Least painful way to switch to new Apple ID?

[zonai]

An older relative who's a little on the forgetful side forgot their Apple ID password and asked me to help. They have an iPhone 13, iPad Air 2, iPhone 6 Plus, and an iPhone SE 2nd gen. I tried resetting the password, and it wanted to send a one-time code to a recovery phone. That was fine because they put a SIM card in an Android. I entered the code, but was still prompted for the password, which they didn't have. I tried updating all the devices but that didn't help.

Going through the whole reset password thing with Apple, it eventually asked for a Recovery Key, which my relative didn't have. Finally I talked to Apple Support for nearly 2 hours, and they told me in the end that I would just need to make a new Apple ID. But the kicker is, the relative has Activation Lock on, so if we sign out of the Apple ID, their devices are going to erase and reset, and we will need to contact Apple to remove Activation Lock. We do have the invoice for the iPhone 13 and probably the SE as well, because they're newer, but I doubt we will find receipts for 7+ year ago purchases. My plan is to back up all their devices and then do the erase method and clear activation lock on the two newest devices. Once I create the new Apple ID, I'll add myself as a recovery contact.

But my issue is, how do I get all the data off the phones? Apple support said that if I restored from backup, it would re-enable Activation Lock on the phone. Is there some third-party tool that can pull data from backups? Or just backup the data itself in a third-party tool? I haven't had to deal with an issue like this before so I'm a little unsure what the easiest way to fix this is. It sucks that we have the device passcodes, recovery phone number, and access to the Apple ID email, but there isn't any way to reset the password anymore.

 

[Puonti]

I don't know that I have solutions to offer, but to help others help you, could you list all the types of data you're looking to transfer / apps you're looking to transfer data from?

For example, since you'll be changing Apple IDs it's not reasonable to expect to transfer Messages that were sent to the old Apple ID. Then there's data that simply doesn't need to be transferred, like local downloads of TV episodes from a streaming service.

On the other hand Contacts are super easy to mass AirDrop from one device to another, no third-party tools needed (Contacts -> Lists -> hold down on "All iCloud" -> Export -> AirDrop).

 

[TorbenIbsen]

What is the exact status? Can any of the iPhones be used right now. So there is access to all data.
How about iCloud? Are data stored in iCloud Files? Is iCloud synchronization between devices active? Is there also a Mac involved or not? (Would be a help to move data away).

If there is no active device with access to all data then you cannot get to those data. There is (of course) no miracle way to get around missing passwords. So without an active device and without password I think that everything is lost.

Absolutely everything is tied to the Apple ID/Password. So "Switch to new Apple ID" means this:

Create a new mail account to be used with the new Apple ID. The current mail account is tied to the Apple ID with the lost password, so it cannot be used for a new Apple ID.

New devices should be bought. The activation lock will prevent you from making the current devices usable again. This is a part of the security against theft so it cannot be bypassed.

Start all over with all data. Contacts, calendar, photos, documents, iMessage conversations and all the rest is lost. All apps should be bought again and downloaded from scratch on the new device as if your friend never had an Apple device before.

Are you a helpful friend with detailed Apple knowledge or a helpful friend with (only) Windows/Android knowledge?

 

[mystery hill]

New devices should be bought. The activation lock will prevent you from making the current devices usable again. This is a part of the security against theft so it cannot be bypassed.

Apple will remove the activation lock on their devices as long as they can prove ownership. The OP has already stated that they have invoices for the iPhone 13 and SE, so they would only need to replace the iPhone 6 and iPad Air if they’re unable to prove ownership.

 

[Morac]

If you add yourself as a recovery contact then you should be able to reset the Apple ID password without the recovery key. Then again the recovery key shouldn’t be needed if there are trusted devices on the account.

Also “activation lock” is basically Find My. If you turn that off it won’t delete the phone, but I believe it requires the Apple ID password so that won’t work. The “activation lock” is server side based so if you back up the phone to a computer and you can get Apple to remove the lock the lock won’t be restored when the backup is restored.

To get all the data back though, you’ll need to use an encrypted computer backup. If you don’t encrypt a lot of stuff will be lost.

