Apple ID Accounts Logging Out Users and Requiring Password Reset

[gank41]

In all fairness I think you're possibly misrepresenting that suggestion. Falling down the stairs is a reason people break a leg but not all people who fall down the stairs break a leg. It could be a factor. In the end we don't know because Apple is singing la-la-la with its fingers in its ears. Real classy behaviour from the self-proclaimed paragon of privacy, security and integrity.

All I'm saying is that after 20 pages of this with folks saying it has to be this or that that's causing this, I would also have been impacted by this and I have not. Just trying to rule things out, because of the lack of transparency.

For all we know, maybe another round of folks will get hit by this this weekend! Or not! Again, I've been using an @mac.com mail account since early 2008. I've got Family Sharing setup with 3 people. I've got a total of 11 devices. Been using the same password for some years now (less than 4 years). Maybe the deciding factor is Password length or complexity, or maybe folks that have had the same password for more than 5 years.. Who knows. Again, just ruling things out.

 

[gank41]

If they don’t know how your password(s) were compromised, it’s best to assume all of your app-specific passwords are compromised.

Has anyone WITH app-specific passwords NOT encountered the issues discussed in this thread?

I have a large number of App-Specific Passwords setup, and have not been impacted by this.

 

[dumastudetto]

I have a large number of App-Specific Passwords setup, and have not been impacted by this.

Yeah I’ve declared my idea another dead-end.

Would be great if the media orgs with good contacts at Apple really push them on this. I guess they wish to retain their contacts, though. 🙂

 

[Munchygut]

There are widespread reports of Apple users being locked out of their Apple ID overnight for no apparent reason, requiring a password reset before they can log in again.

Users say the sudden inexplicable Apple ID sign-out is occurring across multiple devices. When they attempt to sign in again they are locked out of their account and asked to reset their password in order to regain access.

This has led to additional Apple ID issues for users with Stolen Device Protection enabled who are away from a trusted location, as well as any app-specific passwords previously set up in iCloud also being reset.

As noted by 9to5Mac, user reports about the problem began appearing on social media at around 8 p.m. Eastern Time and became increasingly prevalent into the early hours of the morning.

​

MacRumors staff members have also been affected by the service outage, which does not appear to have been picked up by Apple's own System Status webpage.

We have contacted Apple for comment and will update readers if we hear back. Have you been affected by the Apple ID issue? Let us know in the comments.

Article Link: Apple ID Accounts Logging Out Users and Requiring Password Reset

I have a .mac Apple ID. I have not had to reset my password but I am required to reenter my password on my phone and watch a couple times a day lately. It doesn't happen on my Mac.

 

[chateau20]

What a mess! So Apple can't even acknowledge that their Apple ID system is broken?
Does Apple realize that Apple ID is tied to our e-mails, storage, FaceTime, etc.?

 

[UliBaer]

Didn't happen to me yet - keeping fingers crossed -, but a colleague with a *.me-account had to reset his account password, including all app specific passwords. He told me it was PITA for him and lastet a whole day+. He didn't even know, he was not the only one...

 

[Mikey86uk]

Since this fiasco started, i have had random messages appear on my iPad and Apple Watch saying that my apple id is being used for facetime on a new iphone.

I do check my device list and nothing that shouldn't be there is listed so im thinking its maybe linked to this issue.

Not as frustrating as what others are experiencing but i thought it would be worth mentioning.

 

[Surf Monkey]

Since this fiasco started, i have had random messages appear on my iPad and Apple Watch saying that my apple id is being used for facetime on a new iphone.

I do check my device list and nothing that shouldn't be there is listed so im thinking its maybe linked to this issue.

Not as frustrating as what others are experiencing but i thought it would be worth mentioning.

Seems like the various devices re-notify you because they don’t recognize the new appleid/password combo as being associated with the old ones. After changing my password I got a string of those too. They were just my existing devices re-joining.

 

[katbel]

What a mess! So Apple can't even acknowledge that their Apple ID system is broken?
Does Apple realize that Apple ID is tied to our e-mails, storage, FaceTime, etc.?

At this point, after reading all the various user experiences
I came up to one conclusion. I can be wrong but I need to draw a line.

