Recovery Contact vs Recovery Key

After doing some more digging, there has been an published update to the behaviour, specifically:

“… If you use Advanced Data Protection and set up both a recovery key and a recovery contact, you can use either your recovery key or recovery contact to regain access to your account …”

Source: Set up a recovery key for your Apple ID - Apple Support

While it does not explicitly state the corollary (i.e. if you don’t have ADP activated that it’s “either” but not “BOTH”) it’s IMO strongly inferred and IMO so-stated in other published Apple documentation.

= = = = =

This also borne-out by partial “real world” testing.

An AppleID WITH Recovery Keys - but WITHOUT ADP - could NOT successfully setup a recovery contact.

However, once that same AppleID had the Recovery Keys deactivated, a Recovery Contact WAS successfully setup.

For starters, I have neither recovery method, but I can give you my interpretation of what Apple says.

Apple does state clearly that its participation in account recovery ceases if you have a recovery key. It does not say anything about a recovery contact. However, I see:

Help a friend or family member as their account recovery contact --> Help a friend or family member as their account recovery contact - Apple Support

" As a recovery contact, you can help a friend or family member regain access to their account if they ever forget their Apple ID password or get locked out. If this happens, they can contact you on the phone or in person with simple instructions for how to generate and share a six-digit recovery code with them. This code, along with other information they verify, can allow them to reset their password and regain access to their account and their data."

This would imply to me that a recovery contact is another way for you to get a verification code and get back into your account which is the primary objective. Your recovery key then becomes moot. If you still have access to your Apple ID and password but have lost your recovery key:

"You can generate a new recovery key from Settings or System Preferences on a trusted device." Refer to the steps in Set up a recovery key for your Apple ID - Apple Support about how to do this on different types of equipment (Apple equipment only).

Re: “…. Does generating a recovery key invalidate the recovery contact? …”

That IS certainly THIS user’s interpretation and understanding.

The “rationale” being that if Apple can’t help ME recover MY account, they can’t help anyone else helping me either.

That said, I’ve not “Tested” it.

Understand.

FYI, “Apple” generally doesn’t participate in this user forum so temper your expectations accordingly.

That said, the Level of Knowledge in this community is extraordinary. I suspect someone else might “ring in” before long with something more authoritative.

This is normally the type of question I’d have tested myself, but the hardware on my “Test” Apple ID is insufficient for this particular experiment; and I chose to not use our “real” acounts for this one.

Dupe deleted.

.