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Apple ID Accounts Logging Out Users and Requiring Password Reset

Speed38 said:
This is PURE SPECULATION but...After this happened two or three times, I changed the email portion of my Apple ID to another email provider and dropped the Apple address. Here is my thinking. If someone knows your Apple email address and wants to mess with you, they could use that email address to log into iCloud multiple times with a different (incorrect, of course) password each time. At some point, Apple will assume someone is trying to break into your account and force you to log in and change the password.
Is it a coincidence that I have not been forced to change my Apple ID since I changed that email away from Apple's iCloud to another one dedicated to being the first half of my Apple ID???

Have you pissed someone off lately? Made them mad enough to mess with you like that???
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Oh, this is interesting for sure. But I don't even use an Apple email address for mine. But this could be the case for everyone experiencing this, especially those of us who have never changed it all this time. Never thought of that before!

I am wondering if it has something to do with using all email addresses against Apple ID's that are in the wild, from previous hacking. No one knows that it is my Apple ID email address.
 
Over a month since this incident happened, iCloud was at times still disagreeing after the new password I chose was correct. I finally gave in and decided enough time had passed, so I reset it a second time. Everything seems ok now including the ability to generate App Specific Passwords.
 
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There seems to be a spate of problems with this locking of accounts then having to unlock them repeatedly. For me, this has been happening since late 2020, and just checking my e-mail notifications, I see I have had to unlock mine 308 times, mostly since mid-2023, in some instances, several times a day.

Also, for whatever bizarre reason, when they are turned on again, they all tell me about "a new device is using ..." ... rubbish, they are all the same devices I've bought from Apple.

Prior to 2020, I cannot find (or indeed remember) a single instance of it occurring (been using Apple's online systems since iTools days, and Apple equipment for over 4 decades).

The current iteration this week (from 10/07/2024) is that attempting to use iMessage or FaceTime through iCloud on my Mac mini keeps demanding an updated password but the same password works on all other devices (MacBook Pro, 2 iPhones, 1 iPad).

Further, it is impossible to log out of iCloud on the Mac mini with the spinning gear wheel going on for hours and achieving nothing. Attempting to access account details now results in this anodyne and utterly uninformative pop-up ... insert eye-roll emoji here

Screen grab 01.png


... yet the preference panel clearly indicates I am signed in ... insert yet another eye-roll emoji here ...

Screen Grab 02.png


Like some, I am not in a position to be able to (reliably) use the two factor authentication system Apple is peddling, this is secondary to the 2019-2020 bushfires that devastated the region of AU I live in and which did nothing to improve the already dire No Service/SOS Only/0-1 bar mobile 'phone reception here.

It appears that the promoters of two factor authentication have not thought through the problems that some of us face attempting to use that system.

The devices are all at their most recent (possible) software iterations (ranging from 10.12 for the 2011 Mac mini since going to 10.13 borks a number of legacy programmes, to MacOS 14 for the 2024 M3 Max MacBook Pro and iOS 17.5 for the iPhones).
 
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NucMed said:
There seems to be a spate of problems with this locking of accounts then having to unlock them repeatedly. For me, this has been happening since late 2020, and just checking my e-mail notifications, I see I have had to unlock mine 308 times, mostly since mid-2023, in some instances, several times a day.

Also, for whatever bizarre reason, when they are turned on again, they all tell me about "a new device is using ..." ... rubbish, they are all the same devices I've bought from Apple.

Prior to 2020, I cannot find (or indeed remember) a single instance of it occurring (been using Apple's online systems since iTools days, and Apple equipment for over 4 decades). ...
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Oh wow. I thought I had issues with this password business. It also looks like whatever issue this is, it isn't something that is just going to go away.

Have you ever changed the email address attached to it? I am wondering if that is the real culprit since nothing else is making sense on my end.

I also do not use 2FA and just good old password and questions if needed, with a recovery email.
 
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MacHeritage said:
Oh wow. I thought I had issues with this password business. It also looks like whatever issue this is, it isn't something that is just going to go away.

Have you ever changed the email address attached to it? I am wondering if that is the real culprit since nothing else is making sense on my end.

I also do not use 2FA and just good old password and questions if needed, with a recovery email.
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The Apple "community support" forums seem, from time to time, to get people asking/reporting similar/same instances/questions, but rarely (by "rarely", yes, I do mean never) does anything come of it, just the usual non-useful "advice". A recent (last week) one intimated that questions/reports of the "problem" were being "disappeared".

No, it has always been the same .mac address since .mac addresses came into being. I have a second account, but that was a very old paid for POP address dating from the very early days (early 1990s) of the WWW and that ISP is no longer, so that address was switched to a gmail quite some years ago.

I have noticed that the problem became more common since Apple started heavily pushing two factor authentication & made it impossible to switch it off again after some period of time (a fortnight?), so, once turned on (bar the short "trial" period), you are stuck with it, an utterly untenable situation for some.

The other strangeness in the past few months has been the requirement to sign in, not just once, but twice to iTunes when it decides to act up (a couple of times a week), whether it is all interconnected to Apple ID logging out problem is unclear. Prior to the "problem", I cannot recall needing to repeatedly log in to iTunes unless I had knowingly logged out of it ... insert shrug & eye-roll emojis here.
 
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I am getting prompted to re-enter my Recovery Key at least once a week now; get the prompts on my phone and macOS devices. Accepts the code fine via the Settings app, but keep popping back up. Anyone else?
 
LlamaLarry said:
I am getting prompted to re-enter my Recovery Key at least once a week now; get the prompts on my phone and macOS devices. Accepts the code fine via the Settings app, but keep popping back up. Anyone else?
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I think quite a few of us have logged this in Feedback, and it's been mentioned regularly in the iOS 18 beta threads.

Feedback states that it's been widely reported, so I suspect there'll be a fix soon.
 
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I am in the same situation even worse as my iCloud is not valid anymore and can’t reset it or request unlock!! iPad and iPhone can’t be used now from this 😡😡😤 I can’t sign out and create a new iCloud account, can’t use apps store, will lose all my password in keychain etc… what’s going on!!
 
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adrianlondon said:
I think quite a few of us have logged this in Feedback, and it's been mentioned regularly in the iOS 18 beta threads.

Feedback states that it's been widely reported, so I suspect there'll be a fix soon.
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Well it’s September and it still happening !
 
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Only happened to me the once which was when this all blew up!

Did Apple ever admit to anything or even acknowledge it?
 
Mikey86uk said:
Only happened to me the once which was when this all blew up!

Did Apple ever admit to anything or even acknowledge it?
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Hi Mikey. Thanks for your reply.
I called 2 Apple supports, first one as obnoxious and said nothing can be done as it as a terms and conditions thing! The second was professional and said sorry so many times .He tried his best to look into it but was confused as much and couldn’t find a solution, other than suggest legal route. I have another call later on today… 🙏
 
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I had it happen 3 times in the month after the "day" this all began happening to people, but not since. It will be interesting to see if it happens again after my upgrade from 15 Pro -> 16 Pro on Friday, in a similar way as it happened when I upgrade to M4 iPad Pro.
 
This happened on my iPad last month. I logged out of all my devices and I will stay logged out of Apple ID, until Apple can explain what is happening. There is no way I will return to that mess.
 
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