How long did it take to recover your apple id?

Wow, glad I found this. Hear me out: Ok so my iPhone 6s died completely so I bought just a 6 ('cause I never used or cared for the extra fancy stuff). So I get my new 6 and get it setup. And it's asking for the verification code. And it's texting the dead phone. So I tried to get a text to the new phone. I heard the "ding" but saw no message. And I tried calling. The automated voice stopped talking right before giving the code. I saw it was hung up. Darn. After a few more attempts, I was told to "try again later". Oh yey here comes the fun. Glad I was off work today. So I made a temporary Apple ID in the meantime so I could text and receive calls (but didn't download apps). Waited 2 hours. Tried again with the code and it said "try again later". Waited 4 hours. Tried again with the code and it said "try again later". Ugh! I was able to back up my phone from an old iTunes backup from a few months ago. I kept getting the "enter Apple ID" and "enter ID for iTunes" and kept hitting cancel 50 times in a row to make it stop. I was complaining to my mom the whole time who swears never to support Apple in her life from now on. So I finally called Apple and they said I would have to wait a few days for the security team to get my info recovered. So I found this thread. Tried a few ideas. So I logged on my iPhone with my temporary Apple ID and then read a comment about logging into iCloud successfully with the bad ID. Well it worked! I logged on and got a text for the verification code!! And it didn't try to say "try again later"!!! So I updated my iCloud settings to turn off the 2 step verification process (in case this happens in the future) and I'll stick with the 3 security questions. I have all my data on my Windows 10 (pics and documents) and then my iPhone is backing up as we speak. Somehow my account was unlocked right after the phone call to Apple. Thank goodness. I had no idea Apple could be such a headache! Maybe my idea will help someone as the previous helped me. Good luck!

Going on 13 days with my wife being completely locked out of her phone. I have four children at home, including a 11 month old baby. Apple doesn't care that my wife has no access to the outside world in case their was an emergency. She had a flat tire and couldn't reach me. I had to go out of town for business and she had no access to a phone. I had food poisoning while I was gone and almost had to go to the hospital, no one could of reached her. I called Apple several times and you get that corporate run around..."I can't do anything for you." bit. Everybody had a different answer, but in the end the black hole of account recovery is beyond my comprehension. You have my wife's finger print, I have the receipt and the original box, you can see her account was linked to mine my through family sharing and Itunes Match, but you are telling me that I will maybe get a call after two weeks?! For you to hold my family hostage and put my wife and kids at risk with no way to speed up the process is beyond shameful. I seriously won't buy an apple device again. They are so out of touch with their customers. I guess it's going to take someone not reaching a love one in a time of emergency and it makes the news before Apple wakes up to their corporate malaise. Could you imagine Tim Cook's wife being locked out for two weeks and him not being able to talk to his wife or kids with no end in sight? If you can't imagine a new way of doing things...nothing will ever change.

Crazy, what I don't understand is that you can have ALL forms of verification - credit card, sms backup number, secret question, and you still cant get back in. I just do not know why it is not an automated process. As an IT person with 23 years experience I have never seen anything like this

exactly! I even offered to go down to the apple store with my wife and show her Social Security Card and ID, they said that wouldn't help. I have her iphone on "find my iphone" on my phone, as well as show them her apple id is tied to our family purchases...I just can't wrap my head around how I got involved with a company that can literally keep you from talking for your family for weeks...

This is ridiculous. I submitted my request over 7 days ago and Ive not gotten a peep from Apple. I have a macbookpro, an ipad, and an iphone on the same icloud id. I would think that one of them could be trusted for resetting the password. Like the other users here the constant automatic login that stays logged in means I too forgot the password. As a programmer I can think of a lot of ways, that may or may not have merit, in which a remote unlock process could be done. For instance,

1. With the associated macbookpro I have why cant the unlock password I use daily be linked to the icloud password??? At least that way we remember it because we unlock daily. Or that can be one reset security question.

2. How about 5 security questions that the user writes that only they have the answer to?? In my life time there are dozens of old addresses and phone numbers and people and events that only I would know that could automate the unlocking process.

3. The MAC/Wifi ID of one or two of the other associated devices I use (uploaded to apple)?

4. The name of my home wifi (uploaded to apple)?

5. An alternative Two step authentication that uses some known public data index that only I know which one because I picked it at set up (what was yesterdays dow industrial close, or the ftse, or Brent North Sea crude for example). Sure I have to go look it up but I know WHICH one to look up.

6. Maybe show me 7 random photos and ask me to identify which 3 came from my icloud. Or which one of the 7 did not come from it.

7. A designated email or phone only I know that could receive an unlock code (my work voice mail, my parents phone)

The must infurating part is it says "Account recovery will take a few days. You can check the status of your request at iforgot.apple.com" yet every time I step all the way back thru the process there is no update. Maybe make something with a temp login and password that we can use to see our case's status? Also, the associated credit, an outdated one that Apple never prompted me to update, wasnt good enough? Fortunately I still have the canceled card but that wasnt good enough.

I certainly hope this can get resolved soon.

There are many ways for email recovery and Apples is idiotic. My credit cards are easier.. that makes no sense...

I lost my phone on Tuesday and my password was on it. I try to reset it and it said a few days. So my phone is missing but I can`t use "find my phone" for a few days!! You have to sign in so many times it beyond frustrating,

But I called Apple Support and the guy helped me. He was great and I had dropped it in a bag in my house. I may have never realized it.

Someone made an executive decision without considering the consequences.

Is anyone from Apple ever going to answer this? Email me back? Send the Recovery instructions to my iphone number like it said it would? It's been three weeks! I have alternate emails in there as well as access to this one. Please email me the instructions so I can reset my password and recover my account.

