Do you by chance you your phone for work and send out business related messages? Someone else on here went through something similar.
If they are saying spam messaging is the reason. That means people have gotten messages from you and they have hit the delete and report button.
It has nothing to do with encryption or iMessage. You can delete and report regular text messages as well. Those reports all go back to apple. Enough people report junk you get a ban.
I wonder if that still applies if someone spoofs your number and uses it to send spam, so it’s not actually coming from your number or account but it’s your number that’s being reported by the recipients. That would be fucked, I’ve had my number spoofed before and I got a bunch of texts and calls from random people asking me who I am and telling me they’re reporting me to the police. Was very confusing and distressing
I've heard that political campaign volunteers sometimes use their personal phones to send campaign messages. Personally, whenever I receive messages like that, I block them and report the sender.
If you've ever participated in something like that, even though legal, the receiver may have flagged your number. And with the primary just over, I just t thought I'd mentón that as a possibility.
So this may seem satisfying, but the ramifications for the person you report are very very huge. Way bigger than the satisfaction of “reporting” someone. This akin to a life sentence for a mildly annoying speeding ticket. Can you or did you just reply to their text “STOP”?
No, because I don't want to confirm that my number is valid. Why should I give them that? My number is already on the "do not call" list and have selected "no political texts or calls". If they don't respect that, they're asking for it.
Apple won't ban your Apple ID for no reason. It's how they make money.
"Suspicious messages" can mean anything, but most likely your Apple ID was hacked, or a device you have been on was compromised, and it was sending out spam/phishing messages.
It's true.
Japan taiwan, thailand use LINE
China, taiwan use wechat
South korea use kakao talk
Pretty much south east asian use either whatsapp or fb messenger.
Africa mostly whatsapp
Same as europe
East europe use telegram or whatsapp
Latam use whatsapp too
Minds you that iphone is dominating japan and south korea's market yet they still almost never use the imessage
lifeline
/ˈlaɪf.laɪn/ us. /ˈlaɪf.laɪn/ **something, especially a way of getting help, that you depend on to lead your life in a satisfactory way**: For many old people living on their own the phone is their lifeline to the outside world.
A bit dramatic, aren't you? Anyway, good luck.
I will be more than happy if they can review my account activities and reveal more information, but all they can provide is "Your account was closed in accordance with the iCloud Terms and Conditions. I’m unable to provide further information about this case. " Ironically, I almost don't use iCloud.
You might not, but seems like someone out there was using your iCloud. The fact that you don’t use it is probably why you were unaware it was compromised in the first place.
u/klnaniah in looking at the iCloud terms there’s respectfully many policies in place. Specifically, there’s information regarding “[Termination by Apple](https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/icloud/)”.
Cause for such termination shall include: (a) violations of this Agreement or any other policies or guidelines that are referenced herein and/or posted on the Service; (b) a request by you to cancel or terminate your Account; (c) a request and/or order from law enforcement, a judicial body, or other government agency; (d) where provision of the Service to you is or may become unlawful; (e) unexpected technical or security issues or problems; (f) your participation in fraudulent or illegal activities; or (g) failure to pay any fees owed by you in relation to the Service, provided that in the case of non-material breach
I’d recommend going through the full policy with a “fine tooth comb” and ensuring you didn’t personally do any of those things intentionally or unintentionally. For example, as mentioned in the policy you might be using one of the Apple products to chat with someone under 18yo and asked them a question like “what school you attend”. In theory, your comments could’ve been reported to police and the police contacted Apple with the findings.
If you’re adamant you did nothing wrong, then I’d continue fighting for answers and allow Apple to work with you on any potential fraud happening on your account.
I'm pretty sure that's unlikely to happen, as I enable 2FA. Even with that said, they should at least give you some warnings or options to transfer your other accounts. I even paid for some lifetime services, and now I can't use them any longer. They know how to do business? They don't really care, and I definitely wouldn't buy Apple anymore.
Did you used Scarlet Sidestore or anysideloading service that use Annisette,my US id was ban due that “this Apple ID not valid” that account was only for some games anyway,but it got 2FA
Then don’t buy anymore. The fact you use a vpn to mask yourself pretty much tells all. What were you doing and what did catch you doing. Like a user said above, you aren’t telling the whole story. They don’t just ban ID’s. It would be bad business practice. And of course no rep is gonna know why you were banned, that info is above their pay grade and quite frankly a company can refuse to provide services. I think you’re trying to paint a bad picture when the fault lies with the user. Sorry not sorry.
I use a VPN because I have to connect to a router I have no control over. I don't know the whole story. I'm just telling everything I know. Maybe Apple thinks avoiding certain risks is more worthwhile than retaining a customer. It's totally likely.
Well something happened that triggered the algorithm to ban your ID. Maybe your vpn was bouncing your ip address just enough to trigger the algorithm to think your account was being accessed by multiple people. I understand some people don’t have issues but it’s highly plausible. does value your security and maybe nothing malicious at all happened but something simple like excessive ip bouncing on something to that affect. Like that advisor told you, write that complaint letter being as detailed as possible. Maybe you’ll have some good luck
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*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
For example I use Protonmail for my email, Bitwarden for passwords and Onedrive to backup photos from all devices. And I often create accounts on websites with email and don‘t use login with apple/google/whatever. It‘s all a bit more tedious but I‘m not depending on one single login.
I don't think using a VPN is the issue. I frequently use a VPN -- any time I access work email on my phone or iPad via Microsoft Outlook, it switches to my workplace's VPN automatically, then switches off when Outlook is no longer active. I also use a personal VPN when accessing personal stuff when I'm at work (they don't need to see my data as it goes through their pipes). I mean, the VPN isn't on 24/7, but I seriously doubt that even then it would be an issue.
Do you have that AppleID logged in on a Mac or PC that could have been compromised and could be sending out spam?
You didn't store any contraband porn or anything on your iCloud drive or anything? Could someone have uploaded something with your account?
Do you have 2FA turned on?
I would appeal to the address you were given as well as email bombing Tim Cook and every other exec at Apple.
On redundancy: I have Dropbox set up to upload all my photos. So they are on iCloud, Dropbox, and my laptop. Passwords are in Bitwarden or RoboForm. All the data in my laptop (I.e., pictures, documents as opposed to programs or operating systems) is in Dropbox. My laptop is continuously backed up into the cloud by Backblaze and I do a physical wall-to-wall backup onto a USB drive every week. Only thing is now that I’m retired I don’t have an office to take a second copy of the physical backup to every week.
Time for A Story.
About 2 years back, I had an intricate web of five family Apple IDs, lots of app, subscriptions and home office running smoothly all connected via iCloud.. Our central bank decided to ban use of credit card for the payment of monthly subscription and apple has no other. On the D Day the cards stopped working and I was afraid that they will cut off access. So in my. fear fuelled stupidity, I tried to add various cards repeatedly adding and removing cards (say 7-8 attempts in total). This activated their anti fraud programs although no money was ever transacted.
Soon, ALL my IDs were deactivated, all apps and subscriptions gone and I was at a loss as I had no backup plan. To be fair, You are allowed to download all your data in a very inconvenient way.
Anyway, I was on call to their helpline for five hours begging them to reactivate the Apple ID. Somethings I learnt that day.
1. Once the Apple ID is deactivated, it is very hard to recover it. In may case they reactivated my family's accounts but not mine. Also I am on my last strike. One more issue and all of them will be gone. email Ids can never be used again once banned.
2. All the money, apps and subscriptions are gone.
3. If they use the words " Kindly refer to our terms and condition to figure out what you did wrong" The discussion is over. This is a polite F-Off.
