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

9to5mac.com

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

#241

Post by someonehere »

I feel like these random behind the scenes issues happen a month or two before WWDC to give Apple the foundation they need to announce new services.

I had read Apple is switching the name AppleID to be Apple Account or something similar at WWDC. Me thinks they are quietly pushing code that somehow is causing this for people.

Maybe it’s an age of account issue or some other commonality.

I signed up for an at me account twenty years ago and still use that as my living and haven’t had issues. Maybe icloud.com users?

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

#242

Post by blegr »

dsego wrote: post #219
n8henrie wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, can you give a few more details? Are you talking about FileVault encryption on your Mac? Or the newish iMessage encryption? And what command line tool are you referencing?

Oh sorry, I would edit the comment but it's locked, I realize now it's not that clear. This is about FileVault encryption on Mac and the recovery key. I think the command was `fdesetup validaterecovery`.

This is less severe than losing an account because at least the encrypted drive is backed up, right? :)

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

#243

Post by TeMPOraL »

oops wrote: post #191
cddotdotslash wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google has done the exact same thing in the past, deleting Google accounts without warning (which is arguably worse because not only can you not access your phone backups but your email, calendar, drive, etc. is gone too).

> which is arguably worse because not only can you not access your phone backups but your email, calendar, drive, etc. is gone too Some people use iCloud for email, calendar and storage so for them I imagine losing access to Apple ID would be just as bad.

Yeah, and to stress the point: this is not "can't send vacation pictures to my grandma" bad, this is "might lose my company/my job and my house" bad, as everything else in life treats one's email (and increasingly, app 2FA) as infallible backup.

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

#244

Post by chrisjj »

rovr138 wrote: post #221
chrisjj wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Wife got locked out yesterday. Got a message on her phone (settings notification). She had to change her password through the settings app. Called Apple just to check and they said they weren’t seeing any weird activity. That they did see the password was changed, but no weird login or attempted logins. So, in my sample of 1, that wasn’t the case.

> they said they weren’t seeing any weird activity

Yet did not give a cause for the lockout?

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

#245

Post by chrisjj »

layer8 wrote: post #217
chrisjj wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FM support is indeed excellent. But FM service has issues e.g. search faults which mean labels may bring up different results on a different day.

All mail synced locally with local search is still best.

Agreed, but only where local is acceptable.

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

#246

Post by Exuma »

dsego wrote: post #209
jmkni wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dumb question but how did you find this out? Do you manually check after every software update?

On the first update when it showed me the message, I trusted it and wrote down the new key and threw the original piece of paper into the trash. Then the second time it showed up, I became suspicious and did a quick google search and then ran the command tool just to confirm that the new backup key validates, but it didn't. My hunch is that it was still using the original key I had set up myself, but I couldn't confi…

Can you share the command

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

#247

Post by chrisjj »

heyoni wrote: post #216
chrisjj wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if someone has a password list and is using a bot to scan them all; Apple will of course lock-out sign-in attempts. Of course?? That would be insane. Password-guessing bots are all over the place. Apple should not allow them to cause lockouts.

I wonder if there’s a new leak out there with actually recent passwords we just haven’t heard of yet. If Apple got their hands on it and confirmed a significant number of passwords were active then taking drastic measures is their only option.

I can't think of any source for suck a leak but Apple.

> taking drastic measures is their only option.

Less drastic would be to come clean and say the lockouts are by Apple themselves.

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

#248

Post by sottol »

blegr wrote: post #237
TacticalCoder wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The fact that your device can become a complete brick, because of an issue in their completely hands-off account management system, smells like a class action suit This is HN frontpage. It's on a big "Mac" website. The damage is done. Many are going to write nonsense like: "Apple is still a $2 trillion company, so this obviously works for them" to which I'll respond with a simple question: Did it not work for Apple…

Everyone has a brand they're never buying again because of a few problems they had in the past. For every new brand they _are_ still buying, there are 10000 other people who are never buying _that_ one again because of a few problems they had in the past. The only difference I've seen between Apple and my previous laptop brands is that their support techs are useful.

And unlike, say, Samsung Ultrabooks or even Microsoft Surfaces, Macs last a really long time. My kids are using my 2011 MacBook Air and 2009 iMac and they still work, even the battery still kinda hangs in. They've had a few rough years 2016-2019 with the butterfly keyboards but I don't know many current manufacturers with products as solid long term.

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

#249

Post by CatWChainsaw »

amelius wrote: post #97
SSLy wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nearest is 600 km away.

You can't call them?

On... the phone?

I really doubt that calls are disabled since it's "just" appleids, but the irony is still amusing. Landlines still have some uses after all!

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

#250

Post by dsego »

Exuma wrote: post #246
dsego wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the first update when it showed me the message, I trusted it and wrote down the new key and threw the original piece of paper into the trash. Then the second time it showed up, I became suspicious and did a quick google search and then ran the command tool just to confirm that the new backup key validates, but it didn't. My hunch is that it was still using the original key I had set up myself, but I couldn't confi…

Can you share the command

I think it was fdesetup validaterecovery.
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