r/applesucks

Got permanently locked out of my own iPhone because of Apple’s Activation Lock system and honestly I’ve never been this disappointed in a company.

I was the victim of a scam where another iCloud account got connected to my phone. Since then, the device has been Activation Locked. Fine — I understand anti-theft protections exist. But here’s the insane part:

I HAVE: the original receipt, matching IMEI/serial number, payment proof, all ownership information Apple requested

I contacted support multiple times, including senior advisors, and after the case was closed they basically told me: “there is nothing anyone can do anymore.”

So apparently even if you are the legitimate owner with full proof, Apple’s system can still permanently brick your device because of one scam incident and nobody internally is allowed to override it.

At this point the system feels less like customer protection and more like a machine that automatically assumes fraud while ignoring actual evidence.

I genuinely supported Activation Lock before this happened. Now I see the major flaw: when legitimate owners get caught in the system, Apple gives you almost no path to recover your own property.

Has anyone else experienced this? Did anyone ever get Executive Relations to actually help?

Recently switched from iPhone 11 to iPhone 15, let me just ask, if I were to switch back to the 11, would my camera reel return to a usable state?

As in, all media gets arranged in chronological order, in a single location without having to unbury it over multiple pages/swipes?

Apple's new way of handling photographs and multimedia sucks. I'd never switch back to Android, found that almost totally unusable. Apple was a much better alternative once upon a time, they need to get back to the basics and give up on all the fancy, modern-looking bells & whistles and focus instead entirely on technological function.

I have actually long been considering going "phone less" 😂 Maaaaay be.

iPhone 15 Pro Max, I went to send a standard length video today (maybe 70 minutes long, from an IP NVR system) and my iPhone informed me that I needed to modify the footage (its security footage, so, hard pass, dumbass) in order to send it.

Working to disable this "feature" entirely. If and when I figure it out, I'll be sure to share the steps (any exploits needed, etc).

If I task my iPhone with transferring 100000000EB (exabytes) of data, I expect it will work dutifully on its assignment until death without so much as a peep. Scratch that, I expect it to make its whole purpose in life about fulfilling the commands I've instructed it to complete.

BTW, in case anyone doesn't know, modifying security footage in any way whatsoever for any reason will totally invalidate the footage. Doesn't matter if it showed the moon landing originally, the moment CCTV footage is touched it becomes worth less than nothing.

Siri doesn’t work. It has the same capabilities intelligence as the paper clip helper, and Microsoft Office.
Dictation doesn’t work (phone and mac both)
Any interface that used to be simple and delivered good user experience, has now been added with multiple options and clicks just get to basics.
The photos app sucks
Search function is the worst

Is it time to be an android guy.

Sorry for such a long post, but I wanted you to see it the same way as I did.

tldr at the end.
Also sorry for alternating between czech/eng language in the screenshots, I was playing around with apple intelligence so I occasionally switched mac’s language for it to work.

So after being a Windows and Android user my whole life, I wanted to give a chance to “the other side” and bought a macbook air m4.
I wanted something reliable, light and with a long lasting battery for my possible upcoming travel so I could do my work on the go. Mac seemed perfect for that.

1. The first impression
   I loved the way it looked when I unboxed it, a really beautiful device. I powered it on and the classic Hello screen came up.
   I was then prompted with logging in or creating an Apple ID. As I didn’t have any I wanted to create one. I filled in all the required info and found a free good looking address (which was kinda hard as a lot of them with my name, as I wanted it to sound a bit more professional, are already taken). I then had to fill in my phone number and fill in the code that came as SMS. I did that aaaand…. got an error “There was a problem creating your new Apple ID. Your account cannot be created at this time” Whut?

https://preview.redd.it/23j717uq5b1h1.png?width=986&format=png&auto=webp&s=6e4b9d05bc205d78c23fa7495d6dd4a189262766

I tried it again and again to no avail. I then skipped it and tried it in the settings once the whole thing booted up to the desktop, still the same issue.
I had to google around to find out that I should update my software and try it then.
That worked and after installing the new Tahoe version, it let me create my Apple ID.
I guess it makes sense to want the user to have the latest OS version before leting them create a new ID, but why THE HELL is it not written there? Why this loose error message?
Anyway, I then continued trying the new mac out.

2. iMessage

I wanted to text my brother (long time Apple user) cause he’d lose his mind if I texted him as a blue bubble. But I couldn't. I imported my contacts from google (which was cool tho, I just logged into my google account in the settings and contacts and calendar events were right there). I tried texting my few other friends. 2 of them no problem.
1 of them I had to manually enter his phone number, because otherwise he showed up green (although the same exact number was in the saved contact).
So I tried manually entering my brother's number. Still nothing. His name was either red (contact) or green (manually entered phone num.).
I had to text him for his icloud mail to be able to communicate with him. Weird how this functions with how praised imessage is. And no he has no other phones or numbers.

3. Account action required

Day two of me owning this machine, I get a notification from the settings app that an action is required with my apple account.
I click on it and it wanted me enter my password again. Weird, I thought, but entered it.
“Unknown error”.... what? I try again. “Unknown error”.

https://preview.redd.it/6x1vpyhr5b1h1.png?width=665&format=png&auto=webp&s=914923d229903c2190c6c01e20cadfa3abf81e87

The fuck is this machines problem.
So I had to google again, cause really? Unknown error? What amateurish error is that? Users should never get this kind of error because then, you know, knows shit about what's wrong. At least provide me with some number I can reference tho god damn it.
So back to googling AGAIN.

