Apple ID Lock-Out Affects Macs, iPhones, iPads, and iCloud Services (indiatimes.com) 41
An anonymous reader shared this report from the Times of India:
Several Apple customers were inexplicably locked out of their Apple ID accounts Friday evening in a major service disruption, forcing them to reset their passwords across all devices and services. According to user reports on social media, the widespread outage began around 8 p.m. ET. People complained that they were abruptly signed out of their Apple IDs on Macs, iPhones, iPads, and other Apple devices.
When attempting to sign back in with their existing passwords, they received an error message preventing access... To regain access, users had to go through Apple's account recovery process to reset their Apple ID passwords. However, many reported difficulties even completing the reset process initially due to high demand...
The outage affected iCloud services like iCloud Drive, iMessage, FaceTime, and the App Store. Third-party apps and services that integrate with Apple ID sign-in were also disrupted for those impacted.
When attempting to sign back in with their existing passwords, they received an error message preventing access... To regain access, users had to go through Apple's account recovery process to reset their Apple ID passwords. However, many reported difficulties even completing the reset process initially due to high demand...
The outage affected iCloud services like iCloud Drive, iMessage, FaceTime, and the App Store. Third-party apps and services that integrate with Apple ID sign-in were also disrupted for those impacted.
That's one way of being secure (Score:2)
Make it so no one can get to your documents. Not even you.
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Now that you mention it, once my Android phone has been paired with my Google account, I've never had to sign in again. Maybe it's possible, if someone were to log into my Google account remotely and remove it from the list of authorized devices, but I'm not sure if that would terminate apps being actively used or prevent you from unlocking your phone.
It actually seems weird that you could be remotely signed out of your device while you're using it. I guess nobody really realizes how much power Apple has ov
Re: That's one way of being secure (Score:2)
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Now that you mention it, once my Android phone has been paired with my Google account, I've never had to sign in again.
I've had to sign in on my phone a couple of times to make big changes. This has been really annoying since I don't actually know my google password. It didn't prevent me from using the device and making calls since local login via thumb or PIN was not affected. I forget what I was trying to change. Something in Google settings.
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Its been years since I had to resign onto my Apple account except when doing a purchase (which is not only sensible, but ought be mandatory for all online services)
And yes, it does make sense to be able to be remotely signed out. If someone steals my laptop, you damn well bet I'm gonna try and boot them off it.
Re: That's one way of being secure (Score:2)
Based on my experience with some "security" people, this is what they actually believe.
They mistake inconvenience for security. Seen some systems that punish a legitimate mistake by legitimate users while allowing a huge bypass for malicious users, because it "looks more secure".
As (generally) an Apple Fan... (Score:3)
I really wish I could use NextCloud to completely replace iCloud. Full device backups, functional photo synchronization across devices, maybe even a centralized recovery system. All bordered by a VPN of course.
I actually heard of a friend losing everything through something that sounds quite similar to this issue a couple weeks ago. They lost complete access to their AppleID, which can be a real pain in the ass if you have bought into the ecosystem.
I also really need to figure out a good backup solution for the passwords/keychain app; there are far too many auto-generated passwords that are only saved on the device/cloud.
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I use rsync and syncthing to do those.
I happen to generate all my scripts out of puppet modules with reflection but for just a few devices you can absolutely roll it by hand.
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I use bitwarden for my passwords, at least - admittedly it is their cloud-based service, but I regularly dump a copy to an encrypted sparse disk image I keep locally (something you can't really do with Apple's Keychain).
It was painful getting 15 years worth of passwords moved out of Apple's Keychain, but ultimately worth it. The bonus is not only platform independence, but also a significantly superior tool.
I am a bit confused by the reporting here, though - it would be annoying, but given Apple doesn't do
Re: As (generally) an Apple Fan... (Score:2)
It's hidden. The shits still there but it all disappears from the UI where you normally find it. Apple wants you to believe you can't live without a subscription.
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Any solution for password backup? Everything else *can* be done, but has been clunky for me-- things like the initial sync can be done out-of-band, but a big dump of photos or similar task can quickly overload the WebDAV capabilities from my experience.
Re: As (generally) an Apple Fan... (Score:2)
I use keepassxc, and the file is "just another file" in the storage solution. I see no value in treating passwords as needing a bespoke data storage solution when the security can instead be layered on top of a common storage solution.
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I try to follow the 3-2-1 backup rule. 3 copies of my data (working and two backups) with backups on two different storage devices with one off site. (OK, I'm a bit loose with that last one.)
