You boot up your Apple device one day only to be confronted with a dialog box asking for your iCloud password. It’s been a while since you’ve entered it in. Writing it down was something that was on your to do list but never happened.
You entered the password a few times, or what you thought was the password and each time it was wrong. Unfortunately too many attempts were made and now there is an iCloud lock message on the screen. Nothing else can be done with your device until you reset your iCloud password.
I understand that this very situation happens to a lot of people. Just this past week a customer brought in their iPad Air. The iPad had an iCloud lock message on the screen and nothing else could be done with it. Why does this happen?
I spoke with the Apple security department about this issue. In order to combat theft and also to keep your devices more secure, they take strong measures on security. If the iCloud password cannot be entered correctly, then the customer has the option to reset their password. However, a user must first verify their identity. This measure is a strong deterrent against theft, but Apple doesn’t stop there. Once you call in to Apple having failed to enter in the correct password, security questions must be answered to prove that you are the account owner. You must then call back no earlier than eight hours later. The representative said that 24 hours after the next phone call, an email is sent out with a link to reset the password. You must click on that link within three hours of receiving it in your inbox. That’s three hours of it received by your email server, not three hours after having noticed it was there, so set your alarm. The link expires at the three hour mark, in which case you have to start all over again! Now one thing that you may not realize is that when you call in to Apple and verify your identity, you can add an email address that will receive the link that allows you to change your password.
What happened in this customer’s case is that the email that was associated with the account was never verified and their was no way to read emails without having logged in to that account, which was locked with an unknown password! Apple would not allow me, even as a technician, to do anything with the account unless they spoke with the account owner. A conference call was set up with the customer and Apple to reset the iCloud password. Then I was able to make the necessary changes in the account and the iPad itself.
Although this was all done at my location in Central Square, NY, I frequently travel to Syracuse as well as have customers bring their devices from Syracuse to here. If you need your computer password reset, whether it is an iPhone, iPad, laptop or desktop computer, contact me for an appointment, 315-676-9096.