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

I am having this problem too. First it started happening occasionally then it started happening a few times a week at least. I kept on getting a popup on my ipod to unlock it which I do but the problem comes back eventually. I never change my password when I do that as I have no idea if that will solve my problem. I have to remember to log out of itunes and close it on my computer before unlocking account otherwise itunes just freezes and hangs when trying to enter my password in again. Then I have to keep on closing and opening itunes a million times before I can eventually put my password in and login if I don't sign out of itunes first. There has to be some way to know what is causing this and how do I know that changing my password will fix anything. I don't see any devices that aren't mine under my account. Can someone please tell me how to fix this annoying issue as I should not have to keep on unlocking my account a million times unless they are doing this to get me to switch to 2fa which I would rather not do if I have a choice.

No idea if it will help but I have had some relief from it and afraid saying so will jinx it. After having to unlock your acct then try to do a hard reboot. Google can help in finding out how for your devices. Model. As long as Apple is nagging about it, won’t hurt to hard reboot. Not shut the device off and back on. Hard reboot.

I reset my password on 12/29/20 because it was doing this and was told by an Apple rep that it was because my passwords security was not up to par for apple’s new standard, which it was according to all documentation I could find, but I reset it anyway. It’s already flagged in settings as having been part of a data leak so clearly Apple is just unable to keep accounts secure. Super frustrating and not something that happens with my google account ever. Really makes me question Apple to be honest.

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...

I've had this same issue for a few months now, and I am tired of it

I've tried changing my email address from @googlemail to @gmail, nope, got locked again

Then i changed the address to a completely new email address, and then just over a week later, that just got locked too!

I've read on previous posts about this topic, that enabling 2FA doesnt fix this issue at all. I could understand if its an issue with bots trying to break into accounts, but somthing is really strange if a new email address which nobody knows has been hacked into, i have no idea!

Is there room on this bus for one more? This first happened to me a couple of months ago. More recently, it seems to be a weekly event. As many others here have said, changing the password did no good.

A couple of years ago I briefly enabled 2FA, and it proved to be a major pain in the aft, having to verify every other thing I wanted to do by okaying it on a different device. So I ditched it. I also see that there are at least a couple of people in this thread who do have 2FA enabled and are still getting the dread account lockout regularly.

It just happened to me again late last night. Next time, I will try the suggestion posted here and login to icloud.com on my desktop, jumping through the hoops there instead of on my iPhone. Fingers crossed...

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 thought the same, as my card on the account had expired, so other places online also suggested this, so I updated my card with the new details and the problem still persisted, I also tried removing the card and start again, this also did not solve the issue.

I have literally tried everything everyone has suggested, the problem still exists, I have since removed my Apple account from my mac and iPad which is ridiculous.

I have to join the party here. I posted the question in another thread and got a useless response with a link to the general Apple ID page. I have been having this since November 2020. Originally, I was worried that there was an actual hacker targeting me, but now that I have read the thread it has to be Apple trying to force people to use two factor authorization. It has rendered our Apple TV useless since it is so difficult to enter a password.

What this will actually do is get people to create easier to crack, less secure passwords since they have to re-enter them on all of their devices every two weeks.

You know with covid, the craziness of the world and all the stress going on, you would think that they would try to make the lives of their customers better, but no.

The bank card isn't the issue here. My card on file expires in several years from now, and I still keep getting locked out over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over... and over again. 😒 Thank you Apple for ruining people's lives.

I am betting its on their end. Do know at Christmas they couldn’t authenticate all the new devices and were wanting others to wait days to try and sign into Apple. My problem started after I knew of that. I think one of my Apps was messed up with looping back to point A every time I closed app and opened later rendering the game useless. But the mid Dec update prob fixed the app issue bc towards the end of the month i uninstalled the app and reinstalled it after a hard reboot and it was fine. But the logged out of Apple ID remained. Later it seems to have stopped. But pretty sure the keychain stops me from using the keyboard to type in a password for creating an acct any website on Safari. Freezes up at password entry box. Or acts like it wants to show me keychain to use or keyboard. Going into Settings the Toggle to turn on and off auto password lets just say Auto Password in Settings acts too slow and annoying. I have to toggle off auto password in able to create an acct on a website bc if not once i get to the password box it will freeze up or eventually I get lucky briefly bfr no keyboard. No third party app. Think Apple might have messed up in others areas we just have not encountered. They need to not insist on 2 factor to use anything in settings in order to turn on. I turned off something in settings and to turn it back on was blocked bc I wasn’t turning on 2 factor.

Infuriating!

Yesterday I had to login about 15 times and had to go through the unlocking process 5 times...once on the same machine within 15 minutes.

It is enough to make a person look for alternatives....and I hate to do that as everything works quite well except for this incessant harassment.

Well, I am pretty sure it has nothing to do with two-factor authentication, as I haven't activated it. A few weeks ago, instead of unlocking my ID, I just left it alone. I eventually had to enter my password to purchase an app, but that's about it. Even the 1 badge on settings has disappeared.

I think it has got to do with the number of devices you have, some bug that one of them has. As soon as I stopped unlocking my account, it was no longer locked, which leads me to believe that it never really was "locked".

So don't be rushing to activate two-factor authentication!

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.

UPDATE: This Apple iCloud "security" bug continues for me.

I didn't get locked out for about a month or so and today my iCloud account was locked again. The issue hasn't been fixed.

What is startling is how most people contributing to this thread only started experiencing this issue from November 2020 when iOS 14 and macOS Big Sur were released.

Apple broke something then and doesn't care about fixing it now.