Apple ID Apple ID Concern

[henrikhelmers]

Aaaaand people seem to wonder why I avoid Apple ID, iCloud, biometrics, etc. as much as possible... could something like this possibly be one reason why?

Even if this had locked you permanently out of iCloud, you'd still have local access to data on device. And even if Apple somehow could remote lock you out of your devices there would still be offline backups.

To me this is a reminder that backing up and having a plan for restoring your data is important.

What I find most disturbing is the lack of communication from Apple. Hopefully there will be something once the incident is resolved.

 

[H_D]

Same here on all devices. Good to hear it is not malware then but something on Apples side.

 

[Qwilleran]

Did anyone else get kicked off their Apple ID randomly? On April 26, 2024 at around 7:56pm EST I was working on my MacBook Pro when suddenly I got a FaceTime pop up that Apple ID had randomly signed me out and close out my messages app and asked me to go into settings which I did and told me that I was blocked?! I had to unblock it using my computer password and then reset my Apple ID password in which I had to re-sign on to all my iOS devices. Seems very fishy. Anyone else?

Yes. I was also locked out of my Apple ID. I tried going through the account recovery process with the person who is supposed to be able to help but he couldn't generate a recovery code for me. I was eventually able to reset my password through the web and log back into my Apple ID account. I tried to create a 28-digit recovery code for future use but the validation process doesn't work. It keeps telling my the recovery code fails for the validation. Something is messed up with Apple ID security.

 

[pkeenan]

Yes, in the middle of a podcast via Facebook. I at first thought it was a FB hack. It affected both iOS and my MacOS. I was locked out for an hour. Once back in I changed the password. Things seem to be normal. Pain in the Hinder though.

 

[An-apple-a-day]

Happened to me, too, at around 6PM US Central. And now that I'm back on everywhere, my Mac mail client is showing two instances of iCloud mail folders. Total unified mailbox unread counts are really doubled up. But Preferences shows the account is only defined once.

Then, I found the iCloud Desktop & Documents setting checkbox was unexpectedly unchecked. When I checked it, I then received the "Setting up" spiral progress indicator, and when that went away, no iCloud Documents or Desktop content could be seen in Finder.

After a couple of hours, the mail.app phantom duplicate iCloud mailboxes vanished, and the iCloud Documents & Desktop content showed up on my Mac. Apple's servers must be under huge load from all of this widespread Apple ID password reset/log in/sign out issue.

 

[Electrocker200]

Happened to me, too, at around 6PM US Central. And now that I'm back on everywhere, my Mac mail client is showing two instances of iCloud mail folders. Total unified mailbox unread counts are really doubled up. But Preferences shows the account is only defined once. *%^$(&)#^&

Same here (Germany).

Did you change your password to get everything working again? To be honest, I'm not sure whether I should wait until Apple has solved the problem or whether I should change my password…

 

[Hudson_79]

Did anyone else get kicked off their Apple ID randomly? On April 26, 2024 at around 7:56pm EST I was working on my MacBook Pro when suddenly I got a FaceTime pop up that Apple ID had randomly signed me out and close out my messages app and asked me to go into settings which I did and told me that I was blocked?! I had to unblock it using my computer password and then reset my Apple ID password in which I had to re-sign on to all my iOS devices. Seems very fishy. Anyone else?

So, on contacting Apple Support (via iMessage because nothing else works without AppleID!) you have to reset your password. They will not confirm or deny that it maybe a hack. It does all work again on password reset. I find it odd that this happened during the night here in the UK and that I hadn’t been unsuccessfully trying to login to my account as I was fast asleep!

 

[Electrocker200]

Alright, I have now reset the password (after having to wait an hour) but it seems to work - even if it is super annoying to log in to all devices again and check if everything works.

 

[An-apple-a-day]

Same here (Germany).

Did you change your password to get everything working again? To be honest, I'm not sure whether I should wait until Apple has solved the problem or whether I should change my password…

Yes, and I didn't even have to wait an hour (with Stolen Device Protection = ON). I had to log in with Apple ID manually with new pwd on Apple TV, iPhone and Apple Watch both seemed to just keep working (dialog on iPhone recommended I do the pwd change on Mac -- which I did), but I had to sign out and back in on Mac to avoid endless notifications saying I needed to reset Apple ID. It seems like there is some kind of refreshed token exchange between multiple devices signed in with the same Apple ID after the password is changed -- but it isn't quite seamless.

 

[An-apple-a-day]

Ahhh *%$%$#@&, my many app-specific passwords don't work anymore, either, as the Front Page story states. Damn.

 

[Tkdb85]

My account is locked and has to be reviewed. Does this really take 24h?