 

[zonai]

What is the exact status? Can any of the iPhones be used right now. So there is access to all data.
How about iCloud? Are data stored in iCloud Files? Is iCloud synchronization between devices active? Is there also a Mac involved or not? (Would be a help to move data away).

If there is no active device with access to all data then you cannot get to those data. There is (of course) no miracle way to get around missing passwords. So without an active device and without password I think that everything is lost.

Absolutely everything is tied to the Apple ID/Password. So "Switch to new Apple ID" means this:

Create a new mail account to be used with the new Apple ID. The current mail account is tied to the Apple ID with the lost password, so it cannot be used for a new Apple ID.

New devices should be bought. The activation lock will prevent you from making the current devices usable again. This is a part of the security against theft so it cannot be bypassed.

Start all over with all data. Contacts, calendar, photos, documents, iMessage conversations and all the rest is lost. All apps should be bought again and downloaded from scratch on the new device as if your friend never had an Apple device before.

Are you a helpful friend with detailed Apple knowledge or a helpful friend with (only) Windows/Android knowledge?

All of the devices can be used right now. They have the passcode for all iOS devices, and they're all honestly fully functional at the moment. The problem is that iOS keeps prompting for the Apple ID password to be entered, and after a while it becomes impossible to dismiss the messages because they keep appearing.

As far as iCloud, they're on the free 5GB plan and the storage is full, but that might just be from backups of the iOS devices. Oddly enough, after updating to iOS 16.2 on the iPhone 13, it showed itself and the iPad as "trusted devices" but both are still prompting for the password. If you go to the iPad, it doesn't show any trusted devices.

For the activation lock, Apple support says they can unlock it with proof of purchase https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201441, which they should have for the recent devices.

I mainly use Apple devices so I consider myself to have detailed Apple knowledge 😀. Since we have passcode access, I want to try to get as much data offloaded as possible, I thought there might be some way to browse iOS backups on Mac and pull data that way? Otherwise I'll just be stuck using Image Capture and AirDrop to salvage what I can.

 

[zonai]

I don't know that I have solutions to offer, but to help others help you, could you list all the types of data you're looking to transfer / apps you're looking to transfer data from?

For example, since you'll be changing Apple IDs it's not reasonable to expect to transfer Messages that were sent to the old Apple ID. Then there's data that simply doesn't need to be transferred, like local downloads of TV episodes from a streaming service.

On the other hand Contacts are super easy to mass AirDrop from one device to another, no third-party tools needed (Contacts -> Lists -> hold down on "All iCloud" -> Export -> AirDrop).

I don't think they use iMessage very much, they mainly use WhatsApp for messages. And right now they have a working Android phone. So it would be possible to transfer those messages over, right? Apart from that I think they want to have their Contacts and photos. For email they use Gmail/Yahoo so that doesn't need anything. I don't think there's much else that needs to be moved, but I would need to check with them again.

 

[Puonti]

@zonai I don't use WhatsApp myself so I don't have first-hand experience transferring WhatsApp chats. It looks like there is a built-in backup function, but the iPhone-to-iPhone transfer requires using the same phone number and Apple ID on both devices (so this is not useful to you):

How to back up to iCloud | WhatsApp Help Center

faq.whatsapp.com

There are also more involved instructions for transferring from iPhone to Android:

How to move chats from an iPhone to an Android device | WhatsApp Help Center

faq.whatsapp.com

 

[fatTribble]

Can you back up the photos to a cloud service like OneDrive or Amazon photos? Both support Live Photos. I think OneDrive might even backup contacts.

Kudos to you for helping your relative and going to these lengths to save their data!

 

[Morac]

As far as iCloud, they're on the free 5GB plan and the storage is full, but that might just be from backups of the iOS devices. Oddly enough, after updating to iOS 16.2 on the iPhone 13, it showed itself and the iPad as "trusted devices" but both are still prompting for the password. If you go to the iPad, it doesn't show any trusted devices.

Have you tried entering the iPhone or iPad device passcode for the reset password? I believe that’s what it usually is for trusted devices.

A recovery key needs to be explicitly enabled and based on your description of the person, I doubt that it was. You can check if it is though under settings -> your name -> Password & Security -> Account Recovery. If it is enabled, a new one can be generated on a trusted device as long as you know the device passcode.

Either way I think there is a way to reset the iCloud password on the account.

