Apple locked me out and says that's it?

[brianmowrey]

There's no reason to change iTunes/ App Store login just because of inability to use iCloud, or in this case IMAP in Mail client, with any given Apple ID. Half the iCloud users in the world have a separate Apple ID in the App Store without any issue, including the OP.

The problem is with Mail's lack of Add Account in M1. Using a different email client is the least disruptive workaround.

 

[Henk van Ess]

Almost thought that this thread would have a happy end. I was suddenly allowed to enter 2FA, which I want.
So got a Message with 6 digits - all fine! Entered it, but then it says: NO, not available for your Apple ID.

I know my password, I am able to login, but still am not allowed to use 2FA.

 

[Henk van Ess]

Finally, some good news. I have access to my e-mail on my M1, see screenshot. That was the whole starting point of this thread. I always remembered my password, I kept trying to add an Internet account to ****@me.com, but till now, I always got the endless security question loop. Just a minute ago, it allowed me to add the mail account. As said earlier, I have access to the App store with the account too. But 2FA is not allowed... I need to answer my security questions, which are space, spelling, and case sensitive and can't reset the security questions into new ones..

 

[emac82]

There’s not much more you can do at this point. I would recommend using a password manager in the future to keep track of these kinds of things.

Any recommendations?

 

[eflx]

You might want to just register a new @iCloud.com email address; is there no way to forward the @me account and migrate? Seems like you're causing a headache for no reason to some degree

 

[Runs For Fun]

Any recommendations?

I like KeePassXC. It's cross platform and there are plenty of iOS apps that support the KeePass format. I really like Strongbox on iOS. I sync my database across my devices through my Nextcloud instance.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I like KeePassXC. It's cross platform and there are plenty of iOS apps that support the KeePass format. I really like Strongbox on iOS. I sync database across my devices through my Nextcloud instance.

I recently switched from 1Password to Strongbox and it works great. I have it on iOS and Mac. Highly recommend Strongbox.

Edited to add: The free version of Strongbox on both platforms works well. Since I liked it so much and want to use the watch option on my Mac, I paid for the lifetime license when it was recently on sale. Much cheaper than 2 years of 1Password subscription.

 

[Henk van Ess]

Today, I reached the 5 Gb limit, deleted old posts, but Manage--> shows the opposite, have to log out and login first.
But if I do that, I will lose all my mail. Copying the mail now to a different mail box. Will start the case in court now and keep you posted here.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

They won't let you answer security questions over the phone? Where capitals won't matter?

That is something they *used* to do.

My MIL was always forgetting her passwords and getting locked out of her Apple ID. To 'prove' her identity, I used to be able to call Apple Support, and they would ask her, or me, the seciurity questions, and I/we could get the account unlocked. Then, one of the last times she locked herself out, I tried to call and get them to do the same thing, and they demurred. 'We can't 'normally' do that any longer'. Um, what? 'You can go to our website and handle all of your lockout issues.' Well, yeah, sure, except it's not quite working. Her account is STILL locked! 'Well, hold on.' Waited quite a few minutes, and got someone who at first said they couldn't, then said they weren't supposed to, and then started asking the questions. One by one, we went through a bunch of questions, and got through them (seemed more than normal, more than 3) and the account was unlocked. I don't know what changed, but it instantly made me wonder how I would be able to get her account unlocked again in the future. She moved in shortly after that happened, and then died shortly after that. But what changed? No clue. I wrote an email to tell them they were being rather ageist over making people with bad memories have to deal with a website when they might have missed a space, or capital letter, or even shortened a city name (like Washington DC, shortened to 'DC'). I don't remember hearing back from them.

So much of Apple's ecosystem is aimed at young people. Get people with bad memories, bad vision, bad finger control, and you introduce a lot of potential for frustration, and people dropping their accounts permanently and losing a major method of keep in contact, and in touch, with family and friends. I felt her frustration with the password situation, and forgetting passwords, and having to fight with websites to get access again. She locked herself out of her first Facebook account, and they were no help in her getting it back. It's still up, we can't even get it closed down after her death. Sad...

At least this was my experience the last time she needed to unlock her account. It was so much easier to call and deal with a real person, than an impersonal, and dogmatic website.

I feel the OP's pain...

 

[MarkC426]

Will start the case in court now and keep you posted here.

You do know Apple have a bit more money than you (I assume).
Is it really worth your time and expense.

 

[Henk van Ess]

Dear all! This thread has a happy end!

Let me explain. As you clearly can read, I wanted to have access to my grandfathered account at all costs, even legal fees. Apple support people weren't able to solve the problem. This was what the last one said:

"Okay, after talking with my senior advisor, unfortunately, you won't recover your Apple ID."

Today, I had a 2 hrs session with Amy and Anastasia from Apple. They gave me a ton of background info and I was allowed to quote from it partly.

First of all, part of the problem was that I never made the last step from mac.com-->me.com to icloud.com
The Apple engineers told me that you should use icloud.com to sign in. If you still have a me.com account, you can run into the same problems as I did. You automatically got two accounts at Apple, one with **@me.com and **@cloud.com. If you are still using a me.com account, please immediately log out and log in again with icloud.com. You can use the same password. This will prevent problems like mine.

The account **@me.com I was using had only 5 Gb of storage. Yesterday, it stopped working, but because it exceeded the 5 Gb. I couldn't access my account (Apple ID was blocked, not the mail credentials, just the Apple ID). I was in a loop. To keep my mail alive, I needed more storage, but to have that, I needed access to my Apple ID. Some of you already warned me about that, but it happened now. It meant that for the last 32 hours, I couldn't receive any mail anymore from anyone, the reason for me to seek legal help.