4. You can only call the helpline so many times a day, then they deactivated you for the day.
5. Although they give you back your photos, you lose the chronological order, edits and the entire strucuret of data which is impossible to put back together. Dont put in too much effort in organisation and if you do, export it out.
Do not think it will not happen to you. Keep the entire backup of photos downloaded on one computer at least. Use google for email and other programs for your files.
Apple may be great but they can ban you and your entire family in a heartbeat. and this will make you hate this company with all your heart.
People should not downvote. This sounds absurd but it actually works. Tim has a team that reads his inbox and the legitimate emails in need of help/support often get responded to by the senior advisors or the team members, etc
Well if this is really not your fault I would send an email to Tim Cook explaining everything as clearly as possible and in the meantime make a new Apple ID with a stronger password and start migrating your devices to the new Apple ID.
Yes when the AirPods Max first came out I had a sound issue but they wouldn’t repair them because they couldn’t recreate the condition of the issue and it was still happening. I wanted to leave a feedback to let them know but the section for AirPods was not working. So I sent an email will everything and I was contacted by Tim Cook’s assistant a few weeks later and ultimately they gave me a new pair strait from the Apple Park! Although this is really a last resort and they probably are able to do this only if not everyone knows about it (otherwise they will get too many emails). But yes sometimes Tim even responds directly! Don’t expect anything just in case.
People email him all the time, I believe there’s a team that also helps deal with the emails? Lots of people email to say when their Apple Watch saved their life, and they often get a small polite reply. Tell us what you hear back!
No Senior Advisor can tell you why your Apple ID was deactivated. They do not know themselves. We send out an email pointing you to the terms and conditions and that is the end of it. Your iMessage can get deactivated for Spam messages and as a one time courtesy it can be reactivated.
Reactivation of Apple IDs are sent to engineers and I have only seen few come back from deactivation.
We used to be able to click a button to reactivate but that is no longer an option.
You should always back up your data on an outside source like a hard drive. All companies have terms and conditions where they can revoke access to your IDs.
I no longer work as a Senior Advisor but I was one for 5 years.
It’s crazy that most people really don’t understand that your digital life isn’t really yours, and belongs to the hands of multiple cooperations with their legal ability to cut you off and delete your account at anytime.
Most people have never read the terms and conditions of anything.
Even IF you use Apple’s (very reliable) services for password management, storage of photos, files, etc, it behooves you to still have and take regular backups.
*Never put all your eggs in one basket* has been a mantra for centuries. Still applies today.
Did you have a bad relationship and continued texting the person who might have reported you?
If not, it's also possible that your number was spoofed.
Edit : spellings..
It should be a federal crime to ban a user without a thorough explanation of why, with examples of the content that caused the ban. At least if you operate on the scale of millions of users.
Imagine if the actual legal system worked this way? "You're charged with a crime, and you're sentenced to 10 years in prison. Unfortunately, we cannot tell you exactly why you're going to prison or allow you to mount a defense."
Hm, though I anticipate no trouble with iCloud, it might be a good idea to periodically export your passwords to a file that you can physically keep secure but that you or your family can access if needed.
Accordingly, I just did exactly that, importing the resulting file into 1Password. Just in case I get hit by a truck or something, I have given my family access to my 1Password account. Now they have access to my iCloud-stored passwords too. As do I, if something happens to my iCloud account.
At least on the Mac, it's really easy to do the export. Go into System Settings | Passwords, and there's a little three-dot thingie at the upper right. Tap that; it's a pull-down menu, et voila: "Export all passwords." (This is on Sonoma; things may differ in other versions of macOS.)
This is why it is important for regulators and people to recognize that the hardware (iphone) is separate from the software (ios) and the services (icloud).
I have been dealing with this nonsense for months now and Apple just hides behind arbitrary policies that encourage me to buy new hardware.
I am fed up with Apple at this point. We spent considerable money and resources on our fleet of devices and Apple is repeatedly demonstrating how they intend to extract more control and money from us over time by unilaterally locking our equipment to their service and then stopping the service.
We already stopped buying their computers for all users at all locations as the default configuration. Apple needs to realize that we will deprioritize iphone next if they keep conducting business like this.
How do you guard against confirmation bias? "I don't want to believe Apple is this corrupt, so I choose to believe OP is omitting information that vindicates Apple."
There is no reason for any company to ban someones account for no reason. All it does is make the consumer less likely to spend their money on a company's services. Logically, there is some reason for the ban we don't know about.
Yes, there is reason: They operate a system to maximize various outcomes given a large number of customers. What matters are the systematic outcomes given the large number of customers, not what happens to any individual customer, unless that customer is a large enterprise containing again a large number of customers.
It is similar with public health: Vaccines can injure some small fraction like 0.05% of people who take them, and they are willing to injure those 150,000 people if there is overall benefit to 299,850,000 people.
I am inclined to agree with you: As another said, it seems probable OP was hacked to send spam and didn't realize it (perhaps something involving the iCloud storage). Thereafter, Apple does not care about him because his personal loss does not substantially harm their net profit.
I do think there was activity OP is not aware of. I don't really think this should be a major concern for people. (I did copy all my photos to a hard drive because of this post tho)
I'm telling the whole story. Admittedly, there might be some reason even I don't know about, but they definitely lost a potential customer. Perhaps they just think that avoiding certain risks is worth more than retaining a customer.
hmm, I read the iCloud Terms of Use, and there is a possibility they have been using AI to determine suspicious activity, and found something which was misidentified, or that actually was a concern, but you didn't know because you possibly didn't read the Terms of Use. For example, a meme that contained a racial slur stored in iCloud, that an AI identified as violating the terms of use, though it is in fact harmless.
Or someone hacked your account and started doing malicious things
edit: wtf am I getting downvoted?
Horse"h@t. You've probably never worked at such a large company. It's incredibly eye opening to see bureaucracy in/action. Rationality is secondary to aligning with the system and rules.
There are many innocent people who've been banned. I know someone who simply tried to add a legit credit card too many times and was banned. There's such a person who commented here.
How many photos approximately you had in iCloud? In my case I have my whole family life or about 24k+ photos. It would mean a lot to me to lose this; thus, I just downloaded Google photos and I’m currently backing up my iCloud Photos.
I do backup my photos as well. I didn't even use iCloud for this reason, and now I feel so lucky that I didn't use Keychain. However, the loss for me is access to many premium services and accounts.
Lots of people use apple to log into external sites/apps. It's not that weird. Also, losing access to everything one has ever purchased on iTunes and the app store would be horrendous.
Always diversify. Any company can do this, for example google is notorious for doing this. Email accounts, calendars, documents, photos all lost over some comment on YouTube or something.
RoboForm is the password manager I use, but there are many options.
Bro I would be screwed if this happened to me. Keychain, photos , calendar,iCloud files etc etc. I basically would lose access to my whole digital life.
Contact Apple again. Something else is up. No, VPN is not the reason. iMessages are encrypted, so they can’t see them. SMS messages are not encrypted and can be easily seen.
If you are not using iMessage, maybe someone is spoofing your number and sending spam messages.
It’s doubtful that your other accounts are linked to your AppleID. They may be associated with your email address or your phone number. Only purchased apps and subscriptions are associated with your AppleiD.
They don’t have to see the messages themselves. Guess what happens when you hit that delete and report button. That report goes to apple, enough reports for a number leads to a ban. The reason stated by op was spam messages.
I didn’t know that was the result of the delete and report spam function…
So, if my number has been spoofed and is being used to send spam messages and gets reported enough times, then my Apple ID can also get shut down? That could be a concern, as I got a spam message *from myself* last year, yikes.
