Account keeps getting locked for security reasons and requires me to change my password constantly last couple weeks

I have had this problem too, getting locked out at least once a day, but some times up to 3 times in the same day. I had an online chat with Apple support about it, and I learned a few things during that chat and after trying some things:

• You can enable 2FA, then disable it within 2 weeks to test things
• After enabling 2FA, you get an email from Apple with a "magic link" clicking on it (within 2 weeks) is the way to disable 2FA
• Once I enabled 2FA (mid January 2021), the problem went away completely
• After 13 days, just before my 2 weeks was up, I disabled 2FA (disabling 2FA -requires- you to change your password)
• After disabling 2FA, the problem started up again, up to 3 times a day

So I tried putting my iPhone (X) in airplane mode. I then logged out of iCloud/Apple on my MacBook Pro (2012) and closed the lid to sleep the machine. Finally, I logged out of iCloud/Apple on my iMac (2019) and my Mac Pro (5,1). This left my iPad (4) as the only device logged in. And STILL the problem happened. As an example, the moment I took my phone out of airplane mode, the "account locked" message came up.

Although I acknowledge the nuisance that 2FA was in the early days, during my 13 days with 2FA enabled (1 day short of the 2-week point-of-no-return) I did not encounter -any- nuisance authentication requests. In other words, I was never once challenged to have to enter an authorization code sent to my iPhone in order to "do" anything on any other device. When you enable 2FA, you do have to log into each device now that 2FA is enabled, and when doing so you get some type of notification that the device you're logging into is now a known trusted device. Now that it's a trusted device, you won't get challenged by 2FA for any authorization code for anything you do on THAT device. And so, since all of my devices were trusted, I never once saw a 2FA challenge during the 13-day period. I'm pretty sure that if I got some new device during that time and tried to set up iCloud on it, I'd be challenged by 2FA one time for that new device, but then it would be trusted. 

My point is: like many of you here, I've resisted 2FA for a very long time, and even disabled it 13 days after enabling it. But, I have to say that life with 2FA didn't actually have any of the nuisances that were reported by people in the long ago past, and if I cannot get to the bottom of this with 2FA disabled, I will probably end up re-enabling 2FA and letting that become permanent by allowing it to stay enabled past the 14 days. Because it DID solve the "account locked" problem for me.

Despaire Said:

"Account keeps getting locked for security reasons and required me to change my password constantly last couple weeks: same annoying issue here!!“

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To the OP and others he getting this: occurrence.

Perform the Following:

A. Scan with Malwarebytes for Mac:

Malwarebytes searches for malware(short for (malicious software) and spyware. Those make your Mac act in a mislead manor. So scan with it, and remove what is found from the quarantine. It is created by longtime users of these forums making it the only reliable Security Software for a Mac.

Downloads:

1. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac
2. Malwarebytes Uninstaller

B. Modify your Credentials:

With Security & Privacy being of High-Concern here, consider modifying your credentials, immediately. Pefroming the following is best at this point.  Seeing this being reported 5 days later - I’m assuming someone is trying to hack into your account. They may have confiscated your credentials somehow. So, Consider...

• Modifying: your login credentials (using both a New eMail and a New Password) for Apple and each and all sites
• Associating: a different method of payment to your account
• Enabling: Two-Factor Authentication for Apple ID and for all other accounts that have such an applicable option

This problem bothered me for months – constant logging out with several devices, and about every two or three days I would have to unlock the account.

At one point, I had to update the account's payment method because its credit card had long expired, and I wanted to buy something on iTunes. When I made the purchase I had to do a typical verification of the new payment details. After this, the logging out and locking stopped. I did not need to change any account settings, and I never tried any of the recommended fixes.

In hindsight, the problems started when my card was approaching expiration, and continued afterward, but I so rarely buy anything from Apple that I didn't bother updating the credit card until I needed to, almost two months after expiration, and because I don't normally think about having to pay Apple for things, it didn't occur to me to connect the account problems with the expired card.

I'm pretty sure it has something to do with bots using leaked User lists. Such lists are purchased in Darknet and contain Email Addresses and Passwords that were stolen from other pages. With this data bots try out various logins, Facebook, Instagram, Apple, Microsoft etc.

So as a first rule, never use your Apple Password on a different site. Unfortunately this doesn't save you from this annoying behaviour at Apple. If an attacker fails to login too many times, Apple locks our accounts and removes all sessions to our devices.

Passwords are most probably not saved on devices and different Apps (even from Apple) cannot share sessions. This causes the problem that requires several logins on the same device. Something Apple should surely fix.

I don't think two-factor auth will save you from these problems.

Probably the only effective way to save this hassle is to change your Apple Id e-mail address. I really don't want to do this myself, but the constant logouts are getting annoying. My advice for anybody who gives up and changes the email... make a special email address for your Apple Id, one that you never ever use anywhere else than for your Apple Ids. This way attackers cannot find that email on other hacked sites.

Suisho13 Said:

"Why does my account keep getting locked? I’ve looked through everything and there have been no new downloads or purchases made. Only my device is set to my Apple ID account. I’ve had to change my password multiple times already.

What’s going on?"

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Fixing Being Locked Out:

Visit this Link: If your Apple ID is Locked or Disabled - Apple Support

Why Accounts Become Disabled:

When your iTunes Account has been disabled, and that often happens due to suspicious activity --- Perhaps nothing on your part. They disable it for no more than Security & Privacy concerns.

