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

Approve My Phone... I've bumped into this one several times, and I get more frustrated every time. Authenticating against other devices assumes that we have other devices available. That's not always possible or practical. Find a better solution, please.

I've been trying to do this for 3 months! I was trying to get an Apple Card to buy a new iPad, iPhone and mac book. I think Apple just convinced me to go w/ a PC and an Android phone. These software people are crazy I'm in 3 passwords deep and can't get my iPhone or Mac Book to approve each other, what a dumb way to spend hours of my life.

Me too. The clincher was when I found that once I had turned on Apple's multi-factor authentication I could never turn it off, so I would be faced with this problem forever.

My latest MacBook Pro recently failed and I replaced it with a Lenovo lightweight laptop. The Windows laptop works just fine and I haven't had to rebuild it yet following a security update. That was getting to be nearly a monthly occurrence with the Mac.

It's amazing how things change. The problems that encouraged me to leave PC and move to Mac have now made me change back.

AYFKM, Apple? The best answer you can give us here bears on "If you enter your iCloud Security Code incorrectly too many times?" How about *ZERO* TIMES? There was no prompt, no code, not ANYTHING that popped up after I dutifully went to open my other device and logged in to iCloud. And this was all supposedly set up and DONE, 24 hours ago when I reluctantly signed up for 2FA.

If this isn't absurd enough in itself, during the process of navigating to get Chat-help via iCloud, I had to 2FA-identify myself on my PC -- using a code that Apple sent TO MY LOCKED-DOWN iPhone. So Apple decides not to trust my iPhone until I can 2FA my way back into it - and then sends a code to that same phone to get me into iCloud...excellent security.

So now...my phone is in security-limbo, and when I try to back out, my only option is to "reset encrypted data," which offers the FAR less than comforting explanation that this will"...reset your end-to-end encrypted data to finish setting up iCloud." What the **** does THAT mean? Considering that it was Apple's in-house video that convinced me there was little downside to signing up for 2FA to begin with, 'resetting my encrypted data' sounds like jumping off a cliff.

30 minutes of Chat-delays, and they've got me going back to my 2FA-advisory email and following a link to turn it OFF.

2FA is apparently NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME. I'd never have signed up for it other than that it's required so as to back up my text messages to iCloud. AAAUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHH! Stop wasting our lives with these ill-tested security solutions!

That advice to "reset protected data" in order to approve a phone that cannot locate the approval method is a terrible instruction. I selected that option and got the message, "if continue with reset protected/encrypted data, you will delete all existing stored data in iCloud, including personal messages, passwords and stored items". Who the **** wants to do that in order to approve a phone to be able to access your stored data. This is a complete steaming mess!! I don't have time to waste on this silliness. Been messing with this for 2 days now trying to locate my contacts after getting a new phone. When I signed in to this community to look for answer to this issue, I had to choose another ID. Another stinking security layer from Apple. I chose "HatethisBS" as this community username, but that name was already taken by somebody else. Apparently, I'm not the only one who "hates this BS". Had to choose "Hatethissilliness" instead. I can't finish approving my phone in order to access my stored iCloud data, but the only way I can approve my phone is to wipe out all of my existing data. Great System. Really glad I paid $600 for this new phone plus all the monthly charges for data storage and usage. I didn't have enough aggravation in my life before, but I have more now. Thanks, Apple.

I was on a chat for 3 hours and had someone call me back with no answer. Apparently a pop-up is sopposed to happen. I had mentioned, that even on the APPLE page (this here) there are multiple complaints over a long span of time on how this is not fixed. The lady on the phone assured me that the developers look here and fix problems. Due to the multiple *This is happening to me too and all the 'help me, this doesn't work' and the 'I don't want to risk loosing all my information'. I am hoping that these developers really fix this problem. How many of you had a pop-up to approve another device? Me neither. They said I am the only one. I asked that they put a little button somewhere in the setting so you can approve your device by either clicking on it, or putting in your passcode again or something. It really makes me not want to upload the updates. Anyone else?

When *I* posted my rant here, there were well over 5000 people who'd already responded. Apple had no fix for this. 'Supervisor' cheerily took me through the process of un-doing my 2FA process, which was only possible because I'd set it up within the past 24 hours - but the whole affair still represents two hours of my life that I will never get back. Yet even after iOS updates, my iPhone is STILL nagging me to "Update Apple ID Settings," as if their left hand has no idea where they've stuck their right thumb. No effing way I'm going to try THAT again.

When this iPhone dies, I'll be in the market for an Android, primarily as a result of this dipshittery.

I really don't remember the process, except for a lot of little pop-ups, some that I had the right code or word, etc...for and some that only lead me to some other popup that I got so tired of trying that I gave up over a month ago or more. I have no more time to waste with this. I do back-ups on an external drive and hope for the best. When the pop-up reminder comes up, I click on view and then shut the page that comes up. That frees me from being bothered with it until next time I open my laptop.

I delete many many emails that come into my inbox saying I have this problem too.

I feel like part of the "me too" generation!

is there an apple help or support contact in the forum who could help us? how could we contact apple to help us?

We keep receiving continuous notifications on the device.

If not possible to approve the device is there at least a workaround to remove those popup, notifications and messages on the screen and lock screen?

Yes I tried wiping the device and it seemed to work for some time but then the issue appeared again... in addition with the reset I lost the data (passwords, home data, health data) -> To save the data the device needs to be approved first which bring us to the initial issue.

Let me know if the issue doesn't pop up again in a month and I might try again (if I have not moved to Android yet :)

Thanks!

I have switched from an iphone 5s to an xs. It keeps poping up "Update Apple ID Settings" when I click on "continue" and enter my Apple ID Password and click "sign in" it shows "Updating Apple ID settings" then pops up "Approve this iPhone Go to one of your other devices signed in to iCloud to approve this iPhone" and keeps spinning showing "Waiting for approval..." When I go into my iCloud I can not find anywhere to "Approve this iPhone"! How do I approve this iPhone from iCloud from another device?

Congratulations, you've joined a VERY popular club (well over 5000 when I got here months ago). Apple acknowledges the problem but is ignoring this. The best they could do for me was to talk me through un-doing the process, followed by my having to ignore that nag in perpetuity. If I had an easy/cheap option to switch back to Android, I'd take it.

Going through this today.

Apple really needs to get a clue about corporate environments. Absolutely no users ever have access to an admin account so requiring one is just an endless cycle. Infuriating. iCloud needs usability in these environments too.

Also, they need to provide more detailed options in ALL setups (not just "use Everything"/"use nothing" as the initial setup choice), and remember settings on the iCloud side for particular devices for when corporate IT pushes an update and all user settings are blanked.

got a new iphone.

asks for password everytime i open it the says approve this iphone . go to one of your other devices signed into icloud to approve tyhis i phone.

im on my computer, signed into i cloud. now what? been messing with this for days. ********!

What a wasted product. there is a cyclic dependency issue - can't believe looks like bunch of college kids wrote this program without any testing or quality assurance tests. Horrible -

All devices shows Approve this iphone - browser doesnt allow any option. The other stupidity is assumption that a person has one more device - wow - know what assume stands for - "*** of you and me" and I feel like this now.