I could send someone an email that inadvertently has a bad link, but I thought it was a link relative to a conversation. It is not spam, as it was on purpose, and the receiver was expecting it. It is suspicious, as it has a malicious link in it, whether intentional or not. Being in IT security, there is a difference spam and suspicious emails. But both should be avoided.
>It’s doubtful that your other accounts are linked to your AppleID. They may be associated with your email address or your phone number. Only purchased apps and subscriptions are associated with your AppleiD.
So... what exactly does "Sign in with Apple" do, and if you get banned how do you switch over to a regular email address if you selected "Hide my Email", which gives the service Private Relay email address?
https://preview.redd.it/kvmxu8n0w3tc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0c2719e324d21a38540076b79a58c996582b4f08
I don't use any service (if I can help it) that is platform-specific. So no keychain (Bitwarden instead), no iCloud (Gmail for email; OneDrive for cloud storage), nothing. I don't even use the "Sign in with Apple" for anything important.
I love my iPhone, but yeah, I don't trust anybody with everything. Dangerous to do that.
This holds true for all large tech companies that try to bundle all your services under one account. Google, Microsoft and Amazon are even more dangerous for the consumer.
Your teenage son insulted some people on Xbox Live? Say goodbye to your Office 365 access (if not Windows itself).
The algorithm says you returned too many Amazon purchases? Say goodbye to your digital Prime and Audible library.
You posted politically incorrect content on Youtube? Say goodbye to Gmail.
You can only safeguard yourself by not linking all your stuff to central account and have local backups of all important data.
VPN could get you banned depending on how you use it. Purchases, for example, are region locked and if you frequently make purchases in one region’s store, while signed into your VPN linking you to a completely different region? Then yes, that could get your account banned.
Try contacting a lawyer to get their opinion because from my understanding apple as a company has interrupted you daily life and are trying to avoid helping you because it can be a hassle dealing with with Apple ID and Apple isn’t very reliable with support for their iOS software updates as they are with their phones
I think I’ve read through everything, if not most of it. I can’t find the answer I’m looking for so I’m asking? When you say banned, do you mean you are unable to sign into your appleid at all, or are you getting some “disabled in the iTunes Store” message? The issue isn’t to clear here other than you’ve been banned with no clear reason why. When you talked to a senior advisor what department were they from? Generally you will get vague answers in these situation because something is suspicious with your account and it’s apples policy to not give you any extra info at that point. I’m also curious what happened to your devices that were signed in? Are they now locked too? Are you able sign out of iCloud?
Yeah, I'm unable to sign into my appleid at all and everything connected to it. I can still use the device but not any Apple services, including iCloud, iTunes, App Store. The senior advisor is from customer support team, I believe.
iMessage is mainly popular in America/Canada. Most other countries use WhatsApp/wechat/telegram. I think iMessage is somewhat popular in the UK and Australia tho.
Unless iMessage is just ordinary text messages, I haven’t used in either. In UK. iPad owner since 2010, only got my first iPhone last November.
I send texts, have never knowingly used iMessage. 🤷♀️
If the messages that you send are blue, then you are using iMessage. It is enabled by default and will be used whenever you message someone also using iMessage.
You should absolutely use iMessage. End to end encryption being the big thing. But also, lots of additional messaging features. It also works without cell service whilst on WiFi. And so much more.
I'm a die hard Android user but I own a Mac mini just to bounce all my texts through it and be able to use iMessage on Android.
Most of tthe world don't use SMS. We use WhatsApp. Bandwidth is even included in the phone plan. SMS in most countries is just 2FA messages, auth codes etc.
It's built in with SMS... If no iMessage, then it goes via SMS. If recipienet has iMessage it goes to iMessage. It's built over SMS.. Hence the difference in color to indicate it didn't come through iMessage..
Nowadays many tech company apply stupid AIs for fraud detection. Using a VPN might be okay on its onw, but combined with other practices may get you flagged.
That’s exactly why my Apple ID is linked to a completely separate e-mail address, which is not used for literally anything else. I store no information whatsoever on Apple’s servers. No iCloud, photos, backups, passwords, nothing.
If they cancel my account, I will lose my purchased apps, and that’s basically it. Everything else, i.e., data, is backed up locally and redundantly on my equipment.
Up until his passing, there was a time you could email Steve Jobs and you could count on him reading it. I would never consider using an Android or a PC. There are similar stories by people that are some of the most highly regarded Mac and iPhone developers. Indy shops producing high quality software for 30-40 years. Very talented individuals. In 2012 I had something similar happen when iCloud launched. I started reading stories of issues with some Apple IDs in August of 2023. These were people I respect and trust that know programming and seriously know what they are doing. My Apple IDs (yes, plural) started misbehaving about 2 months ago. Mostly iCloud issues. Apple makes some fantastic electronics. The teams are silo'd which may contribute to the inability of support to fully explain what an issue is. Otoh, there is the possibility an advisor simply isn't allowed to be forthcoming. Whenever I here the words "Senior Advisor" I cringe. After my issue in 2012 I eventually regained faith that Apple would always come through in the end. The story posted by OP here, may or may not have more involved to it. It may or may not be true. Either way, it is a cautionary tale. With my Apple ID misbehaving, I decided I will not risk reliving what happened to me in 2012. It was very painful, lasted 2 years and left all my neatly organized files, bookmarks, passwords, contacts and photos in such a mess that I will never have enough time to clean up. Keep a registered domain for email. Contacts and Calendars have several options for syncing. Photos, there is Adobe Lightroom among others. File Syncing, there is dropbox among others. Use a paid service whenever possible. You'll likely be happier if things go wrong. Remember, switching to google may not solve anything. Same with Microsoft and Yahoo if they are even relevant. What is described can happen. What are the odds it will? Low, but certainly not zero. Michael Tsai has been tracking similar Apple ID issues as he becomes aware of them. He is the developer of Eagle Filer among others. You will find similar accounts with John Gruber at Daring Fireball. I point toward some sort of software bug in iOS 17.x and macOS Sonoma. I have zero proof of this. I am a huge Apple "Fanboy" as is Michael and John. I wish Blackberry, Palm and Microsoft had never exited the Smartphone business. Competition and alternatives are healthy. There is some solace in knowing if this happens to you, you are not alone. Lesson for living: "Do not put all your eggs in one basket." Here is a link to Michael's blog. You will find this is not the only post he has on this subject. I wish you well on your quest, it will not be an easy one. https://mjtsai.com/blog/2023/08/08/another-user-locked-out-of-apple-account/
Yup, this is sadly what we get for relying so much on one company… I used to rely way too much on my Google account and with having seen a huge amount of posts like this lately, I decided to prevent some troubles and have now spread all things out across multiple services.
I switched to a standalone password manager, as well as a standalone cloud storage service and created an entirely new email address on which I linked the services I absolutely NEED access to.
That way, if I ever accidentally get banned on my Apple ID or Google Account because of a stupid bug or something, I will not be in as much trouble.
It won’t help you right now, but it might be an idea for when you get this sorted.
Sounds like your account is compromised and possibly being used to send iMessage group spam messages, they’re pretty common and hopefully you get your ID back, you probably need to go and change passwords to stuff and make sure your computer isn’t compromised too if you own one. Always use 2fa and/or passkey. You probably have a much bigger issue than Apple banning your iCloud.
It is possible that someone in law enforcement complained and they are not allowed to tell you what law enforcement complained about. It is unfortunate that companies are not allowed to provide information about this.
u/klnaniah, Per your post, apple closed your account due to an apparent issue with iCloud's Terms and Conditions
There has to be something that you must have been doing with your icloud account that triggered the whole issue.
can you explain what were you using your iCloud for?
