Apple ID Account Recovery Methods

Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Today let me show you how to plan ahead in case you ever forget your Apple ID password.

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So what happens if you lose your password to your Apple ID. You can't logon to iCloud or any of Apple's services. Hopefully this never happens to you. But there are a few things that you can setup in advance that in case it does you can recover your account. Now on your Mac you'll find all this in System Preferences under Apple ID. In a similar place on the iPhone or iPad in Settings and Apple ID. Then you look for Password & Security. Now here you should see your security settings for your Apple ID account. So you should have two-factor authentication turned on. I think that just about everybody does at this point. You could also add Trusted Phone Numbers. So this is in case you need to logon and you know how you'll get a code sent to your iPhone or iPad or Mac and you enter that code. Well, if for some reason that system fails you can add a trusted phone number and you could have the number texted to you instead.

Now if you forget your password it all comes down to Account Recovery. This would also be needed if somebody else got into your account and changed the password or if you got locked out of your account which could happen if somebody was trying to break-in to your account and Apple locks it to protect it. So under Account Recovery go to Manage and you'll see your options here. There are basically three options for recovering your account if you don't have your password. The first one, by default, is called iCloud Data Recovery Service and you'll see it right here. If you don't do anything else that's going to be listed here. You can click details to get more information. Basically you would be contacting Apple Support telling them that you can't get into your account and then you would go through a process. That process depends on some factors. You basically have to talk to Apple Support and they will ask you questions and tell you what to do. It could be as simple as providing some basic information to them or the credit card information that you use for your Apple ID or it could be something where you go through a process that takes several days before you actually get back into your account. Note this type of recovery doesn't recover everything. It can recover things like your photos, notes, and your files. But it can't get things like your passwords. Anything that's completely end-to-end encrypted like Keychain for storing passwords can't be recovered this way. So you can get your precious photos back, which is great, but you won't be able to get your passwords back. 

It's nice to know you have this fallback. The down side is that Apple does  ultimately have access to things like your photos. Now, of course, they're not interested in looking there and it would be against their terms of service to do so but technically if given a subpoena or something like that they could actually go and look at your photos.

Now the second method is very new and it's really interesting. Use this Plus button here to get to it. Click the Plus button and you can add a Recovery Contact. So you pick somebody who you completely trust. So a family member or a close friend and they will get an invitation to be your Recovery Contact. They need to have an Apple device that's updated with the latest operating systems. As long as they accept then if you were to loose your password, then if you went to recover your password you could at one point during that process ask for a Recovery Code from a recovery contact. Then it would walk you through the steps and you'd basically would have to talk to them. Call them on the phone or if they are there in person they would go onto their device and they could request the code, give it to you, and you could use that to gain access to your account. 

Now it's really hard to demonstrate this but fortunately I don't have to because Apple has this excellent page right here that shows you what it's like to use this feature. So basically you would contact the person that has your Recovery Key and whether they are on their iPhone or on their Mac they would go into the same place where you set it but they would have the option here at the bottom to get the code. So you could see a person is listed there. Clicked on the details and then you would click get Recovery Code and then you would get a code like this. So your friend would then tell you that code and at your part of the process you would enter that code in and now that gets you back into your account and enables you to set a new password.

So it's important to note that this person doesn't really have access to your stuff in iCloud. All they can do is provide you with this code. So in the event that you loose access you can ask them for this code. They'll give you the code and now you can get back into your account. It's kind of like getting a two-factor code on your device or by a text message except it's sent to another person instead. So it's definitely a useful thing to add a Recovery Contact to your account. 

But there is a third option for recovering everything. It's the Recovery Key. So you can see it here. It's turned Off. I can click here for Manage and I can turn it On. Now here's the thing about a Recovery Key. Once you turn on Recovery Key you can't use the other methods to recover your account. Apple can't help you. A Recovery Contact can't help you. The only thing that can help you is having that Key which is going to be a 28 character passcode that you'll need to have saved somewhere, preferably not on your Mac or iPhone. Maybe on a piece of paper somewhere stored safely. Maybe on several pieces of paper somewhere stored safely. Because if you're using Recovery Key and you can't get in because your password isn't working the Recovery Key is the only thing that will let you get your data back. Nothing else will. So without your password or the Recovery Key all of your iCloud Data, everything associated with your Apple ID, is lost forever. The advantage to that is that Apple can't get into any of your data. By using the Recovery Key you're restricting Apple from having any access to your data. They can't help you but they also, technically, can't get to it. They have no way to access your encrypted data. Here's a page that explains more about a Recovery Key. So you can see how to generate it. It's just what I showed you and it gives you some information here about how to use it. It would be during that same recovery process, if you're using your Recovery Key, that's going to prompt you during the process where you forget your password, to enter the Recovery Key. 

Now if you do end up in a situation where you need to recover your account you would simply go to iforgot.apple.com and you would start the process there. This is where you can start with the iCloud Recovery Service or if you have a recovery contact you could use them here or your Recovery Key as well. But do note that hopefully you never actually have to get to that point. Checkout the information at this page first. If you can't access your account because you've lost your password you might be able to simply reset it as long as you still have access to your account on one or more of your Apple devices. It could be as simple as just requesting a new password on that device and resetting your password without having to go through any of this. So if you are in that situation you have to start here and just try to Reset the password. It's only if this fails do you have to rely on iCloud Account Recovery, an iCloud Recovery Contact, or using your Recovery Key.

But you definitely do want to think about all this in advance. If security is of the upmost importance to you and under no circumstances do you want Apple or anyone else to have access to your data on iCloud then you want to use the Recovery Key. Just make sure you never loose it. For most users setting up an iCloud Account Recovery Contact is a good idea because if you do loose your password or access to your account it could be much easier to go that route. You should be able to get into your account pretty quickly as long as you can talk to that person. But otherwise the fallback would be Apple's Account Recovery Service which could be quick or could take several days depending upon the exact situation because they want to make sure it really is you trying to get access to your account. Not somebody else. You want them to protect your data. So, of course, if you loose your password they're going to try to protect your data just as if somebody else was trying to get your password.  

At this post at MacMost.com I'll provide links to all of these different pages and you should read through them carefully to understand all of your different options. I hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.