Account password & Stolen Device Protection

[polyphenol]

A few minutes ago, I glanced at my watch (Series 8 on 26.2) and it was demanding my Apple account password. OK - I typed it in (I hope correctly - but finger trouble is always possible) and it went into Stolen Device mode. Told me I could not do anything to resolve this on the watch.

I checked my phone and went to My Watch - and suddenly all appeared well.

All I had done since lunchtime was go out for a couple of hours, wearing my watch and carrying my phone. Two Apple Pay transactions from my phone (not enabled on my watch). Back home.

Hopefully it is all sorted, but I am perplexed at what happened. I can't think of anything that I did which have done many times previously.

Can anyone explain it?

If it is a one-off oddity, well, that's how things go. But I am concerned that, without understanding what happened, I might be missing something significant.

 

[jz0309]

A few minutes ago, I glanced at my watch (Series 8 on 26.2) and it was demanding my Apple account password. OK - I typed it in (I hope correctly - but finger trouble is always possible) and it went into Stolen Device mode. Told me I could not do anything to resolve this on the watch.

I checked my phone and went to My Watch - and suddenly all appeared well.

All I had done since lunchtime was go out for a couple of hours, wearing my watch and carrying my phone. Two Apple Pay transactions from my phone (not enabled on my watch). Back home.

Hopefully it is all sorted, but I am perplexed at what happened. I can't think of anything that I did which have done many times previously.

Can anyone explain it?

If it is a one-off oddity, well, that's how things go. But I am concerned that, without understanding what happened, I might be missing something significant.

Quite odd, I would assume there is some info in the log file, I’d contact Apple support and have them looking at that.

Personally, I’d never attempt to enter my Apple account password on the watch itself, I’d probably look at the watch app on the phone and enter it there instead, but also would most likely reboot both watch and phone first …

 

[Howard2k]

That sounds very strange.

Go and buy a pair of Yubikeys, and lock your Apple account to those.

 

[arc of the universe]

A few minutes ago, I glanced at my watch (Series 8 on 26.2) and it was demanding my Apple account password. OK - I typed it in (I hope correctly - but finger trouble is always possible) and it went into Stolen Device mode. Told me I could not do anything to resolve this on the watch.

I checked my phone and went to My Watch - and suddenly all appeared well.

All I had done since lunchtime was go out for a couple of hours, wearing my watch and carrying my phone. Two Apple Pay transactions from my phone (not enabled on my watch). Back home.

Hopefully it is all sorted, but I am perplexed at what happened. I can't think of anything that I did which have done many times previously.

Can anyone explain it?

If it is a one-off oddity, well, that's how things go. But I am concerned that, without understanding what happened, I might be missing something significant.

the issue that caused it to require a password on your watch was likely not caused by your watch.
it was more likely caused by something on yr iPhone that was seeking you to confirm your password on another device that iCloud knew was with you.
additionally, if you have Stolen Device Protection enabled that prevents you from entering/changing the password while you are away from your home or other known location, that would explain why you could not resolve the issue while you were away from your home.
alternatively, quite simply, that you did indeed mistype it.
you mentioned Stolen Device. therefore the behavior is likely related to Stolen Device Protection,
my supposition is that there was some activity you did on yr iPhone (not necessarily payment related) where apple from time to time asks for an apple Account ID password entry which you mistyped.
i can't be sure about timing and location sequences in your case.

 

[polyphenol]

the issue that caused it to require a password on your watch was likely not caused by your watch.
it was more likely caused by something on yr iPhone that was seeking you to confirm your password on another device that iCloud knew was with you.
additionally, if you have Stolen Device Protection enabled that prevents you from entering/changing the password while you are away from your home or other known location, that would explain why you could not resolve the issue while you were away from your home.
alternatively, quite simply, that you did indeed mistype it.
you mentioned Stolen Device. therefore the behavior is likely related to Stolen Device Protection,
my supposition is that there was some activity you did on yr iPhone (not necessarily payment related) where apple from time to time asks for an apple Account ID password entry which you mistyped.
i can't be sure about timing and location sequences in your case.

Well, another step of the way somewhere!

Looked at my phone a little while ago and it had an alert on the lock screen telling me I had to enter a password in Settings. And the Settings app had a red spot next to its icon. Went in and saw as below:

Clicked on Update Apple Account Setting:

Clicked on Continue. And the above just disappeared. The red dot on Settings had disappeared. And I am left wondering what on earth happened!

 

[Apple_Robert]

Well, another step of the way somewhere!

Looked at my phone a little while ago and it had an alert on the lock screen telling me I had to enter a password in Settings. And the Settings app had a red spot next to its icon. Went in and saw as below:

View attachment 2595055

Clicked on Update Apple Account Setting:

View attachment 2595056

Clicked on Continue. And the above just disappeared. The red dot on Settings had disappeared. And I am left wondering what on earth happened!

The red dot in your settings usually occurs when your account is not logged into one of the Apple account services used by you on the device (for whatever reason).