How can I resolve Apple Account association issues on my iPhone?

This thread may help explain some background on the issue, unfortunately selecting transfer multiple times per day hasn’t changed anything (as many others here have reported). New devices I’ve owned for years. Come on Apple

This has been happening to me too for weeks! I bought my phone directly from Apple and have only ever been signed in on one apple ID. I don’t know what to do. I click transfer every time and it pops up every 20 minutes or so.

Yes,exactly. Third party apps that are not pre loaded on the phone but that have been separately downloaded from the App Store would be the ones to delete and reload one page at a time. Then retest to see if pop up resolved. Hope it helps as it’s resolved my same issue.

So my android broke and I was forced to use my wife’s iPhone Xr until my z flip gets repaired. I have logged in to my Apple account and the phone shows it is associated with my Apple account along with my iPad. Problem is I keep getting the same message and I also am getting her pictures of that she takes on her phone in my photo files. Also my calendar is somehow linked to hers. Every time an add something to my calendar she sees it on her phone. I haven’t figured out how to stop it. At first even my text to my phone number were showing up on her iPhone which is a completely different number. Insane how our 2 phones were basically linked and still are to some degree.

I have selected both and nothing happens. The message has been coming more frequently now. Nearly every time I touch my phone. Plan on taking it into an apple store, genius bar, see if they can help. 13 Pro Max

@Apple support - is anyone from Apple going to wade in here???

This is a persistent bug that has been reported since at least October 2024. I get this message multiple times a day and it makes no difference whether I click ‘cancel’ or ‘transfer’. It’s been going on for months and is now acutely irritating.

When will this be fixed?

Hello~ No…no one from Apple will “wade in here”. This is a user to user technical forum. Apple is not here in that way. You can click on below and leave your feedback for Apple…

Product Feedback - Apple

You can also go to lower left and click on Support.

~Katana-San~

I’m having the same issue with my iPhone 14 after the update to 18.1 or whatever it was it’s saying this device is already with an apple account if you turn on automatic downloads with your apple account you cannot auto download past purchase, you can’t transfer or cancel, it does that all day what is going on with the last update

This is happening on both the iPhone 14 Pro I handed down to my daughter and the iPhone 12 Pro she handed down to my sister. Are they going to fix it in an update? Reading this thread it’s IOS 18.x.x bug and impacts 12, 13, 14 iPhones.

I’ve been having this issue for 9 weeks now, on an iPad that I bought new in 2021 and that no one else uses. I’ve contacted apple support about it, and ironically, I got the message as soon as I restarted the iPad per their instructions. It happens multiple times a day—when I’m browsing the internet, when I’m using an app, when I’m checking my email, when I’m streaming a video. I’ve selected “Transfer”, I’ve selected “Cancel”, but no matter what it keeps happening. Will it go away?

Hey Everyone,

First, I'm really sorry to hear so many folks are experiencing this. I have had zero luck reaching Apple or speaking with Support (who have no idea what I'm talking about). I reached out to the company I got the phone from - Assurion - as my phone was a replacement under a Verizon insurance plan. They also claim ignorance, saying "we wipe all phones before they're sent out" which is meaningless in this situation. So, I found out that I have a one-year warranty on the phone so I'm switching it out again. For reference, I got this phone in February 2024 from Assurion, and had NO problem at all until updating to iOS 18.x. Clearly, this issue was flying under the radar until Apple upgraded their theft tracking. Not a bad thing, but obviously we have no way of fixing the issue if we do not know who owned the phone before us. The cynical side of me thinks this could be a ploy to encourage more people to purchase new phones rather than used phones....but let's not get into that. Best of luck to all of you in solving!

Just installed the new update on my iPad—18.3. Guess what happened when I opened it up after the install?!? I got the dreaded “This Device Is Already Associated With An Apple Account” pop-up message.

I was really hoping one of the bug fixes was going to be for this. Guess I’ll just wait until the 90 day mark, and see if it goes away then…

I have just upgraded my phone to IOS 18.3 in the hope that Apple had sorted this problem out as one of their ‘bug fixes’. No such luck, when I logged into my phone after completing this update the first thing that appeared was the annoying Apple account association notice. I have selected transfer for the umpteenth time but I’m not holding out any hope that this will be the last time I see it.

If this is an underhand way of trying to stop people buying refurbished IPhones then it’s worked. But, I won’t be buying another IPhone - I’ll be looking at a SAMSUNG or GOOGLE PIXEL.

Apple - sort this.

I purchased my iPad new from the Apple Store, and it’s plagued with this message so it’s not just affecting used/refurbed devices. But it makes me wonder if I was unknowingly sold a used iPad that apple passed off as new.