Worrying bug is kicking people out of their Apple ID accounts – here’s everything you need to know
It appears that some Apple users are being logged out of their Apple ID on their devices for no apparent reason – and then get locked out of their accounts if they try to log in with their current passwords.
According to 9to5Mac, the issue has been ongoing since Friday, April 26 and is forcing users to reset their passwords despite entering the correct passwords to regain access to their accounts. This also poses a headache for users who have Stolen Device Protection enabled, as they need to be in a trusted location and have access to all their devices at once.
Users have taken to social media to report their experiences with this annoying bug, which seems to happen completely randomly. Twitter user @MaxWinebach posted that he was in the middle of a FaceTime call when he suddenly lost access to all his Apple products.
I was in the middle of FaceTime with @milesabovetech and my Apple account got locked and logged out of all my Apple products. Something’s happeningApril 26, 2024
a Mastodon user said they were told by an Apple Support member that “sometimes random security improvements are added to your account,” which may have led to the random boot. Still, it seems unlikely that this will affect that many users, and we can’t be sure of anything until we hear the official word from Apple itself.
So what do you do?
Overall, as an Apple user who regularly forgets passwords, I’m quite nervous about the prospect of being locked out of my beloved TikTok viewing device. Fortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any immediate reason to panic if this has happened to you (or like me, you’re anxiously waiting for it to happen to you). It could just be a harmless bug, and as far as we can tell so far, it doesn’t seem to be related to the recent bug phishing attack that could lock you out of your device.
What can you do to protect yourself from this bug? Honestly, not much. Since everything seemed to start on Friday, chances are you’re not bothered if it hasn’t happened to you yet. If you find yourself locked out, it seems all you have to do is reset your password and do the tedious task of logging into all your other Apple devices as well. While this is an annoying bug, it doesn’t seem too serious. Make sure that you do not reuse passwordsBut that’s a recipe for disaster.
We’ve reached out to Apple for comment and will update this article if an official statement is released.