Still unable to turn on two-factor authentication even when the Set-up button is present

The 'Setup Two-Factor Authentication' button is present on both my Macbook running OS X El Capitan and iPhone 6S running iOS 9.0.2, but when I click on it on either device I get the message 'Two-factor authentication is not available for your Apple ID at this time'. Anyone else getting this. I thought the setup button only appears once it's available for you to set it up.

iPhone 6s, iOS 9.0.2

Posted on Oct 15, 2015 3:23 AM

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86 replies

Nov 6, 2015 3:54 AM in response to MattY78

MattY78 wrote:


Not yet for me. It would be interesting to see if they're just making it available based on surname or something arbitrary like that. Mine begins with Y so I could be waiting a while!

Must be something very arbitrary like astrological sign then, because my first and last names begin with very early letters of the alphabet. I still can't get it to work either.

Nov 23, 2015 8:11 AM in response to williamoconnor

Thanks, though I think most are aware of this. The original question was posted because that very article also originally stated that the button to set up 2FA would only appear once the feature is available for a user's Apple ID, but it is now appearing even when it's not. We're just speculating as to what the 'other criteria' might be, as thus far there doesn't seem to be any particular pattern.

Nov 23, 2015 9:55 AM in response to MattY78

My bad. I'm not too sure what the criteria is. I have an old account with a developer license, several devices from iPad, iPhones and Mac products on there and even though the option is in my iCloud settings I am not eligable at this time. My account region is Ireland.


My 2 cents would be that most the accounts I've seen that have it set up have been in the UK region.

Jan 27, 2016 4:03 AM in response to Cremo Cremo

Well I'll chip in my opinion for what it's worth. My partner never had two step verification turned on, and she never tried or attempted to turn two factor authentication on. However, when she recently got a new iPhone (only a 5S so nothing brand new like the 6S) it was turned on for her. She has a 2015 MacBook Air as well.

I've been trying to get it for months since the posts appeared on the Apple Support Forum. I have spoken to them on the phone before and I've currently got my 2SV turned off, my iPhone and iPad are running iOS 9.2 and 9.2.1 respectively (no jailbreak) and my MacBook Pro (2014) is running OS X El Capitan 10.11.3 so everything is updated. The button for turning on 2FA is in the settings on all of my devices, but it gives the error message that states that "Two factor authentication is not available."

I don't know why this is happening but think I will phone up Apple again today to see. It's annoying, I want 2FA but feel more wary when I don't have any two step/factor on; currently you need my password only, but I don't want to turn on 2SV only to further set back when I can turn on 2FA.


Oh, also the other thing that I noticed in Apple's support post was that you can continue to use 2SV instead of 2FA, hence why I think it has to be off in order to turn on 2FA.

Jan 27, 2016 9:13 AM in response to Milesjf

FWIW.

I at that point talked to 6 people who (every single one of them) had no idea how and why, but the had 2FA enabled. (5 US and 1 UK). Pretty sure neither had more then 2 apple devices.

All wanted to turn it off as soon as they found out. All but one did. Unfortunate one is still going through recovery process, she contacted Apple support, but they can't help, support says that there is specific process she has to follow and it says on apple id site that it is started and somebody at some point will let her know what to do. It also offers to restart that process again and she did twice. Disclaimer - I do not work for Apple. Opinion - this is as poor execution as it gets.

Feb 2, 2016 10:48 AM in response to Cremo Cremo

Same issue here Cremo Cremo, meet the criteria but still get the "two factor is not yet available for you ID"


looked under devices as well within iCloud security on my iMac and noticed my iMac and iPod touch has a message next to both saying "this device cannot receive verification codes"


I really am at a loss here. All apple reps Ive chatted to seem to think I should be able to get two factor now.

Mar 22, 2016 3:14 AM in response to alanplum

My wife has an iPhone and iPad and two factor issues two warnings when trying to enable it. First it says that not all devices may be eligible for two factor, but in fact both devices were updated to 9.3 in the general release today. So I continue and then it says there's not a valid credit card on file for her, yet she is listed as an adult under the family plan with me as the owner.


Any ideas on this? I had to re-enable two step until this is resolved.

Mar 22, 2016 3:19 AM in response to alanplum

alanplum wrote:


I got the first error about not all devices. I assumed this could have been my iCloud Control Panels, as when I uninstalled and reinstalled them, they now show under "My Devices"


Can't help with the second one as I do have a CC on file, so it worked fine for me

iCloud control panel? Is that on a mac? Not sure what you mean.

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Still unable to turn on two-factor authentication even when the Set-up button is present

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