Finding yourself unable to access your Apple ID account? You’re not alone. Some Apple users are finding themselves seemingly randomly locked out of their Apple ID accounts,and this is forcing them to reset their passwords and jump through hoops to try and get back into their account.
The real source of the issue has yet to be determined. When users are being signed out, they’re being told that it’s for security reasons — though it’s unclear exactly what those security reasons actually are. Then, when users try to sign back in by entering their password, they’re being told to verify their identity. Users on both Reddit and Twitter have been experiencing the issues, and Apple has yet to acknowledge the issue or offer a fix.
Currently, it seems as though the problem largely affects iPhone users — not Mac or Apple Watch users. Moreover, according to a report from Apple Insider, it seems as though users first started reporting the issue at around midnight Eastern time, so it’s possible that a bug of some kind was implemented around that time. It’s also possible the issue has something to do with an error in Apple’s security protocols, while another explanation would be that there’s a malicious actor involved, or some other kind of external issue unrelated to Apple’s practices in particular.
Apple Insider reportedly spoke to an anonymous Apple employee, who said that “at present, this doesn’t appear to be an Apple bug. Whatever it is, it is only impacting a minute percentage of our users.”
On Twitter, the Apple Support account is guiding users to a web page that explains how to proceed if you discover that your account is locked or disabled, but that article doesn’t seem to be helping users to avoid the cumbersome process of resetting their password to re-enter their account. Thankfully, after resetting their password, it seems as though post users are able to access their accounts again — but it’s still a step that users should not have to go through.
We’ve reached out to Apple for comment on the issue, and we will update this article if we hear back.
