Apple iPhone, iPad, Mac Users Abruptly Locked Out Of Devices, Reset Required

Something strange is happening. Some Apple IDs are mysteriously locking their users out, and so far there’s no explanation why it’s happening. But it’s a real thing—and it happened to me early this morning.

You can read another take on this story from fellow Forbes contributor Davey Winder here.

First reported by users on social media, it’s been happening since the evening of Friday, April 26, with people are turning to their Apple devices such as iPhones, iPads and Macs, only to find they’ve been locked out.

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It happened to me first thing Saturday morning, April 27, and it wasn’t a nice feeling. Most of all, it’s just baffling. What did I do that led to my iPhone telling me I was locked out of my Apple ID? Had someone compromised a password of mine? Had I left my iPhone unlocked somewhere without realizing? Had the guy on the train I’d asked to look after my stuff while I went to the restroom somehow accessed stuff on my iPad?

Of course, all my devices still worked, but none would let me in to Apple apps, until I’d verified I was me. And doing this turned out to be impossible without resetting my Apple ID password.

As the day went on, I read on social media that I wasn’t alone in this. Which was very comforting—maybe I hadn’t done something wrong after all.

Getting back into my account required a simple, straightforward process: thinking up a new password for Apple ID and setting that up. Not that difficult (though will I remember it? Thank goodness for 1Password), but a nuisance. Plus, as pointed out by 9to5Mac, app-specific passwords previously set up via iCloud have reset as well. Oh, and I needed to set up Messages on my Mac again.

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Really, I got off lightly. I have Stolen Device Protection enabled, but I was at home when I checked my phone this morning. If it had happened a few hours earlier, I’d have been on that train I mentioned, which the iPhone would rightly have deemed was not a trusted location.

It’s hard to know exactly how widespread this is, but the breadth of comments on social media suggests it’s not an isolated incident affecting just a few people.

There’s no word from Apple yet about what might have happened, and the company’s system status webpage says all is well with Apple ID, which at least may mean that Apple thinks the issue isn’t happening now. But the cause remains a mystery.

Let’s look on the positive side: it’s good to refresh passwords more often than many of us do (definitely including me). But it’s a process I could have done without today.

I’ll report back as more becomes known.

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