Random prompts for someone else's Apple ID password after upgrade to iOS 5

Thanks for your help. Unfortunately I have the problem on my iPhone 4S but not my iPad and there's no option.

[100% Resolution Confirmation:]

Hi everyone, So I've had this same issue plaguing me on both my iPad & iPhone. But along with some of the helpful suggestions on this topic and in this thread I was able to completely fix both my iPad and iPhone. So I'm going to reiterate what’s been suggested and what I exactly did in order to fix my devices.

The Issue:

When you plug your iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch into your computer to add new music in which you downloaded off the internet, you get random prompts to sign in under emails/apple I.D.s you've never seen before. Plus certain songs you try to add to your device will not sync or actually download onto your iPod/iPhone/iPad. It will even appear that they have properly been added but they wont actually be there or else will show as grayed out when opening your Music application on your device.

The Reason why:

With iCloud now available and wireless backup possible...any songs that you didn't buy from iTunes and instead downloaded from a torrent (in which someone else across the world uploaded to the torrent after they purchased and downloaded it from iTunes) is what causes this Issue. As previously mentioned in this thread...when a song is purchased on iTunes then available to be seeded from your computer, anyone who has iCloud backup enabled and downloads the song will be prompted by iCloud to sign into the original purchasers Apple ID account. This is I guess another step in the fight against illegal downloads.

Resolution: (Works on all 3 devices. *Tested, Tried & True*)
Step #1.- On your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch... Go to Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup > iCloud Backup (Turn this Feature from 'On' to'Off') *Note* This does not mean that you still can't use iCloud to share your notes, photos, emails, Calendar between all of your devices. This can still be used and left activated. You just can't no longer Backup to iCloud.

Step #2. -Plug your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch into your computer and when it displays your device on the screen along with all the details on remaining space etc. Click the option that says 'Back up to this computer'. Make sure that your computer is no longer backing up to iCloud.

Step #3. -Delete/remove all your music from your iPhone/iPad/iPod and make sure that its completely clean of the 'Corrupted files' that are prompting you for an unknown Apple I.D. user. (This kind of ***** I know to remove all your music but believe me this will fix your Device! And you can always put all your music back on from your computer).

Step #4.- Now that you have cleaned your Device you want to back up/save all your Apps, Notes, Photos, etc. So in the bottom right hand corner click the button that saysSync. This will ensure that iTunes backs up all your important stuff (Apps, Photos, Notes etc) to the actual computer so you don't lose it all during this repair.

Step #5.- Once the Sync/Back up is complete you now have to click the option "Restore to original settings". This will bring your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch back to original factory settings but also run the newest update so your device will be current with the newest operating software. This restore will take upwards to 10 - 15minutes.

Step #6.- When the restore is complete you will be prompted on iTunes on whether you want to start as a new iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch or whether you want to restore the device from a previous computer back up. Please make sure that the back up you do has the correct date/time on it! When you choose the back up it will the current date & time that it was last backed up. Once you've found this allow it to sync and reinstall all your apps, photos, notes, etc.

Step #7.- Now you can re-add all your music & videos, providing that your iCloud Backup is still selected as 'Off' in the settings menu and your iTunes is 'Back up to your computer' and not 'Back up to iCloud'.

And there you have it...your device will no longer prompt you for the unknown Apple I.D.'s and all your music will properly add onto your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch!

As I mentioned this is a 100% guarantee fix, I just did this last night to both my iPhone4 and iPad 3. I hope this helps anyone out with this problem and provide a little less headache! If you have any questions please just reply to my post!

Take care!

Can I eventually turn my iCloud back on? Or will it cause the problem to return?

Hi Grant,

I have this same issue going on right now. Any chance you can explain the procedure to correct it in very basic terms?

Thank you,

Kevin

Hey Kevin:

In short, don't do iCloud back-ups or restores from iCloud.

If you have music from anyother place than iTunes - say downloaded from other websites / share sites - this seems to corrupt your iCloud. Real freaky.

Anyways, just plug in your iPhone into your computer, via iTunes, wipe it clean by hitting "Restore" button. But when it comes back - don't restore from a previous backup - if you do, what was once wrong, will be wrong again.

Or you can follow the LONG instructions below.

[100% Resolution Confirmation:]

Hi everyone, So I've had this same issue plaguing me on both my iPad & iPhone. But along with some of the helpful suggestions on this topic and in this thread I was able to completely fix both my iPad and iPhone. So I'm going to reiterate what’s been suggested and what I exactly did in order to fix my devices.

The Issue:

When you plug your iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch into your computer to add new music in which you downloaded off the internet, you get random prompts to sign in under emails/apple I.D.s you've never seen before. Plus certain songs you try to add to your device will not sync or actually download onto your iPod/iPhone/iPad. It will even appear that they have properly been added but they wont actually be there or else will show as grayed out when opening your Music application on your device.

The Reason why:

With iCloud now available and wireless backup possible...any songs that you didn't buy from iTunes and instead downloaded from a torrent (in which someone else across the world uploaded to the torrent after they purchased and downloaded it from iTunes) is what causes this Issue. As previously mentioned in this thread...when a song is purchased on iTunes then available to be seeded from your computer, anyone who has iCloud backup enabled and downloads the song will be prompted by iCloud to sign into the original purchasers Apple ID account. This is I guess another step in the fight against illegal downloads.

Resolution: (Works on all 3 devices. *Tested, Tried & True*)
Step #1.- On your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch... Go to Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup > iCloud Backup (Turn this Feature from 'On' to 'Off') *Note* This does not mean that you still can't use iCloud to share your notes, photos, emails, Calendar between all of your devices. This can still be used and left activated. You just can't no longer Backup to iCloud.