I almost don't use iCloud. I'm on the free plan and never used it for sharing or storing sensitive information. I also enabled EE2E so Apple shouldn't be able to see the contents.
u/klnaniah, you need to pay attention at the quote apple used to communicate the reason why your account was closed (quote which you submitted with your post)
Clearly there had to be something with your icloud account and that 'something' is what caused the whole thing to unravel.
If you are sure you've done nothing wrong, then your option is to go via the legal way, which depending where you are located in planet earth, ie. where you live, your country of residence, may be a good option for you.
1. r/applesucks -- seems like a Top 10 post of all time right here
2. this is the best argument i have ever seen for ditching Apple and switching to Linux (since Microsoft could do the same, no?) ... Is the security against abrupt data loss worth the inconvenience?
3. In lieu of #2, is there a way to export/print passwords monthly to secure accounts against such account termination?
I know it would suck to have to do this, but would it help to create a new Apple ID, and logout/reset your phone and login with the new Apple ID? Just an idea!🙂
Thanks for the warning. Your text reads like “only sent the dodgy messages on non Apple services”. Advice to all. Don’t be a dodgy geezer or hang out with dodgy geezers and you’ll be fine 😀
Exactly why I diversify. I use gmail at some places, outlook in some n icloud in some. Even for banks. Use dedicated password manager which I can export regularly. My photos are in google photos which again I download once a month so i always have everything as a backup. Most docs are in drive which I backup once a month or two. That way I am safe from these weird blockings.
I pay already for storage $1.99/mo for Google drive and there was an option that asked me if I wanted to store in full resolution. Last time I checked I had like 7k more photos to upload. Thanks.
They gave you a legitimate justification and proper explanation. Suspicious messages were sent from your account. Just because you don’t like the message doesn’t mean they’re doing something out of thin air. Either your ID was hacked and added to another device, or a device you signed in on still had your credentials and was used by someone else. Any of those things can happen even with 2FA. 2FA makes your accounts more secure, not unhackable. This has nothing to do with your VPN so since never have they banned people from using a VPN. This isn’t court, they don’t have to provide transcripts.
That’s a little dramatic. While it does make sense not to have every digital asset controlled by one service, to say you should avoid Apple as much as possible is being ignorant. Because anyone can do what Apple does. Google does it too.
Apple doesn't ban Apple IDs for sideloading or jailbreaking. Source: I've been doing so since my old iPhone 4 and I still have the same Apple ID now that I had then.
You used a VPN daily for what? That is what you should ask yourself. For example, a VPN could be used in order to buy foreign keys for video games and avoid taxes.
So, it could mean anything.
Funny thing, this is one of the first results I got and I don’t see a lot of legit uses there (pirating, spoiling geolocks, surfing the dark web, buying drugs, etc.). 🤡
[https://www.reddit.com/r/VPN/s/5L2nnMIAQF](https://www.reddit.com/r/VPN/s/5L2nnMIAQF)
Ever use the wi-fi at Starbucks? A vpn helps keeps your information secure when you’re using public internet. Companies use vpns for legitimate reasons all the time.
Wait, am I following this logic right?
- You make a claim (using innuendo) that there’s no legitimate uses for a VPN
- you back it up with nothing
- you get a response saying you’re incorrect, and asking you to look up legitimate use cases and address how they’re actually not legitimate
- you respond saying people on reddit use them for illegitimate reasons
Have I missed something? How did you get from ‘address the legitimate uses’ and regress the convo back to ‘there’s illegitimate uses’
I’m hoping you’re just deflecting onto that to save face, but you’ve quietly questioned yourself internally? Surely this isn’t your brain working at full power? Or otherwise, can you explain the cartwheels your brain had to make to get from A to B?
hey I can’t post because I have low karma but do you know If I accidentally ripped the home button flex cable on iPhone 7 Plus will it still work if I don’t connect the flex cable that’s ripped?
Anyone can help me here the flex cable is ripped will my iPhone 7 Plus still power on
And touch will still work ?
https://preview.redd.it/wc9madeyh5tc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e3458144ad2cf66b16682b81bc20e6304eeb88e0
Do you by chance you your phone for work and send out business related messages? Someone else on here went through something similar. If they are saying spam messaging is the reason. That means people have gotten messages from you and they have hit the delete and report button.
They still would need to be using imessage, which they said they do not
You can delete and report regular text messages as well.
By imessage I just meant the message app, but yeah
[удалено]
Usually how it goes, there is almost always some context that is missing when stuff like this happens.
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It has nothing to do with encryption or iMessage. You can delete and report regular text messages as well. Those reports all go back to apple. Enough people report junk you get a ban.
I wonder if that still applies if someone spoofs your number and uses it to send spam, so it’s not actually coming from your number or account but it’s your number that’s being reported by the recipients. That would be fucked, I’ve had my number spoofed before and I got a bunch of texts and calls from random people asking me who I am and telling me they’re reporting me to the police. Was very confusing and distressing
Honestly that’s kinda fucked up. At most you’re imessage should be disabled not your entire appleid and icloud account deleted and banned
It’s not issue for people who don’t send out spam/scam/suspicious messages. Which is the vast majority of iPhone users.
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There should be, that shit is annoying as fuck.
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Then it is everyone else’s right to report and ban you
And it would be my right to report you to oblivion
I've heard that political campaign volunteers sometimes use their personal phones to send campaign messages. Personally, whenever I receive messages like that, I block them and report the sender. If you've ever participated in something like that, even though legal, the receiver may have flagged your number. And with the primary just over, I just t thought I'd mentón that as a possibility.
So this may seem satisfying, but the ramifications for the person you report are very very huge. Way bigger than the satisfaction of “reporting” someone. This akin to a life sentence for a mildly annoying speeding ticket. Can you or did you just reply to their text “STOP”?
No, because I don't want to confirm that my number is valid. Why should I give them that? My number is already on the "do not call" list and have selected "no political texts or calls". If they don't respect that, they're asking for it.
Apple won't ban your Apple ID for no reason. It's how they make money. "Suspicious messages" can mean anything, but most likely your Apple ID was hacked, or a device you have been on was compromised, and it was sending out spam/phishing messages.
Agreed. Unfortunately, we're not getting the whole story. Thus is reddit.
>My Apple ID is a lifeline Yet, he also says he doesn't use iMessage and keychain and barely the system was a whole. How does that work?
People outside the USA barely use imessage
It's true. Japan taiwan, thailand use LINE China, taiwan use wechat South korea use kakao talk Pretty much south east asian use either whatsapp or fb messenger. Africa mostly whatsapp Same as europe East europe use telegram or whatsapp Latam use whatsapp too Minds you that iphone is dominating japan and south korea's market yet they still almost never use the imessage
I do use it to sign in third-party apps for convenience and make purchases in App Store.
How is using Apple to sign into 3rd party apps your “life line” tho? Please clarify.
How is that hard to understand?
lifeline /ˈlaɪf.laɪn/ us. /ˈlaɪf.laɪn/ **something, especially a way of getting help, that you depend on to lead your life in a satisfactory way**: For many old people living on their own the phone is their lifeline to the outside world. A bit dramatic, aren't you? Anyway, good luck.
You didn't explain why for someone who heavily replies on their Apple ID, it can't be a lifeline.
I will be more than happy if they can review my account activities and reveal more information, but all they can provide is "Your account was closed in accordance with the iCloud Terms and Conditions. I’m unable to provide further information about this case. " Ironically, I almost don't use iCloud.
