Apple ID Accounts Logging Out Users and Requiring Password Reset

[LV426]

This happened to me tonight during a family dinner I was hosting. I was using my Apple TV to stream Apple Music via AirPlay and then EVERYTHING (nine total devices) was booted out of iCloud. Wife’s and kids’ devices were fine. I thought my account was being attacked in real time. Given the recent password-reset hacks, I thought I was a victim.

I solved it by resetting my Apple ID password, using 2FA direct from Apple on one of my other devices.

*HOWEVER*, I was also receiving SMS codes to reset my account during this time, which I absolutely wasn‘t going to risk using and seemed odd to me. Maybe they were legit, but I wasn’t going to follow that road with anything less than 100% certainty.

ETA: My account is an old mac.com account, before MobileMe. Wife and kids are iCloud.com accounts.

NB, anyone with a physical SIM who uses their phone to receive important SMS codes related to authentication, please ensure that you have SIM lock activated. Settings | Mobile Service | SIM PIN >

Otherwise, if you are unlucky enough to have your phone stolen, someone can put your SIM in their own phone and get up to all kinds of tricks, including obtaining reset codes sent via SMS.

 

[Pezimak]

What are some other examples?

I no longer use much Apple stuff myself, but I still keep an eye on Apple news out of curiosity and because I'm default tech support for some family members who do use Apple stuff. I haven't really noticed any developing reputation for poor reliability.

I've seen almost weekly on this site mentions of various Apple service issues around the globe. Apple Music, iCloud, email etc.
For the money they have, and the fact they themselves state they want services to be a big revenue if not the main revenue driver for them, they need to do a lot better.

 

[DSL Steve]

Waited overnight to see if Apple fixed the issue. Still not working this morning.

Changed my Apple ID password and all is good again.

 

[Tavicu]

They may have checked passwords and tried to match them to leaked passwords.

Once they found a match flag that account, log out all devices and force it to change the password.

In my company we also do this

 

[activate]

They may have checked passwords and tried to match them to leaked passwords.

So are you saying these resets maybe a result of fraudulent login attempts using leaked credentials ?

 

[TVreporter]

Not impacted - and I’m the prime account for a family setup. No devices affected.

Maybe geography related?

 

[DSL Steve]

My guess is old Apple ID passwords were affected. Mine was pretty old.

 

[incidentallycheckout]

A company like Apple should have made some kind of statement on this by now

 

[stocklen]

Classic. New tactics forcing people to upgrade. Make their accounts and devices obsolete.

... how does making you change an AppleID password somehow coerce or force you into buying new hardware??

 

[incidentallycheckout]

Classic. New tactics forcing people to upgrade. Make their accounts and devices obsolete.

You'd need to reset your password on the new device too before being able to set it up, if anything it'd make upgrading more of a hassle currently.

 

[spartan1967]

Sorry to all who had to go through the fix process, but giving details like your account suffix does help with the discovery of trends/patterns & who this happened to. I am the early bird in my family & keeper of 4 accounts.

Bracing for this as others wake up. Fortunately, I am good with no issues but some of my accounts end in those who are needing to reset.

 

[dumastudetto]

Thankfully, this issue is only affecting a small number of users.

 

[scrapesleon]

Let me guess it only affects iOS 17 devices

 

[cmcnick]

Scared the pants off me. First 20 minutes was spent doing everything I could to confirm it wasn’t spam. Held my breath as I entered a new password just waiting for my entire world to collapse! Not Good, Apple!

 

[klasma]

Did Apple have an attack and as a precaution they forced affected users to change their password ???

It’s more likely Apple messed up some internal upgrade, possibly preparing for the upcoming change from Apple ID to Apple Account.

 

[Mike Boreham]

Let me guess it only affects iOS 17 devices

Guess again, affects all my Macs.

 

[activate]

It’s more likely Apple messed up some internal upgrade, possibly preparing for the upcoming change from Apple ID to Apple Account.

Or a prerequisite for redundant credentials to be upgraded for the switch to Apple Account

 

[spazzcat]

I've seen almost weekly on this site mentions of various Apple service issues around the globe. Apple Music, iCloud, email etc.
For the money they have, and the fact they themselves state they want services to be a big revenue if not the main revenue driver for them, they need to do a lot better.

Install the Microsoft 365 Admin app there are sometimes hourly outages. Right now there are 9 health alerts.

 

[Rjbooth]

My Apple ID is one of the old MobileMe ("@me.com") addresses. Wondering if it is something to do with this as my partner and other family members had no issue, but had iCloud accounts created much later on.

Can anyone else confirm if their affected Apple ID is a @me.com address?

It affected mine

 

[incidentallycheckout]

It’s more likely Apple messed up some internal upgrade, possibly preparing for the upcoming change from Apple ID to Apple Account.

Is this a rumored change? I missed that one

 

[Takuro]

Updated my password as prompted, but it didn't sync to everything properly. For example, I'm at a login loop at the AppleID page where you generate app-specific passwords. Doesn't accept the old or new one.

It might be better to wait out the issue until it's over before making a change. Hopefully I don't need to manually contact them to get this fixed.

 

[acuriouslad]

Happened to me in Aus around midday. Glad to see I wasn’t the only one.
Looking forward to generating app specific password and logging in again 😒

 

[activate]

Happened to me in Aus around midday.

Ah hoping we were immune
lets see how it plays out over the next few days

 

[Apple_Robert]

With ADP, I thought you could keep your safe zone ability or turn it off. I am not seeing the option on my phone. I wanted to double check my zone status in case a reset happens to me.

 

[klasma]

So are you saying these resets maybe a result of fraudulent login attempts using leaked credentials ?

No, that's not what they are saying.