alt Hacker NewsApple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help
Comments
> It holds terabytes of family photos
Why do people still do this, why??!? This is not an ignorant user! The author (and victim) has written several books about Apple tech, how do they not know that these "platforms" cannot be trusted with anything -- especially data that isn't backed up somewhere else!
Companies don't care about people, and the bigger they are the more evil they behave. They need to be treated like hostile business partners because that's what they are. They're only after money and absolutely nothing else.
This is not some radical leftist manifesto, it's the plain reality. And it's not new either. It's always been like this.
Seems like we need to popularise proper guides on how to convert our iCloud storage using self-hosted solutions. It's a shame though.
The modern trend of useless error messages, in cloud and no good way to talk to a human is really insidious
Most cases we see here do only lock the media side of accounts. It’s concerning this blocked the entire account.
Exactly for this reason I bought a NAS where I can backup all my photos that are normally saved directly into iCloud.
Has it been 12 months again already? That's about how often one of these stories come up. I guess some people don't learn.
If Apple doesn't have the sense to reply to this in a sensible manner then that company is in far worse shape than I thought.
This type of stuff makes me want to buy gold and guns.
About 11 months ago, this happened to my Apple account that I’ve used for over two decades, with purchases worth probably tens of thousands.
Apple Support told me these “decisions are taken in a higher department” and escalated me to tier 2, who insisted: “we’ve determined your account doesn’t meet the conditions to enable it.” Their suggestion was for me to create a new Apple account.
Then, three days later, my account was suddenly re-enabled; and it has worked perfectly ever since, as if nothing happened.
I hadn’t used gift cards in nearly a decade, so my guess (and this is pure speculation) is there must be other flags affecting older accounts.
The whole episode was utterly kafkaesque, and it’s made me much more cautious about relying too heavily on the whims of our private megacorp gatekeepers.
I probably shouldn't be surprised, but… so, you are saying, Apple can remotely brick YOUR device? For any reason, let alone "because of a mistake"? Heh, and I was considering to buy my first iPhone. I mean, seriously, I can only shrug at the fact that anybody accepts these terms at all.
Just talk to a lawyer, have the lawyer send a letter, there is no need to bang head against CS for escalation
A while ago we fixed people by killing them. I see the same pattern with account banning.
parisidau, I hope you get your account back.
you can in the meantime, and for the future, try compartmentalizing services you use. the old saying of "all eggs in one basket" applies here as well.
VPS, hard drives, etc. are cheap and keep you more in control of your own data than you're with big tech.
One lesson I'm taking away from this is never to buy or use Apple gift cards
I never understand why people put all their important stuff in one company.
Has OP tried emailing Tim Cook directly and pleading his case?
Pretty infuriating to see those chatbot responses. (The emoji -- and the particular choice of emoji -- were a very clear tell.)
This really sucks, I hope Apple sorts it out, I wonder what one can do to put pressure on Apple - I suspect you may need a lawyer to write them in order to get your issue escalated.
I don't like that people just shrug and say this is how all big tech is.
Apple charges a premium and built their brand name on customer service.
But they have stopped caring about the customer.
I was also a loyal Apple customer for 2 decades and used to recommend them to everyone.
Now I recommend them to no one.
I've switched my phone back to android a few years ago to avoid apple lock-in. I still use an ipad pro and several macs and peripherals, sets of airpods and apple tv and what not - then I wanted to buy the watch - and was told it cannot work with any of their tablets or computer and cannot be activated without an apple phone. OK apple.
One day my debit card expired while on long overseas travel, suddenly I was unable to install apps I already paid for on my mac and other devices, update any apps, or install free apps, I could not pay with a different card because those were in a different region and would have required a region switch locking me out of a lot of content and apps. So for several months I could not install many of my apps I bought on my other sevice or update or install free apps. OK Apple.
I also remember how the base config of Apple laptops were 8gb ram and 256gb SSD when all other decent ones were on 16 and 2tb - and remember apple is supposed to be a premium brand and they're supposed to not burn you with a default config. OK apple. Then they charge you 3 times more for the upgrade from 256gb ssd to 2tb than what 2tb costs retail. OK Apple.
I still love their tablets and laptops and even the mac mini. But I've already started to mentally prepare for a switch to Linux and maybe x86 or other hardware.
Apple cannot be trusted. They are a fashion company and not a tech company any more. Jobs is dead.
Plan your exit, reduce your exposure, soon they will be so evil and dysfunctional that you will regret it.
Don't trust them with your most valuable data. Use other services. Use a diverse mix of providers, no apple exclusivity. If you tie your entire life to one cloud, especially Apple, you have set yourself up for future ruin.
Their software quality and reliability is also slowly slipping. Everything is being dumbed down. Their business processes are becoming a broken maze. Apple used to be a company that aimed to satisfy simultaneously the power user and the basic user, now they only care about optimising for the casual user mass market, power user is going to have an increasingly tough time with them. Remember it is now a fashion company, watch their keynotes and believe the vapid image they project.
Given how Apple Music has completely fucked up my wife’s music collection, I can’t imagine them being able to unfuck your situation at all. So sorry.
You do not own your apple account, and you never did. I would take this as a chance to learn about digital sovereignty and self hosting where you control your own data so this never happens again.
Google and Apple can and will delete your content at any time for any reason and there is no appeals court.
Perhaps the most annoying thing about this, certainly after getting traction on HN, is that his account will be reinstated....
...and then nothing. No sorry, no "here's what went wrong", no blog post to address the angry masses, no recognition, reconciliation, or reformation. Just things working again and silence.