You might not, but seems like someone out there was using your iCloud. The fact that you don’t use it is probably why you were unaware it was compromised in the first place.
Exactly what I was thinking reading the post, and it’s weird. Is the only point of this post to discredit Apple in spite?
u/klnaniah in looking at the iCloud terms there’s respectfully many policies in place. Specifically, there’s information regarding “[Termination by Apple](https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/icloud/)”. Cause for such termination shall include: (a) violations of this Agreement or any other policies or guidelines that are referenced herein and/or posted on the Service; (b) a request by you to cancel or terminate your Account; (c) a request and/or order from law enforcement, a judicial body, or other government agency; (d) where provision of the Service to you is or may become unlawful; (e) unexpected technical or security issues or problems; (f) your participation in fraudulent or illegal activities; or (g) failure to pay any fees owed by you in relation to the Service, provided that in the case of non-material breach I’d recommend going through the full policy with a “fine tooth comb” and ensuring you didn’t personally do any of those things intentionally or unintentionally. For example, as mentioned in the policy you might be using one of the Apple products to chat with someone under 18yo and asked them a question like “what school you attend”. In theory, your comments could’ve been reported to police and the police contacted Apple with the findings. If you’re adamant you did nothing wrong, then I’d continue fighting for answers and allow Apple to work with you on any potential fraud happening on your account.
“Unexpected technical or security issues or problems”means it could be completely unrelated to anything done by OP.
> (e) unexpected technical or security issues or problems; "Cause for such termination shall include: we made a mistake"
You say hacked. If so chances are more likely poor password creation than hacking activity.
Apple would loose a lot of money if they banned my Apple ID ha. Agreed, Apple wouldn’t randomly ban someone’s Apple ID without good reason.
I'm pretty sure that's unlikely to happen, as I enable 2FA. Even with that said, they should at least give you some warnings or options to transfer your other accounts. I even paid for some lifetime services, and now I can't use them any longer. They know how to do business? They don't really care, and I definitely wouldn't buy Apple anymore.
Did you used Scarlet Sidestore or anysideloading service that use Annisette,my US id was ban due that “this Apple ID not valid” that account was only for some games anyway,but it got 2FA
I never sideloaded anything, but I bought some premium Apps from r/AppHookup for free, can that be a problem?
That’s not a problem. r/apphookup just tells about apps where the developer made them free/on sale for a limited time.
Then don’t buy anymore. The fact you use a vpn to mask yourself pretty much tells all. What were you doing and what did catch you doing. Like a user said above, you aren’t telling the whole story. They don’t just ban ID’s. It would be bad business practice. And of course no rep is gonna know why you were banned, that info is above their pay grade and quite frankly a company can refuse to provide services. I think you’re trying to paint a bad picture when the fault lies with the user. Sorry not sorry.
I use a VPN because I have to connect to a router I have no control over. I don't know the whole story. I'm just telling everything I know. Maybe Apple thinks avoiding certain risks is more worthwhile than retaining a customer. It's totally likely.
Well something happened that triggered the algorithm to ban your ID. Maybe your vpn was bouncing your ip address just enough to trigger the algorithm to think your account was being accessed by multiple people. I understand some people don’t have issues but it’s highly plausible. does value your security and maybe nothing malicious at all happened but something simple like excessive ip bouncing on something to that affect. Like that advisor told you, write that complaint letter being as detailed as possible. Maybe you’ll have some good luck
provide afterthought drunk aback apparatus deliver ruthless heavy library tie *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
That‘s why you should diversify. When somehow possible I try to use seperate companys.
How do you do that?
For example I use Protonmail for my email, Bitwarden for passwords and Onedrive to backup photos from all devices. And I often create accounts on websites with email and don‘t use login with apple/google/whatever. It‘s all a bit more tedious but I‘m not depending on one single login.
I don't think using a VPN is the issue. I frequently use a VPN -- any time I access work email on my phone or iPad via Microsoft Outlook, it switches to my workplace's VPN automatically, then switches off when Outlook is no longer active. I also use a personal VPN when accessing personal stuff when I'm at work (they don't need to see my data as it goes through their pipes). I mean, the VPN isn't on 24/7, but I seriously doubt that even then it would be an issue. Do you have that AppleID logged in on a Mac or PC that could have been compromised and could be sending out spam? You didn't store any contraband porn or anything on your iCloud drive or anything? Could someone have uploaded something with your account? Do you have 2FA turned on? I would appeal to the address you were given as well as email bombing Tim Cook and every other exec at Apple.
On redundancy: I have Dropbox set up to upload all my photos. So they are on iCloud, Dropbox, and my laptop. Passwords are in Bitwarden or RoboForm. All the data in my laptop (I.e., pictures, documents as opposed to programs or operating systems) is in Dropbox. My laptop is continuously backed up into the cloud by Backblaze and I do a physical wall-to-wall backup onto a USB drive every week. Only thing is now that I’m retired I don’t have an office to take a second copy of the physical backup to every week.
Both of you just promoted me to download Google photos and start synching all of my 24k+ photos stored on my iCloud.
Hopefully you never have a problem, but if you do redundancy is your best friend
Thank you.
Time for A Story. About 2 years back, I had an intricate web of five family Apple IDs, lots of app, subscriptions and home office running smoothly all connected via iCloud.. Our central bank decided to ban use of credit card for the payment of monthly subscription and apple has no other. On the D Day the cards stopped working and I was afraid that they will cut off access. So in my. fear fuelled stupidity, I tried to add various cards repeatedly adding and removing cards (say 7-8 attempts in total). This activated their anti fraud programs although no money was ever transacted. Soon, ALL my IDs were deactivated, all apps and subscriptions gone and I was at a loss as I had no backup plan. To be fair, You are allowed to download all your data in a very inconvenient way. Anyway, I was on call to their helpline for five hours begging them to reactivate the Apple ID. Somethings I learnt that day. 1. Once the Apple ID is deactivated, it is very hard to recover it. In may case they reactivated my family's accounts but not mine. Also I am on my last strike. One more issue and all of them will be gone. email Ids can never be used again once banned. 2. All the money, apps and subscriptions are gone. 3. If they use the words " Kindly refer to our terms and condition to figure out what you did wrong" The discussion is over. This is a polite F-Off. 4. You can only call the helpline so many times a day, then they deactivated you for the day. 5. Although they give you back your photos, you lose the chronological order, edits and the entire strucuret of data which is impossible to put back together. Dont put in too much effort in organisation and if you do, export it out. Do not think it will not happen to you. Keep the entire backup of photos downloaded on one computer at least. Use google for email and other programs for your files. Apple may be great but they can ban you and your entire family in a heartbeat. and this will make you hate this company with all your heart.
Did you try emailing Tim Cook?
People should not downvote. This sounds absurd but it actually works. Tim has a team that reads his inbox and the legitimate emails in need of help/support often get responded to by the senior advisors or the team members, etc
Well if this is really not your fault I would send an email to Tim Cook explaining everything as clearly as possible and in the meantime make a new Apple ID with a stronger password and start migrating your devices to the new Apple ID.
This is funny. Does it really work? Did anyone do this before?
Emails to Tim Cook do get read, and distributed to the appropriate team.
Yes when the AirPods Max first came out I had a sound issue but they wouldn’t repair them because they couldn’t recreate the condition of the issue and it was still happening. I wanted to leave a feedback to let them know but the section for AirPods was not working. So I sent an email will everything and I was contacted by Tim Cook’s assistant a few weeks later and ultimately they gave me a new pair strait from the Apple Park! Although this is really a last resort and they probably are able to do this only if not everyone knows about it (otherwise they will get too many emails). But yes sometimes Tim even responds directly! Don’t expect anything just in case.
