Your Apple ID is much more than a simple username. It’s a key that unlocks a long list of Apple products and services on any of numerous devices. iCloud uses an Apple ID, as does Apple Music; the App Store; the Music, TV, and Books apps; and more. An Apple ID protects your personal information, including email and iOS/iPadOS backups; helps you find a lost iPhone; and can even unlock your Mac. So it goes without saying that if something goes wrong with your Apple ID, you could be in for a world of hurt.
Unfortunately, things go wrong with Apple IDs all the time. Fortunately, Glenn Fleishman, a veteran technology journalist and the author of Macworld’s “Mac 911” column, is ready to help with expert advice on how to manage your Apple ID—including how to prevent, solve, or work around most common problems!
In this book, Glenn answers questions like:
- What all is my Apple ID used for?
- How does my iCloud account relate to my Apple ID?
- What problems can two-factor authentication (2FA) solve, and how do I use it?
- Are there other mechanisms I can use to ensure that I can recover an Apple ID in the event of a problem? (Spoiler: yes!)
- What if I have a device that’s too old to work with two-factor authentication?
- What should I do if I have two or more Apple IDs or iCloud accounts?
- Will I lose access to all my Apple media purchases if I move to another country?
- Can I share an Apple ID with someone else?
- What exactly should I do if I think someone is hacking my Apple ID account?
- How can I recover a forgotten Apple ID password?
- What steps should I take if Apple locks me out of my account?
- If I lose access to an email address associated with my Apple ID, what can I do?
- What Apple ID changes in iOS 15/iPadOS 15 and macOS 12 Monterey do I need to know about?
- How does “Sign in with Apple” work?
- How can I use Family Sharing to share data and purchases within my family?
- What types of subscriptions can I manage with my Apple ID, and how?
- Which payment methods can I associate with my Apple ID, and how do I manage them?
And that’s just the beginning. Glenn has packed a remarkable amount of concise problem-solving information into this compact, 138-page book. Read it before you encounter Apple ID problems to minimize your risk, and if you’ve already encountered a problem, read it to find the best path to a rapid solution.
Glenn Fleishman is a veteran technology writer who has contributed to dozens of publications across his career, including Macworld, Fast Company, and Increment. He has also written dozens of editions of books in the Take Control series. He spent 2019 and 2020 building 100 tiny type museums full of real printing artifacts. Glenn lives in Seattle with his wife and two children.
What’s New in Version 3.2
This version overhauls and expands the section on Digital Legacy to account for updates made in macOS 12.1 Monterey and documentation Apple posted after the previous edition of this book appeared. See “Leave Permission with a Digital Legacy.”
This update contains minor typo fixes. I also reworked and expanded slightly a warning about maintaining a backup of the Apple ID recovery key, for those who use that feature, in response to a reader question; see “Have a Worst-Case Plan to Recover Your Recovery Key.”
Posted by Joe Kissell on April 23, 2021
Glenn Fleishman joined Chuck Joiner on MacVoices in a massive, three-part series to discuss updates to several of his books, including Take Control of Your M-Series Mac, Take Control of Securing Your Mac, Take Control of Your Apple ID, and Take Control of Home Security Cameras. The three episodes are:
You can also watch them right here:
Posted by Glenn Fleishman on February 15, 2019
Apple recently told software developers that two-factor authentication (2FA) will be required as of February 27, 2019, for Apple ID accounts used to log in to the company’s developer website, and which are used for other purposes to create identification and encryption documents. That’s a concern for some developers who haven’t enabled 2FA on the account or accounts they use for development purposes.
Apple requires that you use macOS or iOS to enable 2FA for an Apple ID, as I describe in Take Control of Your Apple ID in some detail (along with how to take steps so that you set up 2FA with the right recovery details in case you have a problem with the account or someone tries to hack into it). That requires a given Mac or iOS device has that Apple ID used as its iCloud login account.
But some developers use one or more Apple IDs for development that they don’t employ with iCloud on any device. They were left wondering how they could possibly enable 2FA, even though they can use telephone-based SMS or automated-voice codes to confirm logins after setting it up.
Fortunately, Take Control of Your Apple ID has the answer (in the section “Set up 2FA Without a Device”). Here’s a brief rundown:
- Set up a separate login account on a Mac, even one you don’t routinely use.
- Log in to iCloud via the iCloud preference pane using the Apple ID you want to upgrade to 2FA.
- Make sure to set at least a couple phone numbers to use as verification codes in the process of set up.
Now, whenever you log into a developer resource or any Apple site or service that requires that Apple ID, Apple will attempt to send a verification code to the macOS account you logged in with, which won’t do anything. Instead, click or tap “Didn’t get a verification code” and then you can choose to receive an SMS or voice-based code to complete the login (as explained in depth in the section “Log In with 2FA by SMS or Voice Call”).
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