 

[Alep68]

Here too this morning (Italy). Payments had to be verified again. Removed and re-entered paypal account.
Afraid to turn my MBP on 😂

 

[adrianlondon]

This is a known issue. A very bad one, imo.

What's worse is that Apple are refusing to acknowledge it either by comment or by updating their status page. I find it almost impossible to believe they're unaware.

Apple users are being locked out of their Apple IDs with no explanation - 9to5Mac

There appears to be an increasingly widespread Apple ID outage of some sort impacting users tonight. A number of people...

9to5mac.com

Apple ID Accounts Logging Out Users and Requiring Password Reset

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...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[dezbat]

I have the same issue on all my devices... (based in London) this is what their support were saying...

I did check with support, went ahead and reset my PW and now it's all OK on different devices.

 

[simers]

It happened to me too. Probably took about two hours to re-enter new passwords & app-specific passwords in all the devices and all of the apps - having first established that it was probably genuine (by trying to login on the appleid website) After having had my mothers Appleid totally cancelled (see separate post here) by Apple I was really concerned that I was going to face similar issues.

 

[Weaselboy]

Moderator Note:

Also see the discussion in the news thread:

Apple ID Accounts Logging Out Users and Requiring Password Reset

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...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[drlbg08]

Had the same experience last night around 8 PM Eastern time. It took hours to reset the password for my Apple ID. I guess I'm glad that I wasn't the only one to be affected. It would be great if Apple would issue some statement as to what happened. I certainly hope it does occur again!

 

[haralds]

Very annoying. I spent an hour last night instead of relaxing. Even the reset did not go without a lot of trouble. I have a lot of devices and had to log in everywhere. This morning, I had to tackle all the wiped app-specific passwords.

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

Same.

Was using iMessage on my iPhone when my texts suddenly turned green out of nowhere. I haven't touched any Settings for the last week or so, nor have I changed any passwords.

I go into Settings and can see that I've been signed out of iMessage and FaceTime and that it's waiting to activate them again, like it does when you first setup a new device and sign into your Apple ID and iMessage, FaceTime, etc.

I use the toggle to sign out of both, shut down my iPhone, shut it on again, and toggle iMessage and FaceTime on again.

After an hour or so they are back online for me and I'm signed in again.

I was not prompted to change passwords.

Should I change my AppleID password?

 

[henrikhelmers]

I was not prompted to change passwords.

Should I change my AppleID password?

I was prompted, and (eventually) changed my passord. To me, the silence from Apple indicates a breach of unknown size. And in that situation the right thing to do is to log out affected users and ask them to change their passord.

I would trust Apple to do the right thing when it comes to security. If you are not prompted I would assume you are in the clear. But if it helps ease your mind, changing your password every now and then it is a good idea.

 

[MoFishwater]

I have the same issue on all my devices... (based in London) this is what their support were saying...

I did check with support, went ahead and reset my PW and now it's all OK on different devices.

And that's all good, but I'll bet there were a bunch of people out there traveling, or out to dinner, or doing any of the myriad of things we all depend on our phones for. What did those folks have to do? I was lucky to be home with access to other trusted devices at the time. It's inconvenient to have to reset app-specific passwords and reset all my cards in Wallet, but it would've been way worse if I was out of town or something.

 

[MoeR56]

First was locked out on my iphone 15 Pro Max, now it’s the iPad Pro. It won’t accept the reset password, saying the account already has a password. It’s prompting you to create a new Apple ID. Cyberattack? Very frustrating.

 

[katbel]

I wrote this already in another thread but it could be useful here as well, I think
Till Apple doesn't explain it
A quick summary of what isn't the cause so far, after reading several articles and messages :

No email ending in .me or .Mac because other emails were involved

No Stolen Device Protection, many people didn't even had it ON, but I turned mine OFF because if you are not at home it's a longer nightmare from what someone wrote

No old iCloud password , I reset mine VOLUNTARILY in January.

I add that I was the only one affected in our household

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

I was prompted, and (eventually) changed my passord. To me, the silence from Apple indicates a breach of unknown size. And in that situation the right thing to do is to log out affected users and ask them to change their passord.

I would trust Apple to do the right thing when it comes to security. If you are not prompted I would assume you are in the clear. But if it helps ease your mind, changing your password every now and then it is a good idea.

I realized it had been >8 years since I last change my Apple ID password. So I went ahead and did it just to be sure.

Well, also because I'm only today seeing how many were impact by this and it's freaking me out a bit.

Fingers crossed that the worst to come out of this is people having to reset their passwords and that no accounts were breached.

 

[henrikhelmers]

After resetting my password yesterday and logging in anew to all devices, I got another prompt this morning. Something must be going on. The lack of comment from Apple is worrying.