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Resolved My Mother and Apple Support have messed up her iPhone & Apple ID

VideoBeagle

VideoBeagle

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 17, 2010
823
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App Q&A testing by request.
My Mother and Apple Support have messed up her iPhone & Apple ID

My mother's iphone got locked out..full security lockout.
Instead of calling me first, she panicked and fully locked it.
In talking with Apple Support, they seemed to have just set her up with a second Apple ID. Her phone uses one based on her old aol email.. this new one that her ipad is on is based on her yahoo one.

KNOWN INFO:
The AOL one's trusted phone number is the iphone #. When I try to enter it into the iforgot.com recovery system, it just doesn't do anything though (it IS the one it's asking for)
The yahoo one's trust phone number is the house line. It will call the phone and read out a security code.
We can get into her AOL mail, and her yahoo mail with no issues.
We can log into icloud.com with the yahoo based one. It lists the ipad, but NOT the iPhone.
We can not log into icloud.com with the AOL based one, as the password seems wrong.
AS the password is wrong, I can not just get the iphone to Fully erase and start over from the iphone itself.
I have my open iphone and ipad and laptop to do stuff with. Because of the trusted phone number issue I mentioned above, the "reset someone eles's apple id fucntion in the Apple Support App isn't working.


QUESTION:
WHAT IF ANYTHING CAN I DO BY MYSELF TO RESET THE PASSWORD ON THE APPLE ID THE PHONE IS BASED ON?
IF I CAN NOT FIX IT MYSELF, can the verizon store (it's a verizon iphone) help me or do I need to go to an Apple Store specifically.

EDIT:

I've been able to refine it down to basic issues:
1) How do I just factory reset/erase an iphone when I don't have the password for the apple ID it wants.
2) How do I change the password for an apple ID when the trust phone number it wants to use is on a locked phone.
 
Last edited:
I'm just speculating here but could it be a case of that her old account has been hacked and they have now changed password, locked the phone and entered another MFA phone number?
 
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I would call Apple with your mom. It's possible that there was a communication issue, and I would quickly ask them to escalate the call. In my experiences with Apple, the first representative has basic troubleshooting, but they do have more experienced specialists as you push up the chain. Also, if you can't get it resolved, take Mom and Phone to Apple Store near you to see if they can help. If this is an Apple ID issue, I'm not sure Verizon can help. Hope it gets fixed for you soon!
 
Just a note here, IF they MFA phonenumber has changed (which happens if the icloud account is hacked) theres no way of solving this. But, IF you have the receipt of the phone left, you can send it to Apple to prove you own the phone and they can release of from the OLD iCloud account.

A few questions.
* Did your mum have MFA activated on her iCloud account?
* Were your mum asked to accept a login on the phone?

Cut and paste from an apple forum below.

"if it wants to send you a code look lower and yih will see in blue, didn’t receive code then it will give more options. Choose no access. Then it will move on to sending a code via email and then more verification prompts. Once done you will have to wait 24 hours. After that you will know how much longer you will be in account recovery."
 
Reverend Benny said:
I'm just speculating here but could it be a case of that her old account has been hacked and they have now changed password, locked the phone and entered another MFA phone number?
Click to expand...
Well, hacking IS possible, I'm pretty postive it was just error.
The phone # that's being asked for by the one id _IS_ the iphone's (well it's *** ****-1234 ...with the 1234 being the correct last 4 digits of the real number....so possible someone changed the area code and exchange, but left the base the same..but I'm assuming not).
 
Reverend Benny said:
Just a note here, IF they MFA phonenumber has changed (which happens if the icloud account is hacked) theres no way of solving this. But, IF you have the receipt of the phone left, you can send it to Apple to prove you own the phone and they can release of from the OLD iCloud account.

A few questions.
* Did your mum have MFA activated on her iCloud account?
* Were your mum asked to accept a login on the phone?

Cut and paste from an apple forum below.

"if it wants to send you a code look lower and yih will see in blue, didn’t receive code then it will give more options. Choose no access. Then it will move on to sending a code via email and then more verification prompts. Once done you will have to wait 24 hours. After that you will know how much longer you will be in account recovery."
Click to expand...
I don't know for sure if it was activated. I DO know it wants to use the phone number (I assume to send the code) to reset the password thru my own apple support app, but won't accept it because, assumingly, apple has it locked down).

I can't get a clear answer on what went down on the phone calls with her and apple support...just the afterfacts of confirmation emails.
While she actually is (has been) rather tech savvy, she is now elderly and gets flustered easily, and that happened apparantly multiple times over a day or two before it was mentioned to me that something was going on. :(

I've been able to boil it down to basic issues:
1) How do I just factory reset/erase an iphone when I don't have the password for the apple ID it wants.
2) How do I change the password for an apple ID when the trust phone number it wants to use is on a locked phone.
 
VideoBeagle said:
Well, hacking IS possible, I'm pretty postive it was just error.
The phone # that's being asked for by the one id _IS_ the iphone's (well it's *** ****-1234 ...with the 1234 being the correct last 4 digits of the real number....so possible someone changed the area code and exchange, but left the base the same..but I'm assuming not).
Click to expand...
Yea, had a relatives iCloud hacked and it was a disaster, especially if you are managing the whole familys devices.
But in his case the number had changed the only way is to use email to recover the account as far as I understand.

This is due to the trusted device being locked and can't receive a code.
 
VideoBeagle said:
I don't know for sure if it was activated. I DO know it wants to use the phone number (I assume to send the code) to reset the password thru my own apple support app, but won't accept it because, assumingly, apple has it locked down).

I can't get a clear answer on what went down on the phone calls with her and apple support...just the afterfacts of confirmation emails.
While she actually is (has been) rather tech savvy, she is now elderly and gets flustered easily, and that happened apparantly multiple times over a day or two before it was mentioned to me that something was going on. :(

I've been able to boil it down to basic issues:
1) How do I just factory reset/erase an iphone when I don't have the password for the apple ID it wants.
2) How do I change the password for an apple ID when the trust phone number it wants to use is on a locked phone.
Click to expand...
1. you can't if its connected to an iCloud account, only way is to get a receipt out and send it to Apple and ask them to release the phone from the Icloud account.
2. Use the email, haven't tried it myself but it seems like its taking 24 hours or something to receive a code. Google should prob point you in the right direction there.

If you’ve forgotten your Apple Account password – Apple Support (UK)

Here's how to reset your Apple Account password and regain access to your account.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
 
VideoBeagle said:
WOO!!!!
My mom happened to jot down the apple id password on a scrap piece of paper (She'd added a 2 to the previous one), and that let me FIX EVERYTHING (and set up things to prevent this from happening again!)
Click to expand...
Glad you got it sorted, it’s stressful To deal with this type of stuff.
 
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