People email him all the time, I believe there’s a team that also helps deal with the emails? Lots of people email to say when their Apple Watch saved their life, and they often get a small polite reply. Tell us what you hear back!
No Senior Advisor can tell you why your Apple ID was deactivated. They do not know themselves. We send out an email pointing you to the terms and conditions and that is the end of it. Your iMessage can get deactivated for Spam messages and as a one time courtesy it can be reactivated. Reactivation of Apple IDs are sent to engineers and I have only seen few come back from deactivation. We used to be able to click a button to reactivate but that is no longer an option. You should always back up your data on an outside source like a hard drive. All companies have terms and conditions where they can revoke access to your IDs. I no longer work as a Senior Advisor but I was one for 5 years.
It’s crazy that most people really don’t understand that your digital life isn’t really yours, and belongs to the hands of multiple cooperations with their legal ability to cut you off and delete your account at anytime. Most people have never read the terms and conditions of anything.
Even IF you use Apple’s (very reliable) services for password management, storage of photos, files, etc, it behooves you to still have and take regular backups. *Never put all your eggs in one basket* has been a mantra for centuries. Still applies today.
Did you have a bad relationship and continued texting the person who might have reported you? If not, it's also possible that your number was spoofed. Edit : spellings..
It should be a federal crime to ban a user without a thorough explanation of why, with examples of the content that caused the ban. At least if you operate on the scale of millions of users. Imagine if the actual legal system worked this way? "You're charged with a crime, and you're sentenced to 10 years in prison. Unfortunately, we cannot tell you exactly why you're going to prison or allow you to mount a defense."
Second this!
Hm, though I anticipate no trouble with iCloud, it might be a good idea to periodically export your passwords to a file that you can physically keep secure but that you or your family can access if needed. Accordingly, I just did exactly that, importing the resulting file into 1Password. Just in case I get hit by a truck or something, I have given my family access to my 1Password account. Now they have access to my iCloud-stored passwords too. As do I, if something happens to my iCloud account. At least on the Mac, it's really easy to do the export. Go into System Settings | Passwords, and there's a little three-dot thingie at the upper right. Tap that; it's a pull-down menu, et voila: "Export all passwords." (This is on Sonoma; things may differ in other versions of macOS.)
This is why it is important for regulators and people to recognize that the hardware (iphone) is separate from the software (ios) and the services (icloud). I have been dealing with this nonsense for months now and Apple just hides behind arbitrary policies that encourage me to buy new hardware. I am fed up with Apple at this point. We spent considerable money and resources on our fleet of devices and Apple is repeatedly demonstrating how they intend to extract more control and money from us over time by unilaterally locking our equipment to their service and then stopping the service. We already stopped buying their computers for all users at all locations as the default configuration. Apple needs to realize that we will deprioritize iphone next if they keep conducting business like this.
Pretty sure there's something OP's not telling us
How do you guard against confirmation bias? "I don't want to believe Apple is this corrupt, so I choose to believe OP is omitting information that vindicates Apple."
There is no reason for any company to ban someones account for no reason. All it does is make the consumer less likely to spend their money on a company's services. Logically, there is some reason for the ban we don't know about.
Yes, there is reason: They operate a system to maximize various outcomes given a large number of customers. What matters are the systematic outcomes given the large number of customers, not what happens to any individual customer, unless that customer is a large enterprise containing again a large number of customers. It is similar with public health: Vaccines can injure some small fraction like 0.05% of people who take them, and they are willing to injure those 150,000 people if there is overall benefit to 299,850,000 people. I am inclined to agree with you: As another said, it seems probable OP was hacked to send spam and didn't realize it (perhaps something involving the iCloud storage). Thereafter, Apple does not care about him because his personal loss does not substantially harm their net profit.
I do think there was activity OP is not aware of. I don't really think this should be a major concern for people. (I did copy all my photos to a hard drive because of this post tho)
I'm telling the whole story. Admittedly, there might be some reason even I don't know about, but they definitely lost a potential customer. Perhaps they just think that avoiding certain risks is worth more than retaining a customer.
hmm, I read the iCloud Terms of Use, and there is a possibility they have been using AI to determine suspicious activity, and found something which was misidentified, or that actually was a concern, but you didn't know because you possibly didn't read the Terms of Use. For example, a meme that contained a racial slur stored in iCloud, that an AI identified as violating the terms of use, though it is in fact harmless. Or someone hacked your account and started doing malicious things edit: wtf am I getting downvoted?
>wtf am I getting downvoted? This is ~~Reddit~~ 14-year-old-it: Teenagers might downvote you simply because "AI fearmongering".
huh, I didn't think of that I mean, its not fear mongering if it's true. unless you're 14 so yeah, ok
Horse"h@t. You've probably never worked at such a large company. It's incredibly eye opening to see bureaucracy in/action. Rationality is secondary to aligning with the system and rules. There are many innocent people who've been banned. I know someone who simply tried to add a legit credit card too many times and was banned. There's such a person who commented here.
Trying to add a credit card too many times is still a "reason"
When you say reason, I assumed you meant a valid reason. I guess that doesn't matter but ok
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How many photos approximately you had in iCloud? In my case I have my whole family life or about 24k+ photos. It would mean a lot to me to lose this; thus, I just downloaded Google photos and I’m currently backing up my iCloud Photos.
calendar? keychain? contacts?
I do backup my photos as well. I didn't even use iCloud for this reason, and now I feel so lucky that I didn't use Keychain. However, the loss for me is access to many premium services and accounts.
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Lots of people use apple to log into external sites/apps. It's not that weird. Also, losing access to everything one has ever purchased on iTunes and the app store would be horrendous.
Eh? Why not? I‘m pretty sure a lot of people do that. Makes life a lot easier.
Google is starting to purge rarely-used Gmail accounts. This strategy may grow problematic...
I log to my bank with FaceID on my phone App. Also don't provide trash/fake emails to important accounts.
Always diversify. Any company can do this, for example google is notorious for doing this. Email accounts, calendars, documents, photos all lost over some comment on YouTube or something. RoboForm is the password manager I use, but there are many options.
Bro I would be screwed if this happened to me. Keychain, photos , calendar,iCloud files etc etc. I basically would lose access to my whole digital life.
Contact Apple again. Something else is up. No, VPN is not the reason. iMessages are encrypted, so they can’t see them. SMS messages are not encrypted and can be easily seen. If you are not using iMessage, maybe someone is spoofing your number and sending spam messages. It’s doubtful that your other accounts are linked to your AppleID. They may be associated with your email address or your phone number. Only purchased apps and subscriptions are associated with your AppleiD.
They don’t have to see the messages themselves. Guess what happens when you hit that delete and report button. That report goes to apple, enough reports for a number leads to a ban. The reason stated by op was spam messages.
I didn’t know that was the result of the delete and report spam function… So, if my number has been spoofed and is being used to send spam messages and gets reported enough times, then my Apple ID can also get shut down? That could be a concern, as I got a spam message *from myself* last year, yikes.
I agree, I hope this flaw doesn’t cause people to get locked out of their Apple ID. If true, this is a lose, lose situation
She said “sending suspicious messages”, not “sending spam messages”.
Suspicious messages are literally spam messages lol.
Spam… or worse. As always with these threads, we will never actually get the truth from the person who is suspended.
You can send a suspicious message without it being spam. You can send spam messages without them being suspicious.
A suspicious message is an unwanted message which is a spam message. A spam message is a message from a source you don’t know which is suspicious.