I use a drive image backup program (AOMEI Backupper, Acronis True Image, Clonezilla, etc) by booting from a Hiren's Boot CD image. The advantage of doing a full disk image is it captures all my installed programs, licenses, registry information, data files, drivers, screen layouts, etc into one image. I can use that
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Windows has had block-level backup since windows 7. No need to use an external tool.
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True, it used to have one. It was deprecated in Win10 version 1709. It's not something I would rely on to backup, restore, or extract files if you are using Win10, Win11, or any newer version.
System Image Backup (SIB) Solution == This feature is also known as the Backup and Restore (Windows 7) legacy control panel. For full-disk backup solutions, look for a third-party product from another software publisher. You can also use OneDrive to sync data files with Microsoft 365. https://learn.microsoft.com/en... [microsoft.com]
I also don't remember if you can extract single files from the backups. I seem to remember it was an all or nothing image.
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> t was deprecated in Win10 version 1709
I am on latest win10 pro and still have win7 block level backup.
> I also don't remember if you can extract single files from the backups. I seem to remember it was an all or nothing image.
It depends how you set it up. You can do full disk image + files and folders or just image. If doing just image, then you need to restore the full image, you are correct.
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Good to know. I'm also reluctant to install software if there is a built-in utility that can do the same thing. Thanks for the info.
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You are welcome. I am the same way. The more people that use it, the less chance it really goes away !
Re: As (generally) an Apple Fan... (Score:2)
I convinced my girlfriend to abandon Apple after she saw the mess created when she tried to cancel her paid Apple Cloud subscription.
Nothing was technically lost, but the system tries hard to make you think everything is gone. All your docs among other things just disappear or stop working. You can find your docs in some weird cache folder, so all was good. But the whole experience taught her why the Apple ecosystem is trash. Now she's on Android.
Her phone bill also went from like $150/mo to something like
It hit me. (Score:4, Interesting)
It hit me right in the middle of a FaceTime call. Lost the call, was logged out of everything, and was then required to change my password. Wound up getting locked out, and had to use my wife’s iPhone to get an account unlock code from Apple. Changed password, and then had to go through all my devices to update the password to get back in.
Didn’t take up as lot of time, but really wasn’t something I wanted to have to deal with when it happened. But both my wife’s and my daughters Apple accounts were unaffected.
Yaz
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It hit me right in the middle of a FaceTime call. Lost the call, was logged out of everything, and was then required to change my password. Wound up getting locked out, and had to use my wife’s iPhone to get an account unlock code from Apple. Changed password, and then had to go through all my devices to update the password to get back in.
Didn’t take up as lot of time, but really wasn’t something I wanted to have to deal with when it happened. But both my wife’s and my daughters Apple accounts were unaffected.
Yaz
It's just a reminder that when you're just renting, Apple owns everything and are just letting you use it.
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It's just a reminder that when you're just renting, Apple owns everything and are just letting you use it.
For the record, I wasn’t locked out of using any of my systems - only from using any of Apple’s online services. My Mac, iPad, and iPhone continued to work just fine and continued to allow me to run whatever applications I wanted.
Given that, you could apply your silly statement to every online service in the world, including here on /.
Yaz
Does this affect Apple Pay? (Score:2)
This is why cash can never die, it is simply the best OG backup.
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I don't think Apple Pay is tied into iCloud at all. I do know it works with no network connection.
"Their devices" (Score:2, Troll)
I'm so glad I got off the Apple bandwagon when they started ignoring the Mac for iPhone.
I actually had linux running on my MBP for a while before buying a PC laptop to when it was time to upgrade.
Every convenience feature is potential spyware when they could have done it cryptographically secure from the beginning.
I actually had a good chat with on-staff cryptographers back in the 90's. This one gal was a genius at elliptic curves
Those were the days.
Always required internet devices are bad idea (Score:2)
The idea that all devices should require a internet connection, always to work is a bad idea. I hope this always online connected needed for device to work stops soon. It has to stop. Since this can't go on as is.
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Yeah - like my dishwasher. I hate that. When the power is out it doesn't work at all.
Re: Always required internet devices are bad idea (Score:2)
I don't know about your computer, but my computer does a bunch of shit that doesn't require an Internet connection. Writing and compiling software, editing documents, changing calendar events, etc. All used regularly offline. And I use a Chromebook.
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I keep mine offline when not needed, but it's hard!
Would not happen if they were your computers (Score:2)