You may wonder how I got out of this mess. The trick was to use a brand new machine, login not under @me.com but @icloud.com (both have the same password for everyone), and then the option to reset the security questions is available. This allowed me to get the account unblocked. After that, access via icloud.com or Icloud in mac was problematic. I had to do the same thing: don't use the @me.com, but the @icloud.com. Now all is working after a stressful few months!

I asked Apple if there is a moral to this cautionary tale. Well, you just read it: change from @me.com to @icloud.com (most of you probably did) Also, they told something most experienced users already know: the only way you get into your account when there are problems with security is 2FA and your cell phone number must be updated if you have a new one. "Some people forget this, and we are not able to help them".

These were the happiest 2 hours of helpdesk I ever had. The problem is solved and a lesson is learned. And my 5 Gb account is now upgraded for free to 50 Gb.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

I haven't given up me.com. Looks like I'll have to. Wow... I remember someone years ago said that 'me.com' was totally going away. No, apparently, but there are changes...

 

[Henk van Ess]

I haven't given up me.com. Looks like I'll have to. Wow... I remember someone years ago said that 'me.com' was totally going away. No, apparently, but there are changes...

Don't worry, I/you still can use @me.com. You get the option to choose it after you signed in via iCloud.

 

[MarkC426]

Yep, I have mac/me/icloud for all my email addresses.

You may want to edit your post (email address), so you don't get spammed.

 

[Henk van Ess]

Another takeaway from this. I've got confirmation that Apple gradually made the answers to the security questions very strict. Here is what happened (example)

Say these are the questions and answers.

street name where you lived as child
1012 West Street

best teenage friend
John Preston

Allowed in OLD situation
1012 West Street
1012 west Street
1012 West street
1012 Weststreet
1012 West str

John Preston
john preston
John preston
Johnpreston
John-preston

Permitted in the new situation (strict)
1012 West Street
John Preston

It means that if you didn't write down spacing/under and uppercase correctly all those years ago, you can't access your account (or only with the help of a trusted device)

Because the security questions are in a carousel and you have only three chances, I calculated that in my case, I had only 0.05% chance of entering the correct answers, although I knew it was 1012 West Street and John Preston but was unsure about spacing and under/uppercase.

So if you find this thread because you have problems with security questions yourself, try instead of typing in Street and not Str or otherwise. It can be the difference between success and failure.

 

[Henk van Ess]

Yep, I have mac/me/icloud for all my email addresses.

You may want to edit your post (email address), so you don't get spammed.

It's a JPG, OCR is a bit harder, but removed it anyway , thanks

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Another takeaway from this. I've got confirmation that Apple gradually made the answers to the security questions very strict. Here is what happened (example)

Say these are the questions and answers.

street name where you lived as child
1012 West Street

best teenage friend
John Preston

Allowed in OLD situation
1012 West Street
1012 west Street
1012 West street
1012 Weststreet
1012 West str

John Preston
john preston
John preston
Johnpreston
John-preston

Permitted in the new situation (strict)
1012 West Street
John Preston

It means that if you didn't write down spacing/under and uppercase correctly all those years ago, you can't access your account (or only with the help of a trusted device)

Because the security questions are in a carousel and you have only three chances, I calculated that in my case, I had only 0.05% chance of entering the correct answers, although I knew it was 1012 West Street and John Preston but was unsure about spacing and under/uppercase.

So if you find this thread because you have problems with security questions yourself, try instead of typing in Street and not Str or otherwise. It can be the difference between success and failure.

AND one thing that kept pummeling my MIL was if you 'guess wrong' three times, Apple wipes your password, and locks the account. It was more of a 'silent lock', where it didn't tell her that it was locked until she had tried way more than three times. I argued with their corporate relations people that they needed to revel that to users. They seemed stunned that people didn't realize it. So the MIL would try to login, fail, three times, and then spend the rest of her morning trying to get into the account. Hundreds of refused logins. We setup a separate new 'root account' for her, and a new Apple ID, and she even hacked the root account to try to get her Apple ID working.

People aren't perfect. Some passwords I have for some services, I don't use but maybe a few times a month, or year. Having an abusive policy where three strikes, you are out, and not making sure everyone knows about it was callous, heinous, and punishes elders.

But anyway...

I feel for people that have problems getting locked out of Apple's online stuff. They are horribly more punitive than they have to be. *sigh*

Having my MIL sobbing because Apple locked her out was hard to take. She depended on that computer, and her email to keep her connected, to keep her involved, to keep her safe. She had a close circle of friends that would check on each other constantly, and many of them knew how to contact us, and they would occasionally ask if she was okay because they hadn't heard from her that morning. That kind of physical support was important to them, to her, to us. Apple being so 'fascist' over security was not helping keep her safe. It was not helping keep her connected. It just wasn't helping anyone at all...

Sorry this is turning into a rant, but I'm reliving much of what happened during that whole mess.

As an aside, I tried to get Apple to support 'child' accounts, where we would be the 'root account' so that if she locked herself out, WE could reset her account, and also keep tabs on it to make sure she wasn't hacked. Apple doesn't do that. I was discouraged... My MIL was a proud and independent woman, that led a strong varied powerful and wonderful life, and as her mental faculties started to fade, she hated being treated so harshly...

Sad...

 

[SsSsSsSsSnake]

But the mail address is gold... xxx@me.com

is it,Why? i still have mine which ive had since my 2011 imac?