Possible Reasons Could Include: 

• Too many unsuccessful login attempts
• VPN (Virtual Private Network) usage
• Consistent transactions
• Session Times Out
• Disobeying Terms & Conditions

"Account keeps getting locked for security reasons and requires me to change my password constantly last couple weeks"

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To Re-Enable your Account:

As you might suspect, no one here would know the reason for this occurrence, of course. So, contact Apple Support. They’ll know why this occurred and will run you right through the fix.

Contact Apple Support:

• Contact Us - Choose Locations
• Proceed from there as necessary

Note: Phone calls are taking a bit to go through at the moment, due do lots of calls. With the Coronavirus Pandemic, many are at home at the moment, with much time on their hands to contact Apple. So, just stay on the line, and you will get through :)

Use Malwarebytes for Mac:

A consistent reset seems a bit phishy. Malwarebytes for Mac is software that searches for malware/adware. So, scan with it and then remove what is found. Once removed, uninstall MalwareBytes for Mac. Then restart the Mac. It is created by longtime users of these forums. So, that is why it is the only way to go about securing your Mac, when it comes through use of software 

Downloads:

1. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac
2. Malwarebytes uninstaller

Yeah. I was getting locked out every few days. I went through all my iCloud-connected devices a month ago and shut down all of them but my MacBook Pro, my iPhone, and my Apple Watch. As I've brought the other Macs and iPads back up, I've made sure to log each one out and back in as I've started it up. My account hasn't locked itself since. I'm not saying this is the solution. It's only anecdotal. But it suggests one or more of the devices may have been making a bad request.

FWIW, there may be something to the idea that a device might be causing this. I shut down my 2 non-essential Apple iPads a few weeks back. Also shut down an old iPhone I was using just as a controller for something. And logged out and back in -- ensuring the right password was set -- on my two MacBook Pros and my Mac Mini. I haven't had a locked id issue since. I can't say for sure that's what fixed it. Correlation without causation is always problematic. But it might be worth really taking a look at your devices. That said, having posted this, I'll probably get told my account is locked later this afternoon. Lol. Because Apple...

Add me to the list of people who have had this problem for over a month. Typically, every few months, a couple of the devices will ask me to log into iTunes/Facetime/Messages again. I do, and then that's it. That enough has been annoying. Starting a month-ish ago, about once a week, one (any one) of my several devices would ask for the login to several apps again, and after logging in, it would say my account is locked. Then I would have to log in on my main phone again, three laptops, and two ipads to set up the message forwarding again. MAJOR pain because if any message comes in when forwarding isn't set up again, that device will never get the message - this has been a HUGE problem on Apple's end that the iMessage cannot be re-synced.

About a week+ ago, it went from once a week to every other day that I would get locked out and have to go through this mess. A couple of days ago, I finally opened a ticket. I got bumped up to an advanced tech who had to escalate the ticket to the engineers. He did tell me they had found a an authentication bug they were working on that was a little different from this, but really, I think it has to all be related.

One work -around I may have just figured out. This time, one of the ipads said I needed to log into iTunes. I checked my phone, and iMessage was still forwarding correctly, so I wasn't locked out yet. I logged into my AppleID in the computer browser, and I got in normally (security questions) - no unlocking needed. Once I did that, it seems like everything was ok again. I will have to try this again next time I get a pop up to see if it is a real band-aid.

Devices logged in: 2 phones, 2 ipad minis, 3 laptops, 1-3 Apple TVs, 2 Rokus. Only five devices have iMessage linked to the main phone.

It definitely is a bug. I has not happened to me for weeks. And I'm pretty sure it stopped happening once I didn't try to unlock or enter my password on all my devices. For about a week, I ignored all prompts to enter it or unlock. Then, I only entered it on my main devices (iPhone 12 Pro max & iPad Pro 2018), and continued to not do it on my other devices. That seems to have fixed it for me.

I agree, you must be onto somthing, I removed 2 old windows devices from icloud.com and at the moment I havent had any locking issues (so far, and its been just over 2 weeks)

I have this too. It's a bug. At first I thought it was someone who knows me and was trying to lock my account on purpose repeatedly. Now I think it's either an iOS 14 bug, or Apple being victim of Russian/Chinese hackers and they don't want to let us know and come clean about what's going on.

My iCloud account keeps being locked every other day for over two months now. The service is just not fit for purpose anymore. Coming from the wealthiest company in the world, it's pretty appalling.

Each time, I have to log back in on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV. And for each device I have to log back in to the App Store, iMessage and FaceTime. That's like entering the password 12 times, plus 2-3 times more for unlocking the iCloud account via email. 15 times!!!

Apple should be ashamed of such a poor security process. It shows it's so poorly built that they don't know what they're doing. A normal users shouldn't have to unlock their account nearly 50 times in 2 months without being told what's going on. Multiply that by 15 times having to enter the password and that's over 500 times of re-entering the password for this broken iCloud service!!! Complete madness.

I've spoken to Apple Support extensively and they were useless. Nothing they suggested fixed this issue. I bet they don't have a clue what's going on because the issue is much more serious, and copy pasting useless Apple support articles does not help in this case.