Apple ID Recovery taking a long time

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Level 1

19 points

Apple ID Recovery taking a long time

I have two Apple ID's. One that I use for iCloud and the second one I use for media and subscriptions that I share with my family. More than 2 weeks ago, I had a random popup on my wife's IPad that asked her to enter in the password for the shared Apple ID. She entered it but it said the password was incorrect. Then I got a popup on my devices and my daughter as well asking for the same thing. On every device, we tried entering the password but it kept saying the password was incorrect. I'm am 100% sure that we entered it correctly. So after multiple tries, of course, the account gets locked.

Then I did some snooping on this Community site and I read multiple posts saying I should sign out and try signing back in. Same result - I couldn't get back in because it said my password was incorrect. Another suggestion was to do a "Forgot password" and try to reset the password. I don't know why I was not able to reset my password even after 2FA on my phone. So I called support and they said I have to do an account recovery. So that's what I do. I got an email the day after saying that Account Recovery has been initiated and I will get a text or phone call on April 16. I didn't get any call or text. I also went to iforgot.apple.com to check on the status but then I'm faced with the "login to my account with my password" screen which won't work because it says my password is incorrect! I called support again yesterday and all he could say was, "Just keep waiting. There's nothing I can do."

At this point, I'm extremely frustrated with Apple. Why was my password suddenly deemed incorrect? And why can't I reset my password even after 2FA with a verified device? Why does account recovery take so long and why is so mysterious that I can't even find out what's going on and when the recovery will be complete? I read some person post that their recovery process took over 2 months! Meanwhile, no one in my family can use our Apple One subscription which we're paying for and some of my downloaded apps stopped working because there was a new app update which I can't download because I can't access the App Store either.

I just want to hear back from ANYONE who went through this and I hope you can tell me there is light at the end of the tunnel!!! Sorry for the long ranting post too...can anyone tell that I'm frustrated???

Posted on Apr 17, 2022 2:32 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

AnnieL2

Community Specialist

Apr 18, 2022 10:00 AM in response to rickyrsx

Greetings rickyrsx,

The details on account recovery are in the following article - How to use account recovery when you can’t reset your Apple ID password

Things that are important to note from the article -

For security reasons, it might take several days or longer before you can use your account again.

• If you submitted your account recovery request with iforgot.apple.com through your device's browser, you should avoid using that device during this period. Using that device might cancel account recovery.

• To avoid delays, turn off other devices that are signed in with your Apple ID until account recovery is complete.

Check the status of your request

At any time, you can see how long it will be until your account is ready for recovery, or when more information will be available. Just go to iforgot.apple.com and enter your Apple ID.

Lastly, even if you don’t receive a text or phone call at the time the status shows you’ll be able to recover your account, you can visit Recover Your Apple ID at that time to move forward.

Thanks.

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Answer 2

rickyrsx Author

Level 1

19 points

Apr 18, 2022 10:54 AM in response to AnnieL2

Thanks for your reply. I called support again today and the tech said that the window had closed and I have to restart the recovery process again. That was my suspicion because I went to check the status at iforgot.apple.com in the middle of the recovery period and I was faced with the login page only and I could not login to gain access to the status update page. Unfortunately, I used the same device, my laptop, to check the status so I guess I stopped the recovery as I was not aware of that condition that using the same device will cancel the process.

About the second clause, “To avoid delays, turn off other devices that are signed in with your Apple ID until account recovery is complete.” What does this mean? I signed out of this Apple ID on my devices as I use it only for media and subscriptions but does this mean I shouldn’t use any Apple devices since my downloaded apps are associated with this ID? Does that means I can’t use any Apple devices? This is pretty much an impossibility though.

As for the last tip : “Lastly, even if you don’t receive a text or phone call at the time the status shows you’ll be able to recover your account, you can visit Recover Your Apple ID at that time to move forward.” I’d love to try this but I’m just afraid to do ANYTHING until I get a notification to proceed because who knows if I stop the process again?! The worst thing is that there is no notification if, when and how the process was stopped.

And, I don’t even know how my password became incorrect. Was I hacked? Can someone change my password without me knowing? I thought I would get some notification that my password was changed.

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Apple ID Recovery taking a long time

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