Please!

Look at this! My daughter has been having problems with her phone and memory. Her apple id constantly has been causing her problems. She tried to change it again but this time she was locked out. This email came on August 4th. She is completely without her phone. This is UNACCEPTABLE APPLE! A MONTH to recover. What are you not sharing with the public?

I was locked out sometime in late June. You can be thankful that at the very least, you received a date WHEN your account will be recovered. When I requested account recovery in late June, I ONLY received a confirmation email from Apple. No Date was given. This is something new that Apple only started doing recently. Regardless, If you account IS in fact locked, your aggravation IS in fact futile. This is a TOTALLY automated process. NO humans can affect the speed as to which this happens no matter who you talk to. Long story short, It took me 4 weeks to have my account recovered. One day, at 1:58 in the morning mind you, there it was, The email that I had been waiting for so long. All I had to do after that was sign in using my Apple ID and create a new password and I was good to go. It works great once it happens, took 4 weeks for me. I hope you have a quicker turnaround than I did. Without ANY doubt, one of the most frustrating experiences of my entire life.

I know this thread is fairly old but I am currently having the same issue. I was trying to access my App Store to download something and was prompted for my password (no biggie, it does that sometimes) but then after I entered my password, it said that my AppleID has been disabled. I have no idea why or when this happened. I follow the steps on iforgot and still have not received my code or whatever it is that I need to have my account recovered or unlocked. I dont know if this is the same issue that you all had but I am beyond frustrated! I cant chat with an Apple Support rep because it does not give me the option online and I cant call-- I am a full time college student with 12 hour school days and work every other day that I am not at school.. I also have a child and a family to take care of. My schedule is pretty tight... I just want to be able to use my apps on my 10 min break between classes

i requested mine when i thought my iphone was hacked since my phone wouldn't turn on and got corrupted, i sent a request in and had to wait 4 days to apply, i got it monday and was told to wait 28 days, currently it's friday and i'm still supposed to be waiting 28 days, the worst thing is that i called them and asked for them to cancel the process and they can't cancel it because once it starts they can't stop it, i also remembered the password, i should be able to enter my password to get back into it, this has literally been my only issue with an apple device.

I've been trying since Aug 4 when the phone was stolen. It was actually recovered by the police (after serving Apple with a subpoena to get data since that date) but I am no further ahead. Also have the same issue of the trusted number being that phone number which is now tied to a different IMEI number (since I replaced it after it was stolen). So going on over 7 weeks and this iforgot recovery is one messed up, non-working process. Have tried to escalate with Apple but that hasn't produced any results. A number of times when you initiate the iforgot recovery process, it'll say we'll send instructions to the trusted number. They don't arrive. Online it has given a date after 24 hours (2 weeks later) but inevitably a week or so into that, it's just gone and you have to start it again. You do it again, or you wait a while because you're so sick of wasting your time, and that's how you end up over 7 weeks later no further ahead than when you first started.

it took about 20 hours just to find out that it would take 5 days to get instructions on how i would recover my Apple ID , once i seen that i wasn’t going for that and going to wait that long to get access back into my iCloud account and since i didn’t have access to get the code because it was getting sent to my old phone # i then decide to call my phone company sprint and after being on the phone with the nice assistant helping me she was able retrieve my old phone # and change it back to that number i was able to access my Apple ID because the code got sent to that number and that’s how i retrieve my iCloud! And I didn’t have to wait for the account recovery as I would have if didn’t do that.

And once I got IN i turn the two step vertication OFF and decided to just use the 3 security questions being asked to get back into iCloud it’s the easiest way & Fastest way to get back into your iCloud account. Make sure you write your answers down or use simple answers to remember it’s not hard questions that you would forget the answers to and I also changed my Apple ID password ! So I suggest the ONLY way to access your Apple ID is to try to get your old phone number back to get your code so you don’t hve to wait for the recovery process because like I stated above it takes about 20 hours just for apple to tell you on that it will take 5 days or more to get instructions on how to recover your iCloud ! Also don’t forget to change the phone number so it’s easier for you to get the code again if this happens again Which is so STRESSFUL and ANNOYING so i know EXACTLY how your feeling right now that’s why I’m writing my experience with this whole can’t get into iCloud and having to deal with the stupid Recovery Progress ******** Apple isn’t helpful at ALL in this situation so hopefully my advice can make it easier for you to gain access to your account ! Wish you the best of luck if your dealing with this issue And Also Don’t forget to turn the two step verification OFF so this NEVER happens to you again

Thank you SO much! This helped me get back into my Apple ID. It worked instantly. TT_TT

For me, I had been locked out of my Apple ID, and my phone had been disabled. It is my only Apple device. First, I had to go the Apple Store to get that sorted. Fortunately, they were able to at least get me back into my iPhone, since I had brought my proof of purchase with me. Then I tried account recovery, but I never got the second text with the information about how to actually recover the account. I even had my phone off during the entire period.

I tried your advice just now and am typing this post while FINALLY logged in to my Apple ID. THANK YOU!

Just like in AoiHikage's post, I went through account recovery and entered my phone number. When it gave the option to either use a phone number or a trusted device, I chose "trusted device", and I instantly got a message on my phone asking me if I wanted to allow my Apple ID to be unlocked. I said "Allow", entered my pin, set a new password, and I'm back in.

Again, THANK YOU!

I hope this confirmation can help others.

How long did it take you to reset your password and how was it resolved. This is the most ridiculous process I have ever seen for resetting a password. Especially when the phone is still available to receive messages. I am getting a message that says up to 11 days.