 

[zonai]

I appreciate everyone's replies. With some effort, I was able to make some progress today. I made an encrypted backup of the iPhone 13 and the iPhone SE and then put them into Recovery mode and Restored. When this happened, Activation Lock switched on. It showed the email address of the Apple ID and asked for the password. I thought I would have to reach out to Apple at this point, but then another option appeared! There was the option to unlock the phone using the passcode that was previously used on the phone. Since I had the passcode, I was able to enter it and clear out Activation Lock!

Also “activation lock” is basically Find My. If you turn that off it won’t delete the phone, but I believe it requires the Apple ID password so that won’t work. The “activation lock” is server side based so if you back up the phone to a computer and you can get Apple to remove the lock the lock won’t be restored when the backup is restored.

To get all the data back though, you’ll need to use an encrypted computer backup. If you don’t encrypt a lot of stuff will be lost.

It turns out, restoring the backup puts the Apple ID back on the phone, and that means the repeated password prompts again. The question is, now that I have the phone in a usable state again, and an encrypted backup with all the data, what's the best way to extract this data and move it back to the phone?

 

[Morac]

Before you start wiping devices and trying to move to a new Apple ID, since you know the device passcode, have you tried these steps to change the iCloud password?

According to step 3 you can use either the existing iCloud password or device passcode (which you have) to change the iCloud password.

Change your Apple Account password - Apple Support

Follow these steps to change your Apple Account password.

support.apple.com

Change your Apple ID password on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Apple Watch

1. Tap Settings > your name > Password & Security.
2. Tap Change Password.
3. Enter your current password or device passcode, then enter a new password and confirm the new password.
4. Tap Change or Change Password.

I believe this only works on a trusted device which means you will need to do it on one that hasn’t been wiped and restored, which at this point is the iPad.

 

[mystery hill]

You can turn off the Recovery Key requirement or create a new key if you know the device passcode.

 

[TorbenIbsen]

All of the devices can be used right now. They have the passcode for all iOS devices, and they're all honestly fully functional at the moment. The problem is that iOS keeps prompting for the Apple ID password to be entered, and after a while it becomes impossible to dismiss the messages because they keep appearing.

As far as iCloud, they're on the free 5GB plan and the storage is full, but that might just be from backups of the iOS devices. Oddly enough, after updating to iOS 16.2 on the iPhone 13, it showed itself and the iPad as "trusted devices" but both are still prompting for the password. If you go to the iPad, it doesn't show any trusted devices.

For the activation lock, Apple support says they can unlock it with proof of purchase https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201441, which they should have for the recent devices.

I mainly use Apple devices so I consider myself to have detailed Apple knowledge 😀. Since we have passcode access, I want to try to get as much data offloaded as possible, I thought there might be some way to browse iOS backups on Mac and pull data that way? Otherwise I'll just be stuck using Image Capture and AirDrop to salvage what I can.

Good that you speak "Apple language". So you can help saving data. I don't know of any way to browse backups. - Best way is probably the "proof of ownership" and help from Apple. - There are 3 Apple-ID's on a device, if you are not aware of this. One for iCloud settings, one for iMessage (settings/account) in the iMessage app and one in the App Store app. Probably worth checking which one is actually requesting the missing password.

 

[zonai]

Before you start wiping devices and trying to move to a new Apple ID, since you know the device passcode, have you tried these steps to change the iCloud password?

According to step 3 you can use either the existing iCloud password or device passcode (which you have) to change the iCloud password.

Change your Apple Account password - Apple Support

Follow these steps to change your Apple Account password.

support.apple.com

I believe this only works on a trusted device which means you will need to do it on one that hasn’t been wiped and restored, which at this point is the iPad.

So yes, that would theoretically work, but what has happened is that when I try to access the "Password and Security" section in Settings, I immediately get prompted for the Apple ID password, with no option to enter the device passcode instead. That's been one of the big problems I've run into...

 

[Morac]

So yes, that would theoretically work, but what has happened is that when I try to access the "Password and Security" section in Settings, I immediately get prompted for the Apple ID password, with no option to enter the device passcode instead. That's been one of the big problems I've run into...

Did you try using the device passcode there or just hitting cancel?

I’m also assuming you tried to change the password at https://appleid.apple.com/