14 days to unlock my fathers Apple ID

Question

14 days to unlock my fathers Apple ID

It is going to take 14 days to unlock my father's Apple ID, does anyone else feel that this is ridiculous? The stated reason is due to the 2-factor authentication. Google, Yahoo, Amazon, and my bank all have two factor authentication and I have been able to recover my password within minutes not days. What new technology has taken Apple so far backwards? Lucky for my father he is elderly and does not require his phone like I do. However, this has made me seriously consider moving myself and family to an Android, because as someone who needs my phone daily for work, I could not afford to be offline for 14 days. As you can see from the image, we are now 5 days into the waiting process. After numerous help desk calls and a trip to the Apple Store, the word is, yes, this 14 day waiting period is a real thing. Anyway, thought other people who work may like to know that this could happen to you too.

I know there are links with instructions to recover immediately, however, all lead back to this screen. This has been confirmed on Iphone, Ipad, Apple Laptop, and Windows laptop. It was also confirmed by the help desk....Case Number: ************.

Hope others take care when using Apple's two factor authentication.

[Personal Information Edited by Host]

iPhone 5s, iOS 11.3

Posted on Apr 17, 2018 1:29 PM

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Answer 1

Apr 18, 2018 7:32 AM in response to Michael Black

That is good Michael that you technically savvy enough to take care of your passwords that way, however, not everyone has those skills (especially and 83 year old like my father).

The fact that Google, Yahoo, Amazon, and every other company that offers two factor authentication have figured out a way to quickly recover a password (while still maintaining security), it is funny that someone would support a 14 day waiting period. All a policy like this does, is cause people to go turn off the two factor authentication which is what the help desk agent suggested once the 14 day waiting period is over. He said we just have to wait the 14 days at which time the system automatically resets the account. If the end result is an automatic reset, I am really not sure how you can believe that makes it more secure? Maybe more inconvenient, but not more secure. If the phone was stolen, etc. which we have already proved it is not, I am really not sure why a company like Apple, would want to frustrate their customers, especially when there are other really good (arguably better) competing products. Apple is failing in a big way in one of the three pillars of Security (Confidentiality, Integrity and Accessibility - Known as the CIA Triad). They have taken away the accessibility from the device even when my dad has proved who he is by physically going to both Verizon and the Apple store. If you still think this is a good policy, I hope you are not a policy maker within Apple because you clearly are misguided and will not be doing the Apple customers any service.

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Answer 2

Apr 18, 2018 8:15 AM in response to IdrisSeabright

The funny think Michael, is when you go through the steps to recover, they call him and he is able to answer the call and received the code. However, even after putting in the number received, it is not unlocking the account. Personally, I think they have a bug...because they have instructions for recovering immediately that are being followed, but after performing the steps the process ends up back at the start again.

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Answer 3

Apr 17, 2018 6:27 PM in response to wesfromtorrance

wesfromtorrance wrote:

Hope others take care when using Apple's two factor authentication.

[Personal Information Edited by Host]

Yes, many of us do. I keep my passwords in iCloud keychain, sync’d to my 4 personal Apple devices. As well, I keep a separate copy of all passwords in mSecure (although moving to the open source KeePass standard soon) which is in turn sync’d across all four devices. I also have an independent SMS capable telephone number associated with my account (google voice number) so can always get codes even if without any of my Apple devices.

There is little point in having strong account security features if they can be simply reset or over-ridden. It shouldn’t be easy to recover an account. Easy and convenient are the complete antithesis of secure.

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Answer 4

Apr 18, 2018 8:06 AM in response to wesfromtorrance

There is very little “tech savvy” involved in using one of the many commercial password managers available. Nor does it take an advanced degree to setup and have ready a backup SMS number for authentication codes.

And every single other company you mention - Google, Yahoo, Amazon, have experienced many account compromises so they are hardly the paragons of internet account security you seem to think they are.

Anyone posting here who is an employee of Apple will be very clearly identified as such. Most of us are nothing more than Apple product users like you and your father.

I have no idea why an account recovery takes as long as it does, and from posts here it clearly varies greatly. Yours is going to take as long as it takes. If you have issues with that, you need to be talking to Apple, not posting here where nobody has any inside knowledge of Apple’s policies or procedures, and no way to alter them either.

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Answer 5

Apr 18, 2018 8:10 AM in response to Michael Black

Michael Black wrote:

I also have an independent SMS capable telephone number associated with my account (google voice number) so can always get codes even if without any of my Apple devices.

How could I never have thought of doing that? Brilliant.

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Answer 6

Apr 18, 2018 8:20 AM in response to wesfromtorrance

wesfromtorrance wrote:

The funny think Michael, is when you go through the steps to recover, they call him and he is able to answer the call and received the code. However, even after putting in the number received, it is not unlocking the account. Personally, I think they have a bug...because they have instructions for recovering immediately that are being followed, but after performing the steps the process ends up back at the start again.

I'm not Michael.

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Answer 7

askbarnabas

Level 10

103,499 points

Apr 17, 2018 5:28 PM in response to wesfromtorrance

Is there a technical problem we (fellow users and not Apple) can help you with?

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14 days to unlock my fathers Apple ID

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