I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about Apple and tech in general, but something catastrophic has happened. I don't know where to turn.
I have several devices. 3 iPhones (work, personal, backup), 1 iPad, 3 ATVs, Macbook, Watch etc... all tied to my Apple ID. Everything has worked flawlessly for many years, through many hardware upgrades. Yesterday, out of the blue, I could not control any of my HomeKit devices on any of my phones/ipad. When I go into the Home app, it said iCloud Keychain must be enabled (says this on all my iPhones and iPad). My wife/kids could still control all Homekit devices from their phones.
When I go to enable Keychain, it says 2FA (2 Factor Authentication) is required. I have not had 2FA enabled, as I have so many devices I find it constantly annoying to have to do this... After enabling 2FA, and updating all my devices with the codes, I try to enable Keychain. At this point, it tells me I must update my Apple ID for End to End Encryption. Here it just hangs, forever.... Tried on several devices, all do the same. Tried overnight, still hangs... Tried logout/login, tried shut downs, different wifi network. I'm at a loss...
So I figured I would try and wipe main phone and restore from backup. I have one from the previous day in iCloud before any of this happened. Nothing.... after several hours it still says "Setting Up Apple ID". Canceled this, reset phone again and tried restoring from a backup I have on PC from a couple months ago. Backup takes, but phone gets hung on "Updating iCloud settings".
WTF is going on here? I'm ready to throw in the towel. Feels like I should just wipe/reset every single device and remove them from my Apple ID. Start fresh. It feels like my Apple ID is totally screwed up somehow. Further, literature from Apple stated that after setting up 2FA, I would have 2 weeks to turn it off after which point it would be permanent. I have no option to turn it off in appleid.apple.com.
What are my options here? The way I'm seeing it:
- Spend time wiping/resetting all devices. Remove them from my Apple ID and setup the whole thing again from scratch.
- Get a new Apple ID...
Thanks
I have several devices. 3 iPhones (work, personal, backup), 1 iPad, 3 ATVs, Macbook, Watch etc... all tied to my Apple ID. Everything has worked flawlessly for many years, through many hardware upgrades. Yesterday, out of the blue, I could not control any of my HomeKit devices on any of my phones/ipad. When I go into the Home app, it said iCloud Keychain must be enabled (says this on all my iPhones and iPad). My wife/kids could still control all Homekit devices from their phones.
When I go to enable Keychain, it says 2FA (2 Factor Authentication) is required. I have not had 2FA enabled, as I have so many devices I find it constantly annoying to have to do this... After enabling 2FA, and updating all my devices with the codes, I try to enable Keychain. At this point, it tells me I must update my Apple ID for End to End Encryption. Here it just hangs, forever.... Tried on several devices, all do the same. Tried overnight, still hangs... Tried logout/login, tried shut downs, different wifi network. I'm at a loss...
So I figured I would try and wipe main phone and restore from backup. I have one from the previous day in iCloud before any of this happened. Nothing.... after several hours it still says "Setting Up Apple ID". Canceled this, reset phone again and tried restoring from a backup I have on PC from a couple months ago. Backup takes, but phone gets hung on "Updating iCloud settings".
WTF is going on here? I'm ready to throw in the towel. Feels like I should just wipe/reset every single device and remove them from my Apple ID. Start fresh. It feels like my Apple ID is totally screwed up somehow. Further, literature from Apple stated that after setting up 2FA, I would have 2 weeks to turn it off after which point it would be permanent. I have no option to turn it off in appleid.apple.com.
What are my options here? The way I'm seeing it:
- Spend time wiping/resetting all devices. Remove them from my Apple ID and setup the whole thing again from scratch.
- Get a new Apple ID...
Thanks