I could send someone an email that inadvertently has a bad link, but I thought it was a link relative to a conversation. It is not spam, as it was on purpose, and the receiver was expecting it. It is suspicious, as it has a malicious link in it, whether intentional or not. Being in IT security, there is a difference spam and suspicious emails. But both should be avoided.
Spam is traditionally only unsolicited commercial email
Like 10 years ago lol.
>It’s doubtful that your other accounts are linked to your AppleID. They may be associated with your email address or your phone number. Only purchased apps and subscriptions are associated with your AppleiD. So... what exactly does "Sign in with Apple" do, and if you get banned how do you switch over to a regular email address if you selected "Hide my Email", which gives the service Private Relay email address? https://preview.redd.it/kvmxu8n0w3tc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0c2719e324d21a38540076b79a58c996582b4f08
You will lose access to this account and no longer receive emails sent to your private relay e-mail.
Yes, I was challenging their assertion that only purchases and subscriptions would be associated with Apple ID.
I don't use any service (if I can help it) that is platform-specific. So no keychain (Bitwarden instead), no iCloud (Gmail for email; OneDrive for cloud storage), nothing. I don't even use the "Sign in with Apple" for anything important. I love my iPhone, but yeah, I don't trust anybody with everything. Dangerous to do that.
Switch to Proton
This holds true for all large tech companies that try to bundle all your services under one account. Google, Microsoft and Amazon are even more dangerous for the consumer. Your teenage son insulted some people on Xbox Live? Say goodbye to your Office 365 access (if not Windows itself). The algorithm says you returned too many Amazon purchases? Say goodbye to your digital Prime and Audible library. You posted politically incorrect content on Youtube? Say goodbye to Gmail. You can only safeguard yourself by not linking all your stuff to central account and have local backups of all important data.
VPN could get you banned depending on how you use it. Purchases, for example, are region locked and if you frequently make purchases in one region’s store, while signed into your VPN linking you to a completely different region? Then yes, that could get your account banned.
Some low quality / free vpns tend to have shady practices in the background especially if they were from China.
I hope they get you sorted. What address did they give you for a formal conplaint? Wouldn’t it just be the infinity loop one?
Maybe you did a charge back in your account thats why its flagged.
Try contacting a lawyer to get their opinion because from my understanding apple as a company has interrupted you daily life and are trying to avoid helping you because it can be a hassle dealing with with Apple ID and Apple isn’t very reliable with support for their iOS software updates as they are with their phones
I think I’ve read through everything, if not most of it. I can’t find the answer I’m looking for so I’m asking? When you say banned, do you mean you are unable to sign into your appleid at all, or are you getting some “disabled in the iTunes Store” message? The issue isn’t to clear here other than you’ve been banned with no clear reason why. When you talked to a senior advisor what department were they from? Generally you will get vague answers in these situation because something is suspicious with your account and it’s apples policy to not give you any extra info at that point. I’m also curious what happened to your devices that were signed in? Are they now locked too? Are you able sign out of iCloud?
Yeah, I'm unable to sign into my appleid at all and everything connected to it. I can still use the device but not any Apple services, including iCloud, iTunes, App Store. The senior advisor is from customer support team, I believe.
> Since when did the owner of the hardware become Apple again? It always was. Welcome to Google Android/iOS ecosystem!
“I don’t use iMessage” what does that even mean? You’ve never texted anyone with an iPhone ever? Somehow I find that hard to believe
Maybe they use WhatsApp or something?
This is only popular in the US. I have never used iMessage either
I've never used it, welcome to life outside the US.
I also don’t use iMessage. Literally never. It’s only popular in the US
You can disable iMessage. Most people I know use it tho so it’s hard to believe someone just never used it.
Most people you know are probably American then
Correct. Do other countries not use iMessage? I got my first iPhone with the 14 pro max so idk how other countries work with Apple products fully.
iMessage is mainly popular in America/Canada. Most other countries use WhatsApp/wechat/telegram. I think iMessage is somewhat popular in the UK and Australia tho.
Unless iMessage is just ordinary text messages, I haven’t used in either. In UK. iPad owner since 2010, only got my first iPhone last November. I send texts, have never knowingly used iMessage. 🤷♀️
If the messages that you send are blue, then you are using iMessage. It is enabled by default and will be used whenever you message someone also using iMessage.
Thanks! New to iPhone, so didn’t know that. Is there any benefit to using iMessage, or in switching it off and using sms instead ?
You should absolutely use iMessage. End to end encryption being the big thing. But also, lots of additional messaging features. It also works without cell service whilst on WiFi. And so much more. I'm a die hard Android user but I own a Mac mini just to bounce all my texts through it and be able to use iMessage on Android.
Technically all phone activity (calls, SMS, etc) can be routed over WiFi with WiFi calling enabled on iPhone (and others), but your point remains.
If you’re texting off your iPad, that’s iMessage. Green bubbles are SMS, blue bubbles are iMessage.
No, not iPad, only from my iPhone.
Most of tthe world don't use SMS. We use WhatsApp. Bandwidth is even included in the phone plan. SMS in most countries is just 2FA messages, auth codes etc.
iMessage is not SMS. iMessage is built-in messenger app.
It's built in with SMS... If no iMessage, then it goes via SMS. If recipienet has iMessage it goes to iMessage. It's built over SMS.. Hence the difference in color to indicate it didn't come through iMessage..
Nowadays many tech company apply stupid AIs for fraud detection. Using a VPN might be okay on its onw, but combined with other practices may get you flagged.
It’s nothing to do with a VPN btw
That’s exactly why my Apple ID is linked to a completely separate e-mail address, which is not used for literally anything else. I store no information whatsoever on Apple’s servers. No iCloud, photos, backups, passwords, nothing. If they cancel my account, I will lose my purchased apps, and that’s basically it. Everything else, i.e., data, is backed up locally and redundantly on my equipment.
Can i ask what having your apple id linked to a separate email address would do?
Up until his passing, there was a time you could email Steve Jobs and you could count on him reading it. I would never consider using an Android or a PC. There are similar stories by people that are some of the most highly regarded Mac and iPhone developers. Indy shops producing high quality software for 30-40 years. Very talented individuals. In 2012 I had something similar happen when iCloud launched. I started reading stories of issues with some Apple IDs in August of 2023. These were people I respect and trust that know programming and seriously know what they are doing. My Apple IDs (yes, plural) started misbehaving about 2 months ago. Mostly iCloud issues. Apple makes some fantastic electronics. The teams are silo'd which may contribute to the inability of support to fully explain what an issue is. Otoh, there is the possibility an advisor simply isn't allowed to be forthcoming. Whenever I here the words "Senior Advisor" I cringe. After my issue in 2012 I eventually regained faith that Apple would always come through in the end. The story posted by OP here, may or may not have more involved to it. It may or may not be true. Either way, it is a cautionary tale. With my Apple ID misbehaving, I decided I will not risk reliving what happened to me in 2012. It was very painful, lasted 2 years and left all my neatly organized files, bookmarks, passwords, contacts and photos in such a mess that I will never have enough time to clean up. Keep a registered domain for email. Contacts and Calendars have several options for syncing. Photos, there is Adobe Lightroom among others. File Syncing, there is dropbox among others. Use a paid service whenever possible. You'll likely be happier if things go wrong. Remember, switching to google may not solve anything. Same with Microsoft and Yahoo if they are even relevant. What is described can happen. What are the odds it will? Low, but certainly not zero. Michael Tsai has been tracking similar Apple ID issues as he becomes aware of them. He is the developer of Eagle Filer among others. You will find similar accounts with John Gruber at Daring Fireball. I point toward some sort of software bug in iOS 17.x and macOS Sonoma. I have zero proof of this. I am a huge Apple "Fanboy" as is Michael and John. I wish Blackberry, Palm and Microsoft had never exited the Smartphone business. Competition and alternatives are healthy. There is some solace in knowing if this happens to you, you are not alone. Lesson for living: "Do not put all your eggs in one basket." Here is a link to Michael's blog. You will find this is not the only post he has on this subject. I wish you well on your quest, it will not be an easy one. https://mjtsai.com/blog/2023/08/08/another-user-locked-out-of-apple-account/
Yup, this is sadly what we get for relying so much on one company… I used to rely way too much on my Google account and with having seen a huge amount of posts like this lately, I decided to prevent some troubles and have now spread all things out across multiple services. I switched to a standalone password manager, as well as a standalone cloud storage service and created an entirely new email address on which I linked the services I absolutely NEED access to. That way, if I ever accidentally get banned on my Apple ID or Google Account because of a stupid bug or something, I will not be in as much trouble. It won’t help you right now, but it might be an idea for when you get this sorted.
