Ask HN: Apple 2FA mandated how to work with multiple accounts? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Apple 2FA mandated how to work with multiple accounts?

7 pointsdavismwfl2 comments

Ok, so Apple has now mandated 2FA which I am totally good with, but how are we supposed to work with multiple distinct accounts under different companies?

It seems I can create a second account on my mac pro, create a new apple id and 2FA there the first time, then delete the machine account and it will still be associated to my mac pro for future 2FA requests. However, WTF, how would this work for people consulting that have a client that wants you to setup an account for their company and use it for submissions? You don't want it to 2FA to your phone or mac after you are done with the project. Do you have to transfer it through Apple each time now? That's a pain in the ass.

Did they seriously not think this through? Am I missing something obvious?

I have contacted support and they have been less than helpful so far. Basically telling me I must enable 2FA for each account on a unique Apple device. WTF? Seriously?

https://developer.apple.com/support/account/authentication/

After reading this, it seems like one device can be used for multiple developer accounts.

I was worried when I started seeing “iCloud” because of course none of us use our personal iCloud accounts for dev work. However, it looks like you can link multiple dev accounts to your personal iCloud account to prevent having to sign in/out of the accounts on the device.

Thank you for the response and link.

That does make it so you can get verification codes on one device for multiple accounts but it still requires you to log out of your primary (personal) account, log in with the dev account, enable 2FA and then log out and back in as your primary account. Then you still have to add the dev account to the "iCloud" login on your phone or similar so you can get verifications.

It all seems super hacky and like a total after thought versus a clean well designed system. I am happy Apple takes security seriously, but this doesn't seem very elegant or even effective.

And while I am not currently building apps for clients, it seems this will still be a hurdle for dev shops to overcome, since having the clients account 2FA to your device is not ideal in anyway. Would be curious how people are handling this. It could be I am still just missing something obvious.

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