Apple ID Disabled, Lost Recovery Key, No Access to Trusted Device

Question

Level 1

10 points

Apple ID Disabled, Lost Recovery Key, No Access to Trusted Device

My cousin gave me a White iPhone 4s. She had gotten a new one and gave me the old one.

I didnt need it at the time, but I played around with it sorta like an iPod touch for a while.

I made an Apple ID and turned on the Two Step Verification when I set the phone up.

After a few weeks I got bored with it and through it in a drawer. Now I would like to have it turned on and activated as I need a phone, its been months since I messed with it, but I am having some issue.

For starters I couldnt remember my @icloud account password, and after guessing too many times it was disabled for security reason. So I figured no problem I will just go unlock it, it seemed pretty straight forward. But when I enter the icloud account name, I have no idea what my recovery key is, and when I click on use a trusted device and current password (since I now remember the password), I notice the trusted device I had it connected to was my old phone which I dropped in the sink a few days ago and no longer works.

Sooo, I figured maybe restoring it to factory settings would fix all this mess.

I turn the phone off, put it into DFU mode and on iTunes I Click on Restore and Update, and it goes through the whole process and when its time to set the phone up, right after I oick the Language and Location, it says to connect to iTunes, so I do, and then it says "This phone s linked to an apple id (the one that is locked) but when I enter the user and pass (which I know is right now) it brings me back to having to unlock the account which I cant do since I dont have any of the needed stuff.

Is there anything I can do to fix this? I just want to restore it to factory settings and have it turned on and used as a phone. Thank you for any help.

iPhone 4S, iOS 9.3.5

Posted on Feb 10, 2017 1:59 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Michael Black

Level 10

80,286 points

Feb 11, 2017 1:42 PM in response to TBeThatguy

While 2-step verification is a very good security enhancement for your AppleID, you are stuck if you cannot remember the necessary information to recovery it.

Two-step verification for Apple ID - Apple Support

As mentioned in that document, to recover your account you will need to:

Remembering your password

Keeping your trusted devices physically secure

Keeping your Recovery Key in a safe place

If you lose access to two of these three items at the same time, you could be locked out of your Apple ID permanently.

Apple security personal cannot reset your account if it had 2-step verification and you've forgotten all three of those. As mentioned here - If you can't sign in with two-step verification using your Apple ID - Apple Support that AppleID will be permanently lost to you. All you can do is create a new AppleID which will require a different email address.

Reply

Answer 2

TBeThatguy Author

Level 1

10 points

Feb 11, 2017 1:42 PM in response to Michael Black

Okay, I dont have a problem with doing that. The Apple ID itself isnt very important to me. As I said all I used it for was music and games. I actually still have the trusted device associated with it, and I now remember the password but when I try to get the 4 digit code sent to my device I realized that when I typed in the phone number I got one number mixed up. Instead of the correct last four digits of my trusted device which is 7585, I accidentally put 7595.

So I have no issue making a new apple ID

But when I restore the iPhone, I plug it into my PC and then put it into DFU mode by holfin the power button and home button. Everything goes fine, then once it has finished and reconnects to iTunes, I get this.

So it brings me back to square one. Is the any way to un-link that apple ID? I cant get into the phone right now since its like in the middle of being restore, all I can do is select my language and country and then it tells me to connect to itunes, and when I do I get that message above.

Any way to get around this?

Thanks a bunch for the help so far guys.

I am completely new to Apple, this is the first Apple product Ive used so I dont know much at all about them.

Reply

Answer 3

Feb 11, 2017 1:42 PM in response to TBeThatguy

You are going to need your Recovery Key in order to re-enable your Apple ID. The support article for Two-Step clearly indicates that if you do not have two of the three required items (password, trusted device for verification code, recovery key), then you will no longer be able to use your Apple ID.

You can try talking to Apple Support about this, but there is no guarantee that they will be able to help you in this situation: ACCOUNT SECURITY SUPPORT

Best of luck,

GB

Reply

Answer 4

Feb 11, 2017 3:00 PM in response to TBeThatguy

Since you now have the Trusted Device, and the password, I would suggest contacting Apple Support to see if they can help you re-enable your Apple ID. You really don't want to create a new one if you don't have to (you may only have music and games as far as iTunes purchases, but what about your iCloud-sync'd data like Contacts, Calendars, Notes etc. would also be lost.

Try contacting Apple Support here and explain about your trusted device number being incorrect: ACCOUNT SECURITY SUPPORT

Best of luck,

GB

Reply

Answer 5

Feb 11, 2017 2:00 PM in response to TBeThatguy

You cannot bypass Activation Lock without being able to sign in to the iCloud ID, so the phone is useless to you if you can't find the recovery key or a device that can receive your authorization code. If you set up SMS as a way to receive the code it does not have to be the same physical phone, it just has to be a phone with the same phone number.

Reply

Answer 6

Feb 11, 2017 2:24 PM in response to TBeThatguy

I would say you are stuck. You need at least two of the critical three identifiers to recover an AppleID that has 2-step verification on it. You mis-typed the phone number, so there is no way to receive a code, and you've misplaced the recovery key. All you have is the password and that alone doesn't get your AppleID back.

If you have the original retail sales receipt or other proof of original purchase by you, you could bring it in to Apple and they may be able to help remove activation lock.

Reply