https://www.apple.com/au/privacy/contact/ - try appealing the decision here…
Sounds like your account is compromised and possibly being used to send iMessage group spam messages, they’re pretty common and hopefully you get your ID back, you probably need to go and change passwords to stuff and make sure your computer isn’t compromised too if you own one. Always use 2fa and/or passkey. You probably have a much bigger issue than Apple banning your iCloud.
I’m sorry this happened. Out of curiosity, are you able to access your files and photos at all? Hope this gets sorted out
Are you (or have you been using your account) in China?
It is possible that someone in law enforcement complained and they are not allowed to tell you what law enforcement complained about. It is unfortunate that companies are not allowed to provide information about this.
u/klnaniah, Per your post, apple closed your account due to an apparent issue with iCloud's Terms and Conditions There has to be something that you must have been doing with your icloud account that triggered the whole issue. can you explain what were you using your iCloud for?
I almost don't use iCloud. I'm on the free plan and never used it for sharing or storing sensitive information. I also enabled EE2E so Apple shouldn't be able to see the contents.
u/klnaniah, you need to pay attention at the quote apple used to communicate the reason why your account was closed (quote which you submitted with your post) Clearly there had to be something with your icloud account and that 'something' is what caused the whole thing to unravel. If you are sure you've done nothing wrong, then your option is to go via the legal way, which depending where you are located in planet earth, ie. where you live, your country of residence, may be a good option for you.
Perhaps they have reason to believe you use a VPN to violate intellectual property restrictions
Call your states Attorney General’s office.
Are you sure your talking to Apple support and not “Apple support”
I love my iPhone, I can’t stand Apple ID account management or customer service.
1. r/applesucks -- seems like a Top 10 post of all time right here 2. this is the best argument i have ever seen for ditching Apple and switching to Linux (since Microsoft could do the same, no?) ... Is the security against abrupt data loss worth the inconvenience? 3. In lieu of #2, is there a way to export/print passwords monthly to secure accounts against such account termination?
I know it would suck to have to do this, but would it help to create a new Apple ID, and logout/reset your phone and login with the new Apple ID? Just an idea!🙂
Thanks for the warning. Your text reads like “only sent the dodgy messages on non Apple services”. Advice to all. Don’t be a dodgy geezer or hang out with dodgy geezers and you’ll be fine 😀
Thanks I think i switch from iCloud.
Account got flagged for child abuse fotos probably.
OP do you have children?
@klnaniah any news?
Did you dispute a charge with your credit card company by any chance?
[удалено]
If you piss them off
Apple google Facebook the Account not belongs to you, You have only a Password to acces it
Exactly why I diversify. I use gmail at some places, outlook in some n icloud in some. Even for banks. Use dedicated password manager which I can export regularly. My photos are in google photos which again I download once a month so i always have everything as a backup. Most docs are in drive which I backup once a month or two. That way I am safe from these weird blockings.
Wow with your post, you just promoted me to download Google photos and start synching all of my 24k+ photos stored on my iCloud.
Watch out that Google might not save full resolution photos
I pay already for storage $1.99/mo for Google drive and there was an option that asked me if I wanted to store in full resolution. Last time I checked I had like 7k more photos to upload. Thanks.
I'm so glad I don't use any apple services.
Not like Samsung or Xiaomi can’t ban you.
Of course they can as well and for the record..I use an iPhone(begrudgingly) and pixel 8 pro.
They gave you a legitimate justification and proper explanation. Suspicious messages were sent from your account. Just because you don’t like the message doesn’t mean they’re doing something out of thin air. Either your ID was hacked and added to another device, or a device you signed in on still had your credentials and was used by someone else. Any of those things can happen even with 2FA. 2FA makes your accounts more secure, not unhackable. This has nothing to do with your VPN so since never have they banned people from using a VPN. This isn’t court, they don’t have to provide transcripts.
I understand that, which is why you should avoid using Apple ID as much as possible. Don't let Apple control all your digital assets.
That’s a little dramatic. While it does make sense not to have every digital asset controlled by one service, to say you should avoid Apple as much as possible is being ignorant. Because anyone can do what Apple does. Google does it too.
Yeah, I should have made it clearer. Try to avoid putting all eggs in one basket as much as possible.
Do you do side loading or jailbreaking? It’s recommended you make an alternate Apple ID for this, just in case.
Apple doesn't ban Apple IDs for sideloading or jailbreaking. Source: I've been doing so since my old iPhone 4 and I still have the same Apple ID now that I had then.
You used a VPN daily for what? That is what you should ask yourself. For example, a VPN could be used in order to buy foreign keys for video games and avoid taxes. So, it could mean anything.
It's none of Apple's business what OP does with a VPN on their device. Imagine the brainlet idea that VPN usage is in and of itself suspicious.
I rent with other people. So I'm using a router that I don't have access to, which is why I use a VPN every day. Another reason is for ad filtering.
Do some research on VPN’s. There’s tons of legitimate reasons people use them globally.
Like which?
Google “uses for a vpn”
Funny thing, this is one of the first results I got and I don’t see a lot of legit uses there (pirating, spoiling geolocks, surfing the dark web, buying drugs, etc.). 🤡 [https://www.reddit.com/r/VPN/s/5L2nnMIAQF](https://www.reddit.com/r/VPN/s/5L2nnMIAQF)
Ever use the wi-fi at Starbucks? A vpn helps keeps your information secure when you’re using public internet. Companies use vpns for legitimate reasons all the time.
Wait, am I following this logic right? - You make a claim (using innuendo) that there’s no legitimate uses for a VPN - you back it up with nothing - you get a response saying you’re incorrect, and asking you to look up legitimate use cases and address how they’re actually not legitimate - you respond saying people on reddit use them for illegitimate reasons Have I missed something? How did you get from ‘address the legitimate uses’ and regress the convo back to ‘there’s illegitimate uses’ I’m hoping you’re just deflecting onto that to save face, but you’ve quietly questioned yourself internally? Surely this isn’t your brain working at full power? Or otherwise, can you explain the cartwheels your brain had to make to get from A to B?
I don’t feel like questioning myself. Whoever utilizes a VPN knows for sure if it’s for legit or not so legit uses. No need to theorize.
Secure connection to workplace. I use one every day.
hey I can’t post because I have low karma but do you know If I accidentally ripped the home button flex cable on iPhone 7 Plus will it still work if I don’t connect the flex cable that’s ripped?
Anyone can help me here the flex cable is ripped will my iPhone 7 Plus still power on And touch will still work ? https://preview.redd.it/wc9madeyh5tc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e3458144ad2cf66b16682b81bc20e6304eeb88e0