Ask HN: My Apple ID is locked for a week, Apple is a single point of failure | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: My Apple ID is locked for a week, Apple is a single point of failure

15 pointsakg_675 comments

My Apple ID was locked by Apple Oct 3rd. I got an automated email stating that I will receive further instructions for account recovery Oct 10th, a week of pain. There is zero human escalation path, no phone number to call, the iforget link leads to same message as email and no further escalation.

Because my Apple ID is frozen, the App Store is completely bricked. I can’t update any apps. Living in Japan, almost all of my critical banking and payment apps (like Rakuten Pay) enforce hard version checks for security. The app refuses to launch, needing update. A locked Apple ID effectively cut off my access to my money and daily transactions.

My temporary workaround was digging out an old Android phone to use as a backup for my payment apps (of course these apps are only allowed on one device so now I need to carry two phones). But it made me realize how scary my setup was. If Apple decides to lock account, entire day-to-day life stops, and no one to talk to about it. Going forward I am definitely not storing any important government ID like driver license, payments cards, my number card (similar to SSN in US) on Apple devices.

How are you guys decoupling your digital lives from a single OS ecosystem? What does your personal "cold standby" look like to handle this risk?

My personal computing infrastructure was all in Apple ecosystem. But this incident made me realize, Apple is SPOF, I need to diversify away from Apple and be also part of non-Apple environment.

I always share this post of my experience [1] whenever I hear of others encountering similar issues.

I was able to regain access to my phone and laptop eventually, but my airpods are still "someone else's" and my air tags were permanently broken (ringing a bell whenever they are moved).

As for derisking things from Apple:

- Whenever you buy apps on App Store, ask yourself whether you'd be OK buying it again if you get locked out

- Don't use icloud for email

- Don't use icloud for permanent storage (it's OK for transfer)

- Don't use safari

- Ideally don't use "Find My" - it's what locks your device to your Apple ID

- Use an external password manager like Bitwarden

[1]: https://skogsbrus.xyz/dont-put-all-your-apples-in-one-basket...

Interesting read, your experience gave me some ideas to reduce dependency on Apple ecosystem. A few questions:

1. "Don't use safari" Why?

2. Is there an alternative to "Find My" that I can use with AirTag?

Some of the things, I have done since this experience:

- Exported all my passwords from Apple Password Manager to BitWarden. Also, now I better understand why my wife was keeping her passwords in a notebook (no service can be trusted).

- Looking at ways to export Contacts and Notes and sync.

- Keeping Dropbox storage subscription instead of considering migration to iCloud storage.

- Dropped the idea of upgrading my iPhone13 and wife's MacBook (light user) to Apple devices.

I store my digital ID, payment cards, etc in my phone’s wallet. But I also still have my physical wallet.

If I lost my phone (either because it was locked or smashed or stolen), I’d use my physical wallet to access my money.

Locking everything in one walled garden is a blatant and obvious security and safety concern --- but many don't think much about such things.

Yes, learnt this the hard way. Now, I am trying to figure out how to spread out to not get stuck again in a walled garden.

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