Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

9to5mac.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

361–370 of 548 posts

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

#361

Post by schnatterer »

Retric wrote: post #346
schnatterer wrote: post #338

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.

Take it as a lesson about SaaS and closed ecosystems in general not just Apple. Any dependencies on 3rd parties can be broken at any time without recourse be that Steam, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Apple, or less obvious services on smart devices.

True! If read before about similar cases with other SaaS, e.g. the famous one about google drive: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/22/google-cs...

Difficult to avoid though for some cases like streaming. Fortunately I had a backup of my playlists. Still annoying. I wonder if those kinds of things happen with spotify as well. Because once your subscription ends you're only relegated to a free account, not deleted.

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

#362

Post by rufus_foreman »

HenryBemis wrote: post #329
hedora wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a similar experience with google a while back. My conclusion: Eliminate what little remaining usages of their services I have. Doing that with iCloud and Google would be a colossal pain. This event has me thinking more seriously about self-hosting a few more things.

> My conclusion: Eliminate what little remaining usages of their services I have. This. I never used the Apple's Cloud offerings to backup things - and I stopped using any Apple devices since the BatteryGate. I semi-degooglify my Android(s), and never use the "Google-*" (contacts, calendar, etc.). I block them with NoRoot Firewall and disable them, and use other apps for those services. I sync with my Oulook (2013) a…

>> I never used the Apple's Cloud offerings to backup things

I try not to, but every year I log in and check and there is data stored in their cloud that I specifically tried not to have stored there.

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

#363

Post by schnatterer »

ineedaj0b wrote: post #348
schnatterer wrote: post #338

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.

I had Apple Music back in 2018. Unsubbed and never used the app till March 2024 when I got a free trial. It had my complete playlists and history from then. Sounds like a lie everything disappeared after 3 months

That's interesting! Before the disaster was also my second subscription. Now that you say it, some data was left. Not the playlists but some listening history. Might be that they only delete the iTunes-related stuff.

Maybe if I subscribed again, there still would be something. But I won't.

The support person on the phone also told me that everything gets deleted once the subscription ends, even when it's by mistake. Which seems to have been the case with me.

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

#364

Post by kyriakos »

gamblor956 wrote: post #350
sottol wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

My Surface Pro 3 still gets 90% battery life. My HP hybrid tablet, now over 15 years old, still works (when plugged in). My dad's IBM Thinkpad, older than most people currently on this website, still works. Apple people like to claim that Apples last longer than their competitors, but that simply isn't true. Most people, myself included, can't tell you what Dell or HP support is like because we've never had to use th…

The comparison people tend to compare from their experiences are usually much cheaper models. This is the main reason they feel apple lasts longer.

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

#365

Post by j45 »

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 cloud is someone else's computer, but I thought customers owned their phones.

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

#366

Post by MajimasEyepatch »

standardUser wrote: post #345

I understand why people enjoy Apple products, but I will never understand why people defend the company when we all know, often through direct personal experience or the experience of someone we know, that the wealthiest company is the world has chosen to provide insultingly miserable customer support as a business decision.

I think it’s because the vast, vast majority of Apple users never need to deal with customer service, and those who do can usually go to the Apple Store and have a pretty good experience.

(Please don’t reply to this with your anecdotes about the time you had a bad experience at the Apple Store. I’m not saying they’re perfect. But these situations in the OP are rare.)

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

#367

Post by [deleted] »

hedora wrote: post #261
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…

I had a similar experience with google a while back. My conclusion: Eliminate what little remaining usages of their services I have. Doing that with iCloud and Google would be a colossal pain. This event has me thinking more seriously about self-hosting a few more things.

[deleted]

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

#368

Post by exitb »

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…

My AppleID login is my primary GMail account, but with a +postfix. I guess it achieves the same purpose, but with less mailboxes.

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

#369

Post by bobmcnamara »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #357
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…

Something seems missing from your story. They banned you for downloading two apps, or was something else involved? Or you still have no idea why they banned you in the first place? Just curious.

Probably installed fortnite.
Post reply on HN