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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

#331

Post by marcosdumay »

treflop wrote: post #290
yannis wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Black swan events can happen to you. Recently I traveled to a European country from my base (Middle East). I normally take my phone and laptop with me and they are synced. I forgot the laptop charger and could not get one locally not at least for about a week and then dropped my phone and it got damaged. I bought another phone (Adroid) and tried to log in to by google accounts. It recognized the email and the pswd bu…

1. Use two-factor auth. 2. Save those backup codes. 3. Be able to get those backup codes in some worst case scenario. I have had to start from scratch before but never have been locked out.

4 - Discover that those backup codes are useless because the service provider will refuse to acknowledge them when you travel.

The fact that we are stuck with a pair of global apathetic undemocratic identity providers is absurd. And one of the reasons why that "shattered dream of passkeys" is on the front page. At least that dream got shattered, it would be worse if it went through.

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

#332

Post by initplus »

beeboobaa3 wrote: post #298
initplus wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t want to sound like I’m victim blaming the author. But I can tell you exactly the issue with their account: registering with an email on a self hosted .xyz domain. Using sketchy tld’s is just asking for this kind of trouble. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28554400

Nothing sketchy about self hosting your email. Sure, that is what the big tech cartel wants you to think so you're forced to let them handle your correspondence "for your own safety". Don't believe their lies.

Issue isn’t self hosting email, it’s self hosting it at .xyz.

They had one of the cheapest registration costs. And so ended up with a high concentration of spammers compared to older established tld’s like dot com. Using the tld for legitimate purposes is really challenging due to the high number of systems that flat out blacklist it.

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

#333

Post by EasyMark »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #229
dinckelman wrote: post #151

So i'm not the only one, huh. Got myself an iPhone, downloaded 2 apps, went to bed, woke up to a complete lockout. They unblocked me through a phone support request, after 18 hours, and then hit me with a fresh ban, not even 24 hours later. Account got permabanned after like 5 more calls, where they just started sending me a legal notice instead. The fact that your device can become a complete brick, because of an is…

> 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…

As a counterpoint, I have 4 macs notebooks, 1 dating back to 2011 and they all still work, well the 2011 has to stay plugged in because the battery is basically useless at this point but it makes a not too bad NAS with linux running on it.

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

#334

Post by 05 »

SkyPuncher wrote: post #255
yannis wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Black swan events can happen to you. Recently I traveled to a European country from my base (Middle East). I normally take my phone and laptop with me and they are synced. I forgot the laptop charger and could not get one locally not at least for about a week and then dropped my phone and it got damaged. I bought another phone (Adroid) and tried to log in to by google accounts. It recognized the email and the pswd bu…

This is actually great. You basically look like a stolen device with a sim swap.

How would the thieves know the password? Even unlocked iPhones don’t show saved passwords without Face ID prompt..

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

#335

Post by initplus »

Zambyte wrote: post #311
initplus wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t want to sound like I’m victim blaming the author. But I can tell you exactly the issue with their account: registering with an email on a self hosted .xyz domain. Using sketchy tld’s is just asking for this kind of trouble. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28554400

I would say that SMS and invasive email services are sketchier than using .xyz.

You end up fighting an uphill battle against every third party that blacklists .xyz, It’s not worth the fight just to use a cute tld and save a few dollars on registration cost.

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

#336

Post by everybodyknows »

quitit wrote: post #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 t…

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

Are Google accounts similarly vulnerable to such attacks?

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

#337

Post by beeboobaa3 »

initplus wrote: post #332
beeboobaa3 wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing sketchy about self hosting your email. Sure, that is what the big tech cartel wants you to think so you're forced to let them handle your correspondence "for your own safety". Don't believe their lies.

Issue isn’t self hosting email, it’s self hosting it at .xyz. They had one of the cheapest registration costs. And so ended up with a high concentration of spammers compared to older established tld’s like dot com. Using the tld for legitimate purposes is really challenging due to the high number of systems that flat out blacklist it.

Making assumptions on someone's right to communicate based on their choice of email domain is discrimination, and only serves to drive people to their walled gardens.

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

#338

Post by schnatterer »

Happened to me too with apple music in November 23. They just deleted my account with my playlists and listening history. Even support couldn't tell me why after countless calls and emails. This implicitly canceled my yearly subscription and refunded only a small part after I requested it. I learned my lesson about Apple.

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

#339

Post by Waterluvian »

I wish there was a crowdsourced site, similar to Down Detector, that tried to estimate how common these issues are.

In particular, an attempt to normalize the data to stave off reporting biases you get when reading the comments section in HN, Reddit, etc.

It feels like medical conditions… without statistics, there’s just too many of them to be fearful of. Not that this issue isn’t worth criticism and discussion. But I can’t tell if I really ought to care personally right now or not. Life’s just a wee bit too short to act on every report.

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

#340

Post by thefifthsetpin »

borgbean wrote: post #321
notemaker wrote: post #73

With risk of being spammy, this is probably the most relevant discussion I've seen so far on HN w.r.t my experience of being locked out from my Apple ID. I hope legislation will force Apple to step up and be more transparent / helpful. https://skogsbrus.xyz/dont-put-all-your-apples-in-one-basket...

This is why I don't sign in or enable 'find my' on any of my devices. Apple even has a backdoor which bypasses the encryption, allowing them to wipe a device in store. Logging in takes control of your device out of your hands.

Why would you need to bypass encryption to wipe the device?
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