iPhone asking for random Apple ID passwords after restore

Question

Level 1

13 points

iPhone asking for random Apple ID passwords after restore

So yesterday my screen suddenly turned red and went fuzzy then the device went into recovery mode, luckily it doesn't seem like it was a hardware issue and I had a backup to iCloud from the night before that I used to restore.

As soon as the restore process began the iPhone began popping up boxes asking me to enter the passwords for Apple ID's that I've never even heard of or been associated with and this is still going on 12 hours later.

It popped up first asking me to enter the password for the Apple ID, then when I clicked cancel on that it asked me to enter the password for, then several others. I have never used or been associated with these e-mail addresses and a quick google search on them reveals that at least one of them belongs to someone far far away that I've never heard of or been associated with.

It's now been restoring for 12 hours and when I go into the iCloud settings on the iPhone it reports that it's still restoring from the backup and it keeps popping up boxes asking me for the passwords for these strange Apple IDs every few minutes.

I think I could probably stop it by killing the restore process but I don't want to do that unless it's complete. If it's only partially finished and waiting for these passwords to proceed I don't want to stop it since there's no option to resume from where you left off, you have to start all over again.

What is going on with this thing??

iPhone 4

Posted on Oct 28, 2011 6:32 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 16, 2012 3:13 PM in response to CMiYC

Do I pirate music if I convert my physical CD media into iTunes? Do a favor to yourself, and shut up.

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Answer 2

Nov 21, 2011 4:16 PM in response to Punter16

I had the same issue (not that particular email, though) and I was able to determine it was because there was something backed up to iCloud that was originally downloaded from iTunes with another apple id. When it tried to restore it to my phone it wanted the original password it was downloaded with. I didn't have the password so I went into the store, clicked on more in the bottom right hand corner, and then clicked on downloads. It showed all the music that was pending download onto my phone and I was able to delete it.

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Answer 3

Nov 24, 2011 2:40 PM in response to Punter16

Got the same thing when restoring my phone today. scdance@gmail.com. Poor guy. Never heard of him. According to Facebook, that email address belongs to some kid in Utah.... who likes to work out.

I got a replacement iPhone 4 from the Apple Store, which is likely a refurb. Anyone else have a similar story?

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Answer 4

Dec 10, 2011 3:30 AM in response to Punter16

Just purchased a new iPhone 4S and during the restore from iCloud, I've been receiving the same popup with scdance@gmail.com.

Is this a bug or a hack? If it's happening to all of us, I feel there is a cause for concern.

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Answer 5

Dec 16, 2011 4:22 AM in response to Punter16

I have same thing here on Ipod Touch: It's not a bug or something... If you have content (music, movies...) that someone else buyed on itunes and you're using it, it asks his password... Sometimes it goes away like that after clicking cancel so many times. Otherwise delete that content or try ressetting iphone/ipod as a new ipod.

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Answer 6

justin199

Level 2

260 points

Dec 16, 2011 4:38 AM in response to Punter16

Maybe this person in Utah is the reincarnation of Mr. Jobs. Maybe Apple will soon make a pilgrimage to Utah and show the kid some of Steve's former belongings and if he guesses correctly which ones belonged to him, they will appoint him the new CEO of Apple.

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Answer 7

Dec 16, 2011 4:56 AM in response to Punter16

Happened to my husbands phone. Went to Apple Store, spent an hour, they have never fixed the problem. Called his carrier too, no dice.

He just ignores it. He seems to be able to use the device anyway, it is just an annoying glitch for which apple has no answer.

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Answer 8

Punter16 Author

Level 1

13 points

Dec 16, 2011 6:08 AM in response to TijmenBrx

I understand that this normally happens when you have content on your device that was downloaded with another Apple ID, this is not the problem here.

The problem is that several of us in this thread, scattered all across the country, are receiving the popup asking for the password for scdance@gmail.com when restoring from iCloud as if there is content from this Apple ID on our device when in fact there isn't. None of us have any relation to, or any knowledge of, anyone with the Apple ID scdance@gmail.com.

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Answer 9

Dec 16, 2011 6:10 AM in response to Punter16

I can only assume this is the result of a glitch in one of the builds used to restore refurbished phones. Has anyone with the scdance@gmail.com problem had it on their original iPhone, bought from an Apple Store? Or is it all on phones that have been replaced by Apple?

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Answer 10

Dec 16, 2011 6:30 AM in response to Punter16

Look i had just same problem with an ID that i didn't know at all. I donwloaded (not on itunes) an album from Placebo, which was origanlly buyed in Itunes(i didn't know that first) and now after replacing content trough resync it asked me this password of a guy elliott03@gmail.com( kmward@roadrunner.com too and swiftgw@hotmail.com) which i don't know at all. Do you ever download music trough peers torrents? You can check too if you go in itunes store app on your iphone and then click more and then at bottom Downloads: all the songs there aren't from your account. Check this maybe you got some songs from others without you knowing it...

Oh and btw i had a replaced Ipod but it was on my first (before it crashed) too...

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Answer 11

Dec 16, 2011 6:30 AM in response to Punter16

Hasn't happened in a little while, but was happening quite frequently after getting a replacement phone from Apple and restoring from iCloud. Did not happen before the new phone or when backing up via USB before iCloud.

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Answer 12

Dec 22, 2011 8:34 AM in response to jacquelinesuzette

I went into iTunes Store on my device and cleared out all pending downloads. I even signed out of my own Apple ID, hard reset the phone and re-booted and tried to remove the content again(which wasn't there.) Still no luck.

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Answer 13

ProxxiM

Level 1

18 points

Jan 4, 2012 6:54 AM in response to Punter16

I think I fixed this problem by entering my own details instead of the asked details.

My iPhone was asking for other random and unknown mailadresses, though.

I have to say that the device is not fully recovered via iCloud yet, but I have faith!

If the problem still persists I'll let you guys know.

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Answer 14

Feb 19, 2012 7:57 AM in response to Punter16

I'm having the same problem - isn't this a breach of data protection? We can find out the owners of the previous Apple IDs showing up - for example, I typed one of these IDs into Google and it turns out someone I went to school with used to own this iPhone!

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Answer 15

yorchi

Level 1

0 points

Mar 12, 2012 4:30 PM in response to Punter16

The same thing just happened to me. After reading your posts and going through my phone, I believe this is happening on replacement units that had "Find My (iPhone/iPod/iPad)" enabled. Somehow the information of the previous owner is being retained on the Cloud. If you cancel the unkonwn Apple ID prompt and open "Find My (iPhone/iPod/iPad)" you'll notice that the Apple ID information is blank for that app. Sign in with your Apple ID.

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