are so popular. You're essentially paying to decrease the value of your own money by restricting its use and adding an expiration date (and handing to someone as a gift as if it's a thoughtful alternative to cash). An even more egregious case is the corporate credit card. The company dictates its use exclusively for business expenses, yet pushes all the liability onto the employee. The b…

Gift cards are great for companies you don't trust with (up-to-date) payment details. Amazon, Google, Apple, whatever evil megacorp you can think of, they all have made the news with stories like these, and they have proven time and again that they will stand by and defend their arbitrary decisions in court if they have to, because involving basic human intellect in the chain is too much of a fraud risk.

Even if you like their services, who knows what they'll do when they have access to your credit card information directly. I can completely understand why someone would pay for their services with gift cards bought from a well-known, respectable store instead.

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#307

Post by epolanski »

I've been locked from my apple id for two *months*.

Even though I:

- had my recovery password

- re-confirmed the email

- re-confirmed my phone

They just kept telling me "we'll contact you in two weeks", and kept not following.

Then after the 4th recovery they sent me my recovery link on email (in any case weeks later).

Worst of all? Their privacy and security they keep repeating like propaganda are beyond bogus. Sure, they de-logged me from all of my accounts, that I appreciate, but I had 0 issues accessing all of the contents on my hard drive if I was a thief with a simple script in recovery mode I could still access everything. Where's the security? Propaganda only non-technical normies believe and then repeat.

I'm never ever buying Apple products ever in my life, I've got MBPs that my clients send me, but that's it.

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#308

Post by dansmith1919 »

crossroadsguy wrote: post #274
x3sphere wrote: post #32

It's just insane that a gift card redemption can trigger this. What's the rationale? It would make more sense if they just locked the person out of redeeming gift cards or something, not the entire account. But reading horror stories like this is is why I only use the very bare minimum of any of these cloud services. Keep local copies of everything. For developer accounts, I always create them under a separate email…

Not only local copies but also at least own and use one device where you have your important data that is not on the same OS ecosystem as the other device(s) - also helps with things like 2FA, password manager, etc., if shit has hit the ceiling fan on the other device. In addition, I always suggest people to: - Not use big tech's cloud services - ever - But if you must, do not use many cloud services from just one pr…

How much free time do you think the average person has to learn and set all this up?

“You’re giving these companies your data and then dare to be angry when you lose it? Just get a degree in computer science and host it yourself!!1! I am very smart”

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#309

Post by Tiddles-the2nd »

This is disgusting and unconscionable conduct by Apple. Your whole life is locked into your account (digital data and physical devices), and they either don't care or don't have the processes in place to fix it.

This is the kind of thing they need to be sued on a massive scale for to solve but it's too rare and too expensive for anything to ever happen to them for it.

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