Step #2. -Plug your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch into your computer and when it displays your device on the screen along with all the details on remaining space etc. Click the option that says 'Back up to this computer'. Make sure that your computer is no longer backing up to iCloud.

Step #3. -Delete/remove all your music from your iPhone/iPad/iPod and make sure that its completely clean of the 'Corrupted files' that are prompting you for an unknown Apple I.D. user. (This kind of ***** I know to remove all your music but believe me this will fix your Device! And you can always put all your music back on from your computer).

Step #4.- Now that you have cleaned your Device you want to back up/save all your Apps, Notes, Photos, etc. So in the bottom right hand corner click the button that says Sync. This will ensure that iTunes backs up all your important stuff (Apps, Photos, Notes etc) to the actual computer so you don't lose it all during this repair.

Step #5.- Once the Sync/Back up is complete you now have to click the option "Restore to original settings". This will bring your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch back to original factory settings but also run the newest update so your device will be current with the newest operating software. This restore will take upwards to 10 - 15minutes.

Step #6.- When the restore is complete you will be prompted on iTunes on whether you want to start as a new iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch or whether you want to restore the device from a previous computer back up. Please make sure that the back up you do has the correct date/time on it! When you choose the back up it will the current date & time that it was last backed up. Once you've found this allow it to sync and reinstall all your apps, photos, notes, etc.

Step #7.- Now you can re-add all your music & videos, providing that your iCloud Backup is still selected as 'Off' in the settings menu and your iTunes is 'Back up to your computer' and not 'Back up to iCloud'.

And there you have it...your device will no longer prompt you for the unknown Apple I.D.'s and all your music will properly add onto your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch!

As I mentioned this is a 100% guarantee fix, I just did this last night to both my iPhone4 and iPad 3. I hope this helps anyone out with this problem and provide a little less headache! If you have any questions please just reply to my post!

Take care!

I had the same problem and found my own, extremely quick, fix. The above solution suggested by Grant-Dizer seems way too complicated for me.

As previously mentioned, the Apple IDs belong to the people who purchased some of the songs you downloaded in the iTunes Store. First, identify which songs are the ones that are affiliated with Apple IDs of other people. To do so, go to your media library and add the extra column "Kind". Next, rank all your media by this column. Scroll down to "Purchased AAC audio file". These are the songs that are giving you the Apple ID prompts.

Select all songs that are labeled "Purchased AAC audio file" under column "Kind". Right click and press "Create MP3 version". This will create a copy of the song but in MP3 format, clearing the song of any previous Apple ID information. The songs in MP3 format can be found in the same folder as your original songs.

Next, import all the newly created MP3s (one by one...) and delete their "Purchased AAC audio file" counterparts. Your new songs should now all carry the label "MPEG audio file".

Enjoy!

edit:

Importing the newly created MP3s may or may not be needed, in my case they were also automatically imported into iTunes. To see whether they are already imported, go to some of the songs that were giving you trouble and see if they show up in duplicate. If so, delete the one that is tagged "Purchased AAC audio file".

Just found the solution to this problem. I just did a restore from iCloud backup on my iPad 2 and it prompted twice for two seperate Apple ID's and neither were mine. I found out that I had downloaded some music albums that were associated with someone's Apple ID. When I did a backup of my iPad with those albums to the iCloud, it associated those files with the original person's Apple ID. To alleviate the problem, I deleted the albums from my devices and did another backup to iCloud....problem solved. It no longer asks for those ID's passwords. I would double check all music through your iTunes on your PC/Mac and highlight the song information and select "Get Info"...this will bring up a menu that will show a account name for the song or album. If this correlates to the same Apple ID prompt, just delete the files.

Your the only person making sense. It must be that. Finally, I can just ignore it. I will be able to sleep tongiht 😁

So I'm experiencing the same issue after a failed update to ios 6.1.3. I restored (stupidly) from iCloud and am now getting the prompts for someone elses Apple ID. After researching it, seems to be linked to music not purchase from iTunes.

But now, when I plug my iPhone 4 into iTunes, just a few songs are in iTunes. It looks like all of my music is still on my iPhone, but can't figure out how to get it back onto iTunes?

I did some playing around. I added the iCloud status to the columns: the music that remains on iTunes says purchased, and the music on the iphone says "waiting". 99% of my music was purchased on iTunes - so this is wrong.

Any suggestions?

Easiest Solution!!!!

After trying the majority of other solutions I found them too complicated or not applicable so here is the easiest solution I have found.

Step 1: Go to store.

Step 2; Turn off apple ID.

Step 3: Go to File/Devices/transfer purchases from Ipod/Iphone.

Step 4: After finishing the transfer it will explain what files it couldn't transfer and you can either just erase them automatically with the update or sign back into the apple store and authorise all the files to keep them. 😀

I just had to get my iPhone 4s replaced yesterday at the Apple store and I got 5 random Apple ID popups. I found the solution though. Go to the iTunes app and under More, there will be songs that are trying to download or paused. Just swipe and delete them and you won't get anymore random Apple ID popups.

I get this too! I get 3 random emails entered in 3 consectutive sign in window popups when I download an app. I've delted and signed in 3 times consecutively and that didn't work. Now I just hit cancel x3.

I'll try the signin and then sign out then back in to see if that works.

I think the problem is this.. if you have an m4a which was purchased by someone else using their own apple id from the itunes store, then their email id will pop up when that asset gets downloaded from icloud during the restore. This is a very nasty bug. Apple please FIX IT!

You can't manually erase the wrong ID.