I have an old 7 plus that I’ve decided to sell (downsizing) but I haven’t used it in a few years and have no idea what the Apple ID password was. So that means I can’t turn off find my to wipe it so I can sell it. I’ve tried selecting forgot password through both the settings and at iforgot.apple.com but it just sends me an OTP which I need to reset it. Problem is it sends the code to the email associated with the account which is an iCloud email and of course I can’t access the iCloud email to get the code to reset the password because I can’t sign into iCloud without the @!,$;:/ password! Am I stupid or was this system designed by a sadist? How on earth do you fix this if it seems you’re locked out at every turn?

Hi. We forgot my wife’s both Apple ID password and passcode of the iPhone.

When we tried to unlock the phone, we tried 9 times. One more time and it’ll lock itself out.

We needed to see if the photos and text messages has been saved up in iCloud. So we tried to login to her Apple ID again. She doesn’t remember it as well.

When we tried to reset the password, it asks us to put passcode of her iPhone, but we don’t remember it.

How can we solve this?

Edit: Ive since been able to get my Apple ID reset, so this post is no longer relevant 😅 to sum up what happened, after 4 people from Apple support and a whole month (2 weeks from the og post date) after this whole thing started, I got the full story and I got the account back. Had to temporarily use an old phone with a new Apple ID/different email for a week (the duration of the account recovery period) and have my usual phone completely turned off. Turned out I was partially still signed in to my account on my phone, so it kept flagging and the recovery wouldn’t go through since I was still using the phone.

SO, to anyone else having this issue, you may still be signed in to your Apple account on your device(s) and may have to turn them off completely until the recovery period is over. It sucks but it’s only temporary and if you’re like me and got the run around for way too long it is worth the inconvenience of using a temporary device!

Sorry if this is a bit all over the place, this is my first time posting on reddit 😅 (also posted to r/apple but I think that was the wrong one so I’m trying here)

So last monday I tried setting up an iPad that I’d just recently bought, but I couldn’t remember my Apple ID password so I couldn’t sign in. I submitted a forgot password request as I couldn’t change it just by using my iPhone passcode and it went to Account Recovery where I had to a week until today for it to be able to reset. I have now tried again to reset my password, even using my partner’s phone and using the Apple Support app because my own phone would continuously go back to the main settings screen after putting in my trusted phone number. It has given me the exact same message as it did last Monday, saying to wait 24hrs and they will get in touch about how long my account recovery will take. I feel like I’ve just been run around in a huge circle and I really don’t want to have to wait another week just for it to do the same thing again. If anyone can let me know if there’s anything else I can do that would be very much appreciated, I am currently locked out of almost everything on my phone because it’s all linked to my Apple ID.

TLDR ; I forgot my Apple ID password and im am in a loop of account recovery, I can’t reset my password.

I have an old AppleID on an email that I no longer have. Worse, I no longer remember the password for that AppleID. If I switch to a an entirely new AppleID, my access to apps/content that I already own is downgraded. I can change AppleID's if I log in under my old AppleID and follow the appropriate prompts. But since I no longer know the password to that AppleID, I have a conumdrum. If I say, I forgot my password, I am guessing Apple will want to send me an email to an emailID I no longer own. Since I still own/have the phone, can I use it as a form of identification. Or do I have any other options.

So appearantly someone created an account with apple using my email since yesterday been getting dozen of emails of login attempts with verify code and now when i try reset password for that account it says need verfiy account from number that isnt mine so how do i reset password using my email only?

edit: i dont own any apple product my only way is use website and when i did i got the message in picture ,all i want is reset this account password so noone uses it anything wrong/illegal

Hello everyone, I recently purchased an iPhone 16 pro max to upgrade from my old 13 pro. I bought the 16 straight from the Apple Store brand new, as I was trying to set it up at home (three days ago) I realized I forgot my Apple ID password.

I’ve been on the phone with 6 separate people at Apple and cannot get a straight answer as to why they can’t just help me right away or transfer me to someone who can actually do something as I have a very expensive brick sitting in my purse. I have a trusted phone number and device (which is the 13, and I’ve called from that number).

Well it’s now and has been in account recovery for three days. I have, however, received at least 3 emails now saying that I made an account recovery request and that they’ll get back to me at a later and later date. I’m at my wits end as I don’t know what exactly I’m waiting for whether it’s an actual phone call helping me an email link so change the password or what.

I’m heavily considering just making a new iCloud account and just manually transferring everything over myself. But I also don’t know what to do, should I just make a new Apple ID, wait for the request in 3 more days, can I even go to the Apple Store? Or is there an alternative?

(No my password isn’t saved in my passkeys app, even though I use my Face ID to log into the Apple website)

Edit: I got a text and was able to change the password right away. Thank you everyone.

I cannot access settings or the app store. This garbage phone keeps telling me to enter an Apple ID password, it should by my typical password and it's not. First it said 24 hours, then said 24 hours again after texting me a 6 digit reset code, then said 13 days. HOW DO I RESET THIS PASSWORD?

Apple tech support was no help whatsoever. Apple is seriously the worst company I've ever dealt with in my life. I want to sell this iPhone immediately and get a Google Pixel 2. Please help.