One/or more Apple iCloud server, where our data is kept, must have had major problems, think of what is more appropriate.
Apple became aware of that sooner than in March and forced all those users-AKA us- to change their passwords .
Other users had the prompt to change or not their passwords days later.
The latest was still a phishing attack, after seeing the photos of those reported on few websites after the March episode.
I know at least 4 people who had it, one is my husband. Restarting his device solved it.
If it had been Apple they would have kept asking him.

How many more people had one of the two issues, we'll never know.
So many don't read these or other forums and don't report it.

Conclusion: I'm already doubtful about security/privacy done by others. In the past I trusted Apple a little more
Not today. This is just the last drop: Apple has been chewing my trust little by little.
I'm going to change few things, it will be a little more work for me even if I already use iCloud for the least important data. But there is still room to improve it.

 

[katbel]

Ohh...wait I just got an email from ..

At London Drugs, we take our responsibility to our customers and employees extremely seriously. We have security measures in place and engage expert outside specialists to ensure the security of our systems while maintaining accessibility for our customers. Our practices are regularly reviewed by independent auditors to uphold our commitment to privacy and security. Although those measures were implemented here, given the rapidly evolving landscape of cybersecurity threats, no organization can be 100% safe from advanced cybersecurity incidents orchestrated by sophisticated third parties.

In preparation for such events, we have robust contingency plans in place. These plans include an immediate shutdown of almost all systems to facilitate containment, remediation, and assessment of real or suspected cybersecurity incidents. As soon as we became aware of suspicious activity in our environment, we immediately engaged third party cybersecurity specialists from across North America to assist with containment, mitigation, and to conduct a forensic investigation. This resulted in an immediate company-wide shut down of operations. Following our established protocols, our process involves ensuring we can reopen in a methodical, safe, and secure way. This includes re-connecting with third-party systems, each of which have their own policies and protocols that take time to work through in a priority sequence. Our investigation is ongoing.

They were hacked the same day of Apple "incident". They shut down for more than a week and just started to reopen little by little and now they sent this letter.
Do you think we would have liked something like that from Apple!? Maybe are just word, even if we witnessed the closure and all the newspaper reported how they were reacting and WE LIKED it .

 

[ocarinas]

Since this fiasco started, i have had random messages appear on my iPad and Apple Watch saying that my apple id is being used for facetime on a new iphone.

I do check my device list and nothing that shouldn't be there is listed so im thinking its maybe linked to this issue.

Not as frustrating as what others are experiencing but i thought it would be worth mentioning.

This also happened to me too. Apple still hasn't said anything, so it's reasonable they had a security breach of some sort that they refuse to share.

 

[dumastudetto]

I'm certain whatever happened is not an Apple compromise. My theory was a bunch of these "app-specific passwords" may have been hacked somewhere and Apple detected abnormal behaviour. But others have confirmed they had the issue on their iCloud accounts with no app-specific passwords setup.

 

[katbel]

I'm certain whatever happened is not an Apple compromise. My theory was a bunch of these "app-specific passwords" may have been hacked somewhere and Apple detected abnormal behaviour. But others have confirmed they had the issue on their iCloud accounts with no app-specific passwords setup.

The day-end of April- when everything started there were so many cyberattacks, North America , Europe: yesterday came out that even the Canadian government had 3 attacks, B.C government, the London Drugs chain and ArsTechnica is reporting that all VPN apps have issues and to end with another note on CNBC US congress intelligence chief warns on the rise of cyberattacks
Only on April 2024 5.3 billion data records have been exposed , just try to search“ April 2024 cyberattacks”
but Apple is just fine and no worries 🙄

 

[d00d]

This is absolutely unacceptable. My Mac keeps prompting me that my Apple ID is locked. I reset my password for a second time tonight, starting setting up new app specific passwords and it has locked again almost immediately and demanding I change my password again. We desperately need someone to push on Apple harder and find out what's going on here.

 

[katbel]

This is absolutely unacceptable. My Mac keeps prompting me that my Apple ID is locked. I reset my password for a second time tonight, starting setting up new app specific passwords and it has locked again almost immediately and demanding I change my password again. We desperately need someone to push on Apple harder and find out what's going on here.

At the beginning of this article, from March 26th 2024, there is something you should see

"Several Apple customers recently reported being targeted in elaborate phishing attacks that involve what appears to be a bug in Apple’s password reset feature. "
I don't think yours is a phishing attack, I hope, probably just the bug that Apple has not fixed yet
or if they did, they still have issues.

