Apple ID/iMessage/Facetime lost my iPhone number

Question

Level 1

10 points

Apple ID/iMessage/Facetime lost my iPhone number

My Apple ID is behaving strangely.

I have my ID set up to utilize 2-factor authentication. 2 days ago on my macbook air, iCloud, iMessage and Facetime all asked me to enter an app-specific password. I created 3 app-specific passwords and after numerous attempts, all were finally accepted by the respective application.

My problem now is that iMessage and Facetime no longer "see" my iPhone number. In the past, I could receive messages at either my phone number or my email address on my macbook. Since the app-specific passwords, only my email addresses appear in preferences.

Also, when this started, all multi-touch functions on my macbook air stopped working, even though they were selected in settings. After 3 shutdown/restart cycles, multi-touch is again working.

Any thoughts or ideas out there? Is it possible that my apple id is hacked/corrupted? Is it possible that I have a virus on my macbook?

Thanks for any help.

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.5), Apple ID

Posted on Sep 13, 2015 7:23 AM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Sep 13, 2015 1:05 PM in response to mgscuba2

To use a Mac effectively, you need to free yourself from the Windows mindset that every computer problem is caused by a "virus." A "virus" should be the last thing you suspect, not the first. This problem certainly has nothing to do with "viruses."

Did you enter the app-specific passwords on the phone? If not, do that. Otherwise, see below.

Link your phone number and Apple ID for use with FaceTime and iMessage

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Answer 2

mgscuba2 Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 13, 2015 3:58 PM in response to Linc Davis

Thanks Linc. My Apple ID and phone are linked and have been for quite some time. The app-specific passwords were entered on my phone, macbook and imac. All 3 devices "forgot" the passwords and I had to re-enter for icloud, facetime and imessage on each device. It's working normally now. The question remains, why did this happen? And why did my multi-touch fail and require 3 reboots?

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Sep 13, 2015 4:41 PM in response to mgscuba2

I don't have any way of knowing why something happened in the past. If it's working now, you don't need to do anything else.

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