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Some Users Locked Out of Their Apple IDs, Forced to Reset Passwords

Tuesday November 13, 2018 6:24 am PST by Mitchel Broussard
Apple appears to have locked a select group of users out of their Apple ID accounts over the past 20 hours or so, with no clear indication yet as to why the incident has occurred. According to reports on Reddit and Twitter, users are being kicked out of their Apple IDs for security reasons, and forced to reset their password to gain access to their account.


Users report this happening without warning on iPhone, Apple TV, and other Apple devices, while they were using Apple Music, watching TV, etc. The original poster on Reddit confirmed that they have two factor authentication enabled and a unique iCloud password for their Apple ID not used anywhere else, and many users report similar settings.

On Twitter, @AppleSupport is guiding users to the Support Communities web page that explains what to do if your Apple ID is locked and disabled. In nearly all instances across social media, users are reporting that they must reset their Apple ID password to be able to get back into their accounts.

With no official word from Apple and no clear reason behind these forced password resets, it's unclear why some users were affected and what caused Apple to initiate the wave of resets in the first place. We've reached out to Apple for a comment, and will update this article if we hear back.

Tag: Apple ID
[ 207 comments ]


Top Rated Comments

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SkippyThorson
14 weeks ago
How and why am I always in the 'small number of users' impacted by every single little stupid glitch...?

What have I done to deserve this, Apple? Haven't I been good to you? I thought we were special.
Rating: 18 Votes
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ImAnAgent
14 weeks ago
Happened to me yesterday. Posted it in Twitter also. Had to change my password and login again on everything in the house. Sometimes I hate Apple.
Rating: 15 Votes
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dmylrea
14 weeks ago
My Microsoft account login still works. ;)
Rating: 14 Votes
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Tripinbillie
14 weeks ago
Yep. Happened to me.
Rating: 9 Votes
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kstotlani
14 weeks ago

Happened to me yesterday. Posted it in Twitter also. Had to change my password and login again on everything in the house. Sometimes I have Apple.


Sometimes I have an Orange.
Rating: 8 Votes
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Fender2112
14 weeks ago

Yep hit me too!


And I just reset my password about 2 weeks ago. Had to do it again this morning.

I’m running out of creative ways to spell my favorite color.
Rating: 8 Votes
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jarule
14 weeks ago

I'm guessing you weren't in Zhengzhou, China yesterday? :p

Thanks for the info. Do we think Apple is being bombarded by random phishing attempts?

That’s my best guess. I’m actually glad I set up two factor authentication. Apple probably reset everyone else’s for protection.
Rating: 8 Votes
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Nozuka
14 weeks ago
Happened to my father too. And he got scared that someone is trying to hack him and phish the new password he is entering...

People really should get more information when their account gets locked like this...
Rating: 7 Votes
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jarule
14 weeks ago
This happened to me yesterday. Had to reset my password.

Rating: 5 Votes
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omihek
14 weeks ago

And I just reset my password about 2 weeks ago. Had to do it again this morning.

I’m running out of creative ways to spell my favorite color.

And what color would that be?

Asking for a hacker friend.
Rating: 3 Votes

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