 

[davige]

I am now 18 days into account recovery. I've talked to at least 6 different Apple support techs and none of them was of much help. The last one, a senior tech, walked me through some steps and said, "Don't worry. This will not trigger another account recovery and tomorrow you'll be able to reset your password." Guess what? Another 7 day wait. Shame on Apple.

 

[DaveOJr]

Well, I was hit again yesterday. Opened my MacBook and opened my email client and it was asking for a password. Then I logged into my Apple ID on Safari and clicked App Passwords and only 2 of the 5 app passwords I created back on April 30th were gone. I then tried to create a new one and it wouldn’t accept my password neither by physically trying it in or using keychain. Called Apple and complained about how I fought with no Bluetooth on my 15PM for the first 5 months of ownership, then the password debacle on April 29th and 30th, and no again I am having issues. She goes on to be of no help, but records me going through the issues step by step so she can send to the engineers. She told me she has received many calls of this same issue and the engineers are working on it. She then needed me to up date to the latest OS from Monday and she would call back in 20 minutes. I get the call back and there is now a guy that thought I called in and had no idea what was going on. Then he was going down some rabbit hole of what the issue could be once I explained the entire isssue and last call to him. He decided to get me to a next level supervisor to help. He had some theories but none of them had to do with Apple. I said what about all the other people calling like the first support girl told me. He said I have no data to support what she told you. Anyway, to fix it I had to once again reset my password and create multiple app passwords all over again. He did make me uninstall my Kaspersky AV as he thinks that may have cause the issue (mind you, I have been running this AV since day one on my 2021 MBP. 🤷🏻‍♂️ One take away I have learned from the many calls to Apple lately, like their software and OS’s, they are subpar. Not sure what’s going on there (that’s a lie; I know exactly what’s going on there. Think Boeing), but their products, software, and service have deteriorated drastically over the past few years.

 

[abw2002]

This is freaking ridiculous. I have multiple Apple devices and I can't use an older iPhone because it keeps telling me the account is locked. What the hell is going on at Apple lately? So freaking frustrating.

 

[MacHeritage]

OK. I just had this happen to me! Grrr.

Update: It was a logging out experience and I just needed to unlock the account on Apple's web site by entering my password and everything was back to normal. No need to reset the password or anything like that. Of course, I have to re-enter the password everywhere since everywhere was logged out. But other than that, back to normal.

 

[blissy]

This is freaking ridiculous. I have multiple Apple devices and I can't use an older iPhone because it keeps telling me the account is locked. What the hell is going on at Apple lately? So freaking frustrating.

Apple at least proved one thing: they couldn't care less about informing us, their customers. At least Apple should acknowledge that their security clearly is far from perfect, but they refused to.

 

[canyonblue737]

Just an update from someone who suffered from this problem since it started, what 3-4 weeks ago? Long story short got locked again a third time when setting up my brand new iPad Pro but first a recap…

I too had my Apple ID randomly locked and demanded a new password be created. My Apple ID is a .me account dating back to at least the launch of MobileMe in 2008, but maybe it was transfered from the old .mac accounts? I honestly can’t remember, it could be over 20 years old for all I know. I’ve NEVER had issues with it until last month.

1. Locked me out randomly on the same day as everyone else had it happen. Had to create a new password (old was 15+ random characters, same with the new) and all was well once resigned into a bunch of my existing devices like Apple TVs, iPads etc.

2. 4 days later I realized I had to create new app-specific passwords for Fantastical (the calendar program) because they were erased when the new main password was created. When I attempted to log into the Apple website for Apple ID it immediately locked my ID *again* and made me create all new passwords. I did this, was able to make an app-specific password for Fantastical but of course had to update all my Apple devices with the new Apple ID and update my password manager etc. Frustrating!

3. All has been ok for maybe 3 weeks when today I started to setup my new M4 iPad Pro. I decided to set it up from scratch rather than transfer over my 2018 iPad Pro so of course one of the first things it asks is if I have an Apple ID… so I enter my ID and bam… locks my Apple ID and demands I reset the password. So again, new password, update the manager, update all my devices (iPhone, multiple iPads, multiple Macs, multiple AppleTVs) AND go and create new app specific passwords for Fantastical and update that app with it on all my Macs. HORRIBLE!

