In a major service disruption, several Apple customers were unexpectedly locked out of their Apple ID across all devices and services without any explanation and were forced to reset their login credentials.
As first reported by 9to5Mac, the problem started surfacing on social media at around 8 p.m. Eastern Time on April 26th and continued to gain momentum into the night and became increasingly widespread into the early hours of the morning.
Affected Apple users took to Twitter, Threads, and other social media platforms to complain that their Apple ID logged them out of iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other Apple devices for no apparent reason, followed by a prompt to reset their account password.
When they tried to log back in using the existing passwords, they were unable to do so. As a result, they had to go through Apple’s account recovery process to reset their Apple ID account password to regain access to their devices.
“I was mid FaceTime and my Apple account got locked and signed out of all my Apple products,” posted @MaxWinebach on X.
Another user wrote, “Hey @AppleSupport all of my Apple products suddenly decided to lock me out of my Apple ID and asked me to re-verify my account. Except my password doesn’t work when I am 100% certain it is correct I get an error. What’s going on? I can’t even reset my password!”
“Seems at least some of us are experiencing issues with our iCloud/Apple ID accounts where we have to reset our passwords and re-login. Anyone else?” wrote a third user.
The unexpected account lockout also caused additional complications for affected users, especially for those who have Stolen Device Protection enabled and are away from a trusted location, making resetting the Apple account password more difficult.
Also, any previously established app-specific passwords within iCloud were also reset because of the service disruption.
Surprisingly, Apple’s own System Status webpage does not acknowledge this widespread issue with any of its services or systems, so there’s no clarity on the exact cause of the problem. Since most complaint reports are from the U.S., it seems that the issue has not impacted Apple users around the world.
Keep watching this space for more updates, as this is a developing story!
