My Apple ID keeps getting locked

I clicked the link you provided. That was a waste of 5 minutes. Round and round and keeps telling me the same stuff and still my account gets locked. I unlock it and it happens again. Twice today. iMessage forgets my user email, then every device, Desktop, laptops, iPad and iPhone remind me that "another device has been added to your account" Again and again and again. I have had this Apple ID since the 90's. I got it when I used iDisk. I have gotten several suffixs of it over the years as Apple has dumped MobileMe and various offerings.

Ahhh....done that. If you change your password you always have to change it on all devices. Not unique to Apple. These are circuitous answers. Apple has set some standards for this to happen. These standards are either too broad or lack oversight to assess their effectiveness.

When I setup this Apple ID there were probably 10 million active Apple users. Maybe. Probably more like 5 million. I was using a 9600 Powermac to run a Avid system.

There is no reasoning I can see on my end for why this keeps happening. I've made my password long and difficult and short and easy to remember. I do see online a lot of complaints about the rigidity of Apple's Two Factor Authentication. I can only speak for my own experience. Many of my co-workers, who aren't very good at either remembering passwords or don't keep track of which one is which, have had a terrible time with Apple's Two Factor Authentication.

I have never been hacked either on my computer or my devices. This issue has continued from one new devie to the other. New iPhone in June? Same issue. New iPad last year? Same issue.

Guys it's not me.

This has been suggested to me before. Thanks for replying all.

I don't use the email aspect of the Apple ID account very often. Mostly with persons who've know me for decades and it's in their address book. However I've had my gmail account almost as long. I get frequent warnings that "It's on the Dark Web" on my credit score but I still have 800+ and I don't have two factor authentication with Google and it's never locked me out or asked for more that than my password. I change that password often.

I return to my earlier theory. Apple has set the security alert soo low that anything can trigger being locked out of your account. I sort of feel that the rest of us are in the way of Apple's sensitivity to celebrity phone hacks that used to happen very frequently. I could be wrong.

If someone out in the world has this email/Apple ID and runs a bot to hack accounts then there's nothing I can do. Even getting Two Factor Authentication won't help.

However that being said, my gmail has been out there and is my main email account. Never hacked. Like I said. Apple's threshold for security seems too low if I'm constantly having to do this. Perhaps people could have the option of reducing this threshold. I have no saved credit card with Apple. I don't have Apple Music and I don't think I've bought an app in years. I just use macs. A lot of them.

Here's another fact though it shouldn't make a difference. I don't have a passcode or Touch ID enabled on my iPhone or iPad Air 5. I don't use Apple Wallet (I worry it adds a layer of complication to my purchases). My credit/debit cards do just fine without it. I don't want to constantly enter a passcode and Touch ID seems to be resistant to my large fingers. I do have a business iPhone (Older 6S) with a passcode on it with a different Apple ID with Two Factor Authentication. I leave it at work. Airtags and Apple computer purchases are made with that. I keep an Airtag in each equipment bag.

I'm here because I've exhausted what I can do on my end. I do take exception to your statement that very, very few others seem to have issue with this. I googled it and it seems to be more than infrequent. In fact there is a small industry of apps dedicated to solving just this problem.

I can't for the life of me think of anything I've done that would cause this. It started to happen after either Apple started to ask me to add two factor authentication to the ID or when they started emailing me every time I signed into iCloud in my browser (as if signing into iCloud in a browser is risky). That was probably 3 or 4 years ago. The locking out sometimes will not happen for 2 or 3 weeks and then start up again. I really don't think there are people constantly trying to access my account.

I only replaced my iPhone 6s this year. I replace my computers more often than my iPhone. I usually get one a year. Between my edit work station or home work station or laptop. I also buy at least 3-4 a year for my company. I usually do the buying and setup.

Though I could be wrong I suspect that some how Apple has gotten into their head that old accounts that have never had issues and aren't upgraded to Two Factor Authentication are some how more risky than there were before. Like you said Apple is free to do this but my google account is much more frequently used, has been "noticed on the Dark Web" and I send attachments, link to docs and bounce in and out of various Google Drives (both mine and my co-workers).

I really feel this has more to do with the appearance of security rather than real security.

Not sure that your logic is dialectic but whatever. I've been on macs for decades and there's not much about using them that I don't know but that being said Apple's answers online are circular and in the end...it keeps happening.

If my .Mac email or associated Apple ID was "out there" I would expect at least a ton of junk email... no nothing. None of these answers actually move the issue along. It still keeps happening. Twice today.

BTW, I sometimes don't get messages on my Mac because it's logged iMessage out. That was the result today when I didn't get a text from my daughter on my MBA while I was working saying when she was arriving for Thanksgiving. I had to log out on my MBA and then retrieve my iPhone and turn off iMessage. Then put them both back on it. Then iMessage on my MBA showed my cellphone number.

Bill,

I think you're absolutely right.

Apple ignores these discussions and we're left to our own to create a collaborative solution but unfortunately this has to be solved by Apple. This Apple ID I have doesn't have two factor authentication on it. If I thought that would fix the problem I'd add it but because Apple hasn't responded to these posts I worry that adding two factor authentication would just add a layer of complications to the problem and the problem would persist.