Literally the only Apple product I use is Apple Music. Its such a good program. I needed to reset my password though because of some janky UI stuff with Apple Music. So I try to reset my password from my S22. "Use an apple device." So I grab my wife's iPhone, "put in the password from the iPhone you are trying to reset." Apple, wtf is that? Not everybody has an iPhone because not everybody wants an iPhone. Why do I need an iPhone to reset my password? Why do I need a Mac or an iPad to reset my password in a timely manner? Why tf should I need to buy into your ecosystem to RESET MY PASSWORD? Is there a workaround for this or will I get the joy of waiting for a few days for a password reset?

So I forgot my password, but apple only lets me reset my password with an apple device?

I forgot my apple password and apple is unable to recover my password . I scheduled multiple calls with their techs . My phone is still activated with the same original number and carrier (ATT) . Is there anyway I can reactivate the phone with new apple ID or do I have to basically trash a fully working phone because I forgot the password ? Also the apple ID is my email which I can access.

So My grandma has recently passed, and we don’t know the password to her Apple ID, so we can’t log her out or reset her iPad. Does anybody know how to reset her password or log her out without knowing the password of her Apple ID? (Btw we do know the password to get into the iPad)

Okay, so this is an interesting one - could use some help here!

When I bought my iPhone about a year ago, I was in the process of shutting down my business, including the company phone plan. Due to some weirdness, I had to get a temporary phone number, and it's this phone number (let's call it Temp_Phone_Number) that the Apple Store rep used to set up my iCloud account.

I then forgot my iCloud password (as so many of us do, right!?), and have been unable to reset the password because my iCloud account has Temp_Phone_Number attached to it, which is no longer in service - I now have my original phone number back that I used with my company. I can't change the phone number associated with my iCloud account without logging in, though, and I can't log in, because I don't remember my password. I'm stuck.

I've been on multiple customer service calls with Apple, and have gone into the store for help, and literally, nobody has been able (or willing?) to help me with this. I can't download apps onto my phone without being logged into my iCloud account, which has been so frustrating.

I understand and even appreciate that Apple has secure practices here that make this challenging, but it shouldn't be impossible, right? Does anybody know of a workaround that I haven't thought of? This is so frustrating. Thanks in advance for the help!

Long story short I forgot my passcode for my iphone so I was forced to factory reset it, then I also forgot the password for my gmail account and when I tried to look at my password it logged me out of my account. I went to the apple id website and typed my username and click forgot password, then I put in my username and phone number and received a code, I type the code in and the website told me to wait 13 hours and then it will ask questions. So will I be able to regain my apple id password without my email?

It's a long story but I will try to keep it short. I locked myself out of my iPhone because I thought I needed to change my passcode and it is not what I thought it was changed to. It ended up disabled and I couldn't use the fingerprint scanner to unlock.

First I tried to do the two step verification when the phone was actually working and it said it would take days for them to recover my account. I just need to reset my password, I can't remember it! I ended up doing a factory reset on the phone not realizing it would have the activation link to that same Apple ID and therefore I can't get any further than the "Hello" screen that comes up in 42 different languages when you first activate your phone. How will I be able to do the two step verification now? I was never given the option to have a link sent to my email address (I thought I) listed and I was never asked security questions.

At this point it seems purchasing a new phone since I'm on a no contract plan and setting up a new ID would be the easiest but I would like that to be worst case scenario since, like I mentioned, I have to buy the phone. Also I would lose all of my contacts and photos but I don't really care about that right now. I also am not able to login to iCloud to restore the phone to the last backup.

Help is MUCH appreciated

I've already done the account recovery process. After waiting 14 hours, It send an email to me and said that in 2 days, I will get a text message or call to my phone number. I just want to factory reset my iPad through iTunes (currently it said iPad unavailable) so I need my apple Id password first. So, I just want to know after 2 days, what will it send me through text messages or even if it's a call. I heard that it's some sort of link. Where does the link take me to? Hopefully it takes me to resetting my password cuz I'm worry if they ask me something else that I don't have. Can I reset it in a browser outside of my iPad. I just need some assurance so that I can prepare better. Thanks

Im on a iphone 12 on ios 17.5.1. I cannot download any new apps because I have forgotten my password to apple id but whenever I click forgot password when entering it to download the app it just freezes and the only way to unfreeze it is to take a screen shot then go into the screen shot screen and elete it which takes you out of the menu to reset password. When I also try and go into settings, then Apple ID then I press the "sign in and security" button, but it just loads forever and never opens into the rest of the settings for it. Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

Hey everyone,

I’m stuck in a bad situation.

I forgot the passcode to my iPhone 16 Pro Max, and now it’s locked for 7 days before I can try again. On top of that, I also forgot my Apple ID password — and I don’t have access to the email linked to the account anymore.

I do still have the phone number linked to the Apple ID, so I can receive verification codes by SMS if Apple sends them there. But I’m not sure if that’s enough to recover the password and get past Activation Lock so I can reset my phone.

Has anyone been through this before? What’s the best way to recover an Apple ID without email access so I can unlock my phone?

Any help would be hugely appreciated.