WHAT IS GOING ON APPLE? WHEN IS THIS GOING TO END? WAS MY ACCOUNT COMPRIMISED SOMEHOW AND NOW HAS BEEN PUT IN SOME SPECICAL EXTRA ATTENTION MODE? I update my Apple devices all the time, I get a new iPhone every year, new Apple Watches almost every year, always some new Apple device… so every few months when I spend thousands with Apple I have to go through this? Also… MacRumors… why have you stopped covering this? Can we not press Apple to be more truthful about what is going on?

 

[katbel]

Read this

Apple Hacked Again—These 2 Hackers Can’t Stop Finding Security Flaws

Security researchers have managed to gain admin access to an Apple platform, for the third time, with a remote code execution exploit that included resetting an admin password.

www.forbes.com

I've been tempted to change my iCloud pass again, in case the first time was a hack
this time on my terms, but I'm afraid to end up in a circle of hell like several users are still experiencing .

 

[Jim Lahey]

I've been tempted to change my iCloud pass again, in case the first time was a hack
this time on my terms...

Probably a sage idea. If this had happened or does happen to me then I think I'd be buying a hardware key and then resetting my password voluntarily. At this point Apple simply cannot be trusted to do anything properly.

 

[d00d]

Changing your password simply starts a cycle of them asking you to change every few days. Ridiculous.

 

[canyonblue737]

Just an update from someone who suffered from this problem since it started, what 3-4 weeks ago? Long story short got locked again a third time when setting up my brand new iPad Pro but first a recap…

I too had my Apple ID randomly locked and demanded a new password be created. My Apple ID is a .me account dating back to at least the launch of MobileMe in 2008, but maybe it was transfered from the old .mac accounts? I honestly can’t remember, it could be over 20 years old for all I know. I’ve NEVER had issues with it until last month.

1. Locked me out randomly on the same day as everyone else had it happen. Had to create a new password (old was 15+ random characters, same with the new) and all was well once resigned into a bunch of my existing devices like Apple TVs, iPads etc.

2. 4 days later I realized I had to create new app-specific passwords for Fantastical (the calendar program) because they were erased when the new main password was created. When I attempted to log into the Apple website for Apple ID it immediately locked my ID *again* and made me create all new passwords. I did this, was able to make an app-specific password for Fantastical but of course had to update all my Apple devices with the new Apple ID and update my password manager etc. Frustrating!

3. All has been ok for maybe 3 weeks when today I started to setup my new M4 iPad Pro. I decided to set it up from scratch rather than transfer over my 2018 iPad Pro so of course one of the first things it asks is if I have an Apple ID… so I enter my ID and bam… locks my Apple ID and demands I reset the password. So again, new password, update the manager, update all my devices (iPhone, multiple iPads, multiple Macs, multiple AppleTVs) AND go and create new app specific passwords for Fantastical and update that app with it on all my Macs. HORRIBLE!

WHAT IS GOING ON APPLE? WHEN IS THIS GOING TO END? WAS MY ACCOUNT COMPRIMISED SOMEHOW AND NOW HAS BEEN PUT IN SOME SPECICAL EXTRA ATTENTION MODE? I update my Apple devices all the time, I get a new iPhone every year, new Apple Watches almost every year, always some new Apple device… so every few months when I spend thousands with Apple I have to go through this? Also… MacRumors… why have you stopped covering this? Can we not press Apple to be more truthful about what is going on?

And it did it again. No surprise but like I said it locked when setting up my new M4 from scratch 2 days ago... well today I got around to wiping and setting up as new my old 2018 iPad Pro that I am repurposing as a dedicated astrophotography / telescope control and as soon as I reached the point it in the setup where it asks for my Apple ID, I entered it, entered the password, acknowledged the two factor authentication on my iPhone, entered the 6 digit two factor code... AND PROMPTLY HAD MY APPLE ID LOCKED until I created a whole new password. Of course that sets into motion the need to create new App-specific passwords and all the time and effort to update all my Apple devices etc. I have now had to reset my Apple ID password without reasonable cause FOUR times in the last month on an account that is 20 years old and never before needed password updates. As a reminder ALL my passwords have ALWAYS been 15+ random alphanumeric characters and the password is ONLY used for the Apple ID and is stored in a password manager (1Password) ... none have ever appeared on the known lists of cracked passwords or user IDs on the web (via Watchtower.)

Apple ID is broken and it makes me fear for my data and the potential to be seriously locked out of my devices in a situation where I need access and don't have the time or ability to spend the 20+ minute process that Apple requires to reset everything.