Sounds like something triggered a suspicious activity report. Not sure if it also applies to the likes of Apple but they’re forbidden from revealing any information about what caused it, etc with the customer or anyone.
Companies like apple should be liable to pay many millions in damages for this kind of shit. The people should make it hurt so much for them that they think twice before doing it without having a clear and working appeal process where you are clearly explained what happened and guided through it.
The real, foundational problem here is that we have abandoned the principles that made the internet. We don't care about open protocols, we accept walled gardens. Every day those walls get a little higher until eventually someone wins and the only thing that exists is the garden.
I don't know what the solution is, but I think part of it is deliberately divorcing yourself from the big players as much as you can, which isn't much for some people, and encouraging government efforts to break them up and pull down garden walls whenever the opportunity arises.
This is what government is for even if we've forgotten it in some places.
The OP is Australian and I've been recently reading of this scam that they may have fell victim of: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/937339
True nightmare :( hope to get resolved
This person has read literally dozens of stories just like theirs and just shrugged and said "couldn't be me".
Well, it can always be you.
A painful reminder that Apple's service is subject to terms.
Incidentally, the guy's .paris domain name may be next unless you are a resident or have a business related to the region of of Ile-de-France
Nightmare.
The stories of online-only service failures are legion. And yet if you can get face to face support, even one person can do so much. The gap is infuriating.
I didn’t notice, do you have a Brick and Mortar Apple Store you can visit? I can’t help thinking this as I read the post.
Of course this is not a physical hardware issue. Where a store employee could just hand you, say, a new phone. This is on the level of getting a slot on Tim Cook’s day planner, though I imagine the person with the ability to fix this is an underling many levels down Cook on the org chart.
As of data (photos, contacts, files etc.), you should have rights to request all that for download. GDPR etc that grants you that.
A good reminded to myself to do another GDPR request and download all my iCloud images to an external hard drive
This is disgusting and unconscionable conduct by Apple. Your whole life is locked into your account (digital data and physical devices), and they either don't care or don't have the processes in place to fix it.
This is the kind of thing they need to be sued on a massive scale for to solve but it's too rare and too expensive for anything to ever happen to them for it.
Email Tim Cook (serious)
I don't feel sorry for a person that heard all these stories before and didn't say a word, and continued to promoted Apple crap.
"I have contacts in Apple, I'm better than all those losers". Well you were, until you were not.
That emoji in the last pic felt like passive aggressiveness. I don’t have anything to say but it’s why I never put my eggs in one basket, and essential stuff are always backed up, but if your job is developing in an apple eco system and this scenario happens, it’s basically like getting fired and banned from working ever again!
No idea if this has ever been tried, but a GDPR "subject access request" requires a company to hand over all the data they hold on you, which technically should include all your photos, media, messages and everything.
This is one reason I moved to a cloud photos provider (Ente) with an automated continuous export feature so that everything can go to my NAS.
Also because I know big tech has no real customer support.
It’s no comfort to OP though and I feel very sorry for them.
I deeply sympathise with the author.
Nevertheless, the irony of this is overwhelming: a guy who spent his life promoting a company whose model is "we deeply control the products you use" gets burned by the fact they deeply control the products he's been using.
Come on Apple do the right thing here. Surely there are some people from Apple reading this in the comments
How utterly indifferent one needs to be to have no "VIP" support line for cases like this.
On the other hand, great learning case on putting eggs in one basket and on "own nothing and be happy".
These online storage services like iCloud and Google Drive are, and always have been, a trap.
They feel convenient, but they will keep changing their TOS to disadvantage you further and further as time goes on.
Everything you upload is scanned into their AI to create a profile about you that they can then exploit (once again, to your disadvantage). They do it despite regulations against it (Who's to say what they're complying with, deep in their complex data centers? Who's gonna even check? And how?) This is why online services that take control of your data are such gold mines (subscription fees, analytics, profiling, etc). They get you coming and going.
And of course, the account terminations: The earthquakes and "natural disasters" of the online world that destroy lives with no consequence or care.
When your data is not in your sole possession, you own nothing.
I've been locked from my apple id for two *months*.
Even though I:
- had my recovery password
- re-confirmed the email
- re-confirmed my phone
They just kept telling me "we'll contact you in two weeks", and kept not following.
Then after the 4th recovery they sent me my recovery link on email (in any case weeks later).
Worst of all? Their privacy and security they keep repeating like propaganda are beyond bogus. Sure, they de-logged me from all of my accounts, that I appreciate, but I had 0 issues accessing all of the contents on my hard drive if I was a thief with a simple script in recovery mode I could still access everything. Where's the security? Propaganda only non-technical normies believe and then repeat.
I'm never ever buying Apple products ever in my life, I've got MBPs that my clients send me, but that's it.
Being a "loyal customer" to any giant corp is just making it extra convenient for them when they fuck you.. You need your stuff as files on a computer you actually control.
A painful reminder that Apple's service is subject to terms.
Speaking of which, the guy's .paris domain name may be next unless he is a resident of Ile-de-France etc.......
hopefully he’ll get resolution by bringing his case to the “media”. Still, for someone who heavily presents the argument that he’s a professional writer and even says “I am asking for a human at Apple to review this case.” , I find it odd that he tries to make his case via an obviously ai-written post.
I mean, isn't writing what you said you do for a living?
I’d expect this crap from Google, but not Apple.
If this doesn’t get fixed, I’m going to have to rethink a lot of my digital life, including my company’s.
Now that this is on the Hacker News front page, surely Apple will be escalating this and provide a general solution, no?
I also got locked out of my Apple ID several years ago. I have the password but still can’t access it. I had to make a new one