I’ve run across a recurring problem with clients in which older devices will ask for iCloud passwords over and over again, and the prompts won’t stop coming despite the user entering the correct one multiple times. They’re seeing something like this:
And if they click “iCloud Preferences” on that box, it’ll take them to a place where they get stuck in a never-ending loop of typing in the right password.
The tool wants users to enter the email address related to the iCloud account before anyone tries to gain access. So a way to make your iCloud account before secure is to use an email that hasn’t been shared online. How to use the tool to hack iCloud password. The tool use a list with 500 most used passwords to hack the iCloud account. My problem is similar, but not the same. I use an icloud account to log into my Mac. The password for logging in and my icloud were the same. I changed my icloud.
Or they’ll enter the password, it’ll seem to accept it, but then it’ll pop up the same dialog box again in five minutes or after a reboot. Annoying!
A possible cause for this—and a particularly frustrating one—is that the user has enabled two-factor authentication for his Apple ID using an up-to-date device (one running at least El Capitan or iOS 9, as Apple points out here), leaving his older, less updated devices out in the cold. Which doesn’t mean you can’t get this working, understand, but it’s not exactly clear how because your devices won’t tell you! I feel like this is a pretty big, upsetting mistake on Apple’s part, especially considering how hard they’re pushing for everyone to turn on two-factor authentication. I think that service is awesome, of course, and it’s great for security—that is, as long as your older devices don’t ask and ask and ASK for your passwords without letting you know why they won’t work.
OK, rant over.
Anyhow, one way you can fix this is as follows: Reboot your older device (a Mac running Yosemite or whatever), and then when you see the password prompt, try entering the correct one once. This should send a familiar notification to your newer devices that someone is trying to log in, like so:
Click “Allow” on your up-to-date device, then note the six-digit code you’ll need to authorize the older one.
On the older device, you’ll then type in the Apple ID password followed by the code you’ve been given with no spaces in between. So if your password is “password,” you’d type in “password725901” if you had my code shown above, for example. Your older device should then accept the password, and away you go.
Of course, if your older Mac, iPhone, or iPad never sends any kind of prompt to your newer devices, then you’re in a bit of a pickle. You could try signing out of iCloud within System Preferences and signing back in. Or you could attempt to generate and use a security code from a newer device, which I’ve written about before. In any case, though, this may just mean you can keep on using that Yosemite iMac without getting constantly bombarded with requests for your password. A user can dream, right?
Published 5:10 PM EDT Jul 19, 2017
Q. Why do my Apple devices keep asking for my Apple ID password at random moments?
A. You can forgive Apple for an abundance of caution with your Apple ID — the universal login to such services as the App Store, iCloud, iTunes and FaceTime. But the seemingly random way this system can pop up a nag for your password can yield some head-scratching moments.
Rich Mogull, CEO of the cloud-security firm Securosis, outlined two possible causes. The first involves constant nags for your Apple ID and password, which he said often involve “a bad download of some sort” that gets the App Store stuck, though sometimes iCloud’s mail can lead to the same login loop.
In that situation, he advised — yes, you’ve heard this before — rebooting the stuck device.
The second, less frequent and less predictable password nag, Mogull said, looked to him like Apple watching for suspicious activity and then requesting new logins just in case.
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“I noticed an uptick in these kinds of requests a few years ago when iTunes fraud started becoming a bigger concern,” he wrote. He compared that to the way other fraud-management systems at banks will require a new login “if they detect some sort of unusual activity on your account.”
Joe Kissell, author of the book Take Control of iCloud, made a similar observation.
“I believe it’s not a matter of something going wrong, so much as Apple using some mysterious, inscrutable logic to determine when they should ask people for their passwords,” he wrote in an email. “I think it’s happening intentionally, just not for reasons ordinary mortals like us can discern.”
Apple declined comment.
In either case, this is a problem Apple needs to solve. And not just only because of the time it costs Apple’s users. A system that constantly asks users for their passwords in situations, such as an iOS device’s Settings app, that don’t allow the use of a password manager will encourage those users to choose the simplest, most easily-remembered password possible.
Apple’s rules — “a minimum of 8 characters, a number, an uppercase letter, and a lowercase letter” — are fairly strict, but cranky users are careless users and will seek the simplest way to meet them.
And if they don’t have two-factor authentication set up to protect their account, in which they confirm strange logins via one-time codes or push notifications to one of their devices, a password easy enough to enter constantly can also be easy to guess.
Considering all the hats an Apple ID must wear, from purchasing music at iTunes to helping you locate and, if necessary, remotely wipe a lost iPhone, that’s a serious risk. If you haven’t already enabled Apple’s two-factor authentication, please do that before you even think about any simplification of your password. It’s not hard to set up and, at least in my experience, it’s asked me to verify a login far less often than Apple has demanded my Apple ID password itself.
(There is one confusing wrinkle on devices running old versions of iOS that we’ve seen trip up Apple users: When you get that one-time code, you won’t see a separate dialog to enter it and instead you’re supposed to append those digits to your password, without a space in between.)
Rob Pegoraro is a tech writer based out of Washington, D.C. To submit a tech question, e-mail Rob at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/robpegoraro.
Published 5:10 PM EDT Jul 19, 2017