How do I approve my phone on another device signed into iCloud?

Do you see the question "Can't approve this iPhone?" at the bottom of the "Approve this iPhone" screen? If so, then tap on that. You will get the option to "Reset Protected Data". Select that. It will reset any iCloud Keychain passwords, Home data, and Health data. It will also finish the approval for your device.

Best,

GB

This is the most annoying and inane process that Apple has failed to fully address! To fix this issue you just hit cancel, as the "Two-Factor-Authentication" is actually completed/approved! I spent hours linking device after device and following step-by-step instructions in detail until I wasted an additional 25 minutes sitting on hold over the phone while Apple "Geniuses" did their best to try and read from their support cards/help-sheets for better instructions. Their first answer was to hit the bottom link that is titled (Can't Approve This Device?) DO NOT CLICK and/or FOLLOW THIS PROMPT! It'll prompt you to follow steps of deleting encryption on device that will possibly erase iCloud stored photos, files, contacts, etc.

I refused, and stated this made absolutely no sense and I did not feel comfortable doing this at all! And that in doing so, it completely defeated the process of two factor all together as the soul purpose is an extra security feature to protect your info and/or help make third party Apps run correctly on your device such as G-Suite by Gmail etc. If I wanted to erase and not protect my personal photos etc, I wouldn't back them up to iCloud in the first place!

Finally the "Genius" came back with a great suggestion "that made total logical sense." Just hit cancel.' That it was in fact "already approved!" The "Genius" stated once you're done signing in to iCloud/following all steps it's done approving. Just ingnore the prompt and hit cancel.

Unfortunately for the majority of normal thinking individuals, following all steps including the "final" waiting/loading icon that appears for all of us in a never ending loading cycle; prompting us to "APPROVE Two Factor" is very stressful and doesn't make sense why it would do this if it's in fact already done! However we're just suppose to apparently assume that it is in fact actually done and just to hit cancel.

Reason I was given is that the stuck in limbo icon/process is due to (Keychain,) not TWO FACTOR, even though it's labeled ( TWO FACTOR). Also that it's a known issue that they have just failed to fix even though thousands of people if not millions have been extremely inconvenienced. "No Big deal!"

Long story short, hitting cancel to top left of icon box closes it, and it is setup. After doing so, I would recommend going into your iPhone and/or iPad settings and clicking at the top where your name/iCloud/Apple ID settings are, click

Password & Security. Then click under Two-Factor where it says Trusted Phone Numbers and add a secondary trusted number, to your already added number. This will help you down the road if you ever need to receive passcodes/verification codes but are actually unable to access your phone/device. Avoid this headache as much as possible!

Best of luck!

-iRie Vibes Odin

Method to sign in with same apple id and password in Mac and iOS ,

A message will appear in iOS your Apple ID is being used to sign in to a Mac book near …location . Two options will be shown allow , do not allow so click on allow .

An apple verification code will appear on iOS , enter this verification code on your Mac book , click on continue .

In your Mac it will prompt to enter admin password , so enter it and click on ok , the circle will rotate in Apple ID field , wait for a while a window will appear the boxes for use iCloud for your documents and data and use find my Mac boxes are checked by default so click on next and click on allow .

Both iOS and Mac are signed in with same Apple ID and password , the approval is completed .

RESET ENCRYPTED DATA MIGHT WORK. I have two iphones, an 8 and a SE. The SE got broken so I was trying to complete set up on the replacement SE. Like so many of us, I got stuck on this step because I couldn't figure out how to approve the phone. None of the suggested steps did anything. Then the 8 also started asking me to approve it on another device! Finally, I took the leap and used "can't approve this device?" and "reset encrypted data" on the 8. Once I did that the 8 went back to normal, and when I went back to the SE and the approval step this time I got a message on the 8 to approve the SE by entering my apple password on the 8 and it worked. I didn't need a passcode (I had never set a passcode on either phone). I didn't need a verification code.

I managed to approve my new iPhone.

In my case I have a new iPhone Xs and old iPhone 7. Of course, I got stuck with this stupid screen "waiting to be approved" and could not find a way to approve for a long time :(.

What I finally did was:

• on the new phone I went to settings -> your name -> sign out and I signed out from the apple id
• it told me that some data on the iPhone XS will be lost but I did not care since it is a new phone
• then I signed in on the new iPhone using my apple ID that I use also for iPhone 7
• and then a window popped up on iPhone 7 if I want to allow a new iphone to use my icloud and apple id.

And that is the way I approved my new iPhone Xs. I hope it works for others as well.

if more than a minute goes by and your phone is still spinning its wheels waiting for the apple gods to approve it, give up and move on to next phase: on your iphone click on can't approve iphone at bottom of spinning wheel screen. say yes.and yes and yes and yes... and in less than 30 seconds apple will have fixed everything for you from that magical icloud in the sky or the flying saucer in cupertino. And at a distance of at least 6 feet.

