Summary: A major brick-and-mortar store sold an Apple Gift Card that Apple seemingly took offence to, and locked out my entire Apple ID, effectively bricking my devices and my iCloud Account, Apple Developer ID, and everything associated with it, and I have no recourse. Can you help? Email paris AT paris.id.au (and read on for the details). ❤️
Here’s how Apple “Permanently” locked my Apple ID.
I am writing this as a desperate measure.
I mean, the writing was on the wall, goodle destroyed so many peoples livelihood by closing their gmail accounts, same with so many others. Putting all your eggs in one basket has always been a bad idea.
That is why we talk about 3-2-1 backups, etc.
I’ve lost at least 2 gmail accounts simply because my phone died and there was no other way to recover them. I knew the passwords, knew all the details, but because I no longer had access to the phone the account was tied to poof gone.
this is why I no longer use gmail. If your phone breaks or whatever you’re essentially screwed.
That’s also your fault though, especially for allowing it to happen twice. I have physical copies stored of the recovery codes with all my other essential documents for precisely this reason.
Uhhhh that’s just stringent 2FA.
I keep a laminated printout of emergency codes for Google in my wallet and also have an authenticator code app that’s not tied to Google or my phone, in addition to a Yubikey which offers me three methods to get into my account. There were options especially when it happened the first time.
Of course I’ve migrated away enough from Google for it not to be a huge issue even if I did lose the account, but it is one of my oldest emails and I’d prefer not to lose it.