Apple support, 30 minutes in, resorted to coaching me back to my 2FA acknowledgement email (a day prior) to select the undo options. If you're still within some limited window, you can do that same thing, and that's what I'd recommend.

5000+ people posted here with this same issue - and that's clearly not everyone, just the people that came upon this particular link. Apple clearly should be doing better than this.

And it turns out that, if like me you turned on 2FA only because you wanted to back up your messages, and Apple tries to make you think that's the only way, well, my work IT department tells me it's possible just using iTunes (yeah, I'm no big fan of THAT dinosaur, either, but at least it's not going to lock me out of my iPhone...or so I hope.)

I did not notice before that you are using Windows. Two-Factor Authentication is available for Windows users under certain conditions. See Availability of two-factor authentication (2FA) for Apple ID https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205075 I think you are seeing an attempt to use 2FA. Assuming you can, have you set up 2FA on your computer?

So this issue have been here for more than a year if not more, I so feel for all of you have been so frustrated by this as I was too, I have been staring at the phone and computer for more than 8 hours. By LUCK, I was able to "approve this iPhone from other device". Here is what happened during this process: I did not see "approve" button anywhere for three hours, tried to log in to iCloud as it asked, as you all said/knew by now, there is no "approve" button anywhere while you are in iCloud. Absolutely FRUSTRATING. As OCD as I am , I just can't stop trying again again and again. after many times, I have no idea how the approve screen popped up on my other device(another phone that is signed in to the same appple ID) like one of the guys here said ( suggest to go to do something else for a little while and come back) and maybe it would happen. After the approve window popped up on my screen on my old phone, I typed in the apple ID password and clicked " Approve", guess what happened? NOTHING HAPPENED! here I'm again trying type in the password, and clicked "back" arrow on the new phone I was trying to set up - the one stuck on the " Approve this iPhone from other device" , so it would start the "setting up apple ID" process over. I tried about 7 or 8 times ( after I input the password , nothing happened). Then I saw my old phone is in an older version since I haven't been using it for a while, I decided to update the phone, hope it would help. And it probably did, because on my first try after updating the old phone, the "approve" window popped up again, it worked.

I'm so sorry this have to be the way we resolve this. Really- Apple? !!

I hope I explained myself clearly. it's 4:20Am here, after 8 hours trying, I may not be in a clear mind to describe all this :)

Reviews have helped me so many times before, so I decide to write one in hopes to help somebody, at lease you know many people had trouble with this issue.

On the Approve this iphone screen, at the bottom it says 'can't approve this iphone' Click that and reset encrypted data. That will fix the problem.

See these Apple Documents on Two-Factor Authentication and the quoted information from each below.

Two-factor authentication for Apple ID https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204915See this section especially Set

up two-factor authentication for your Apple ID

Get a verification code and sign in with two-factor authentication https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204974

“Whenever you sign in with your Apple ID on a new device or browser, you'll confirm your identity with your password plus a six-digit verification code. There are a few ways you can get a verification code. You can use the code displayed on your trusted device, get a text or phone call, or generate a code from your trusted device.” ...

“If you can’t sign in, reset your password, or receive verification codes, you can request account recovery to regain access to your account. Account recovery might take a few days or longer, depending on the specific account information you can provide to verify your identity.

Before beginning account recovery see:

If you didn't receive your verification or reset email https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201455

“Not sure where that email was sent? Here are some tips to help you find it.”

Hi Yellowrose,

Thanks a lot for posting your question on Apple Support Community.

There are 3 ways to approve an iPhone from another device:

1. Through another iPhone or iPad
2. Through Your Mac and
3. Using Two Factor Authentication.

This will help you to approve your iPhone: https://www.answerslave.com/approve-iphone-mac-solved/

I left the message of "go to another device signed into iCloud" and approve this device open and spinning while I was trying to update my mini iPad. I tried using my phone and signed into my i Cloud account and nothing popped up. I took out my laptop and signed into my icloud account on it and started reading support answers. Literally 10 minutes or more, all of a sudden, the message popped up on my phone about another device wanted to be approved and I had to enter my Apple ID and click "approve" and I was finally able to get into my mini iPad accounts. So my answers is maybe, walk away and do something else while you patiently wait for the other device to receive the message. Not a great way to have to handle this situation and very little instruction on the device as to how to handle it. But it did finally work!

I reset the end to end encryption. I didn’t lose any data or messages, though there is risk of that. YMMV

Check the bottom link that says "Can't Approve this device" the keychain encryption will reset. No more annoying message!!