I came across a few reddit posts, each having a slightly different issue than me, but the advice was to go on https://account.apple.com/ and to try to log in there.

https://preview.redd.it/jgglj15s5b1h1.png?width=376&format=png&auto=webp&s=9a2034033f0f4061ba3653ca8bebe0d5c8368073

Well. Great? The hell is this.Another advice was to go to the https://iforgot.apple.com/ and try to reset my password. Into the “Email or phone number” input field I enter my phone number.

https://preview.redd.it/dawc1xns5b1h1.png?width=325&format=png&auto=webp&s=dca0ec7dae7362cd8300699623d113394d4b8c56

wtf. I tried the email then.
That works and this is what I get:

https://preview.redd.it/q9p44p6t5b1h1.png?width=574&format=png&auto=webp&s=522682dd934276841845d1a65d5db283641cb917

What is this? security reasons? Like was someone already trying to get into my account or what? I didn’t even use it for nothing yet, I had it for a literal day. It was just created and that's it.
Anyway I clicked the unlock account. It wanted my account and my phone number again.
Then I got this

https://preview.redd.it/rffg4gmt5b1h1.png?width=698&format=png&auto=webp&s=42c8d30b2f9d20dc320c471ac749d739590964e2

Essentially “thanks for wanting your account back! we’ll check it and then contact you on THE EMAIL YOU JUST LOST ACCESS TO LOL”
The FUCK is this? This is the praised Apple company, marvel of engineering? Really? WTF?

Anyways I wait. I try to reset my password here and there again as I DON'T HAVE ANY OTHER WAY OF KNOWING if my request is processed already or not. And mind you, this was the SECOND day of me owning this expensive device so I sure as hell was impatient.

To no luck, I always got the “acc not valid or supported” message.
I even tried the Unlock Account way again. And I entered it again and got to the same screen again. The only difference was that now they included a message saying basically “We are still working on it”.

Okay I gave up for the day. I tried it the next day, roughly after 24h.

https://preview.redd.it/yiped35u5b1h1.png?width=683&format=png&auto=webp&s=b4293ca73ecacc67520bd9a37f4065be6eb05f72

WHAT. IS. THIS.
Like really, at this point I’m exhausted. I googled again and found a lot of posts saying that if this is the message you’re seeing, then say goodbye to that account cause it’s gone for good and that you have to create a new one. Many people confirm that that’s exactly what they got from the a. support.
That can’t be right, right? Like this account existed FOR A DAY. How could it be locked out forever without any reason or warning?
I wanted to call the support (as that’s the only way of contacting them in the 21st century), but they were closed by that time and I had to wait another day… sigh.
By the way, navigating their support websites is also a nightmare. No info for my problem, just constant links to other pages that are either dead end (error or “ur acc is locked”), or it’s in a loop. I had to GOOGLE their support phone number as I cound’t fucking find it on the website.

4. Contacting support and resolution
   So the next day I called them. Explained the problem into detail and the support guy was very nice about it, but clueless about what or why it happened.
   He wanted my apple ID and my (this time different) email where he can send me info.
   He said that he himself doesn’t have rights to see a lot of things so he’ll advance this up and I have to wait for another 2 days to get some results. So I waited, as that’s what I was doing most of the time with this device anyway.

After 2 days I get the arranged call and he says basically the same thing. “Security reasons” but doesn’t know any specific info, just this generic bullshit. He says that the only way now is to log out from my Mac - which you can’t do on your own ofc as it’s linked to a locked account and you have to fill out some forms and, you guessed it, WAIT SOME MORE so they can unlock it.
Then create a new account and use that.

But WHY IN THE HOLIEST FUCK would I do that. WHO would guarantee me that I won’t create a new account, fill it with important info/photos/emails and stuff and then LOSE IT randomly because of “Security reasons” without any further info or way to get it back. Like how this can be a multibillion company? How can so many people put trust in this god awful support of their?

Am at a loss of words really. Sorry to get all heated up but I am angry, believe that.
I’m returning this piece of shit back to the store and never touching apple again

TL;DR
I bought a MacBook Air M4 as a longtime Windows/Android user expecting a smooth “it just works” experience, but instead spent days dealing with broken Apple ID creation, random account locks, vague error messages, confusing recovery flows, and support that couldn’t even explain what happened. The hardware is great, but the whole Apple account ecosystem completely killed my trust in the platform.

Liquid glass??? Is it liquid because of how messy and everywhere it fucking is??? I loved the easy islands, small barrier between having Discord on one side and maybe YouTube or Reddit on the other, but now there's a big ass glass barrier with huge rounded edges that take up the screen. Not to mention how easy it is to accidentally make it a floating island that is inconvenient and if you move the 3 dots to minimize, maximize or remove out of the screen, you will either have to close the app or try to get it to maximize another way.

I miss IOS 18 so bad, I accidentally updated from that and wow it was so much more useful. I always avoided apple except for iPads since my experience with android tablets were generally worse, but I might just make that switch instead of sticking with this bullshit.

I stopped using my Apple M2 several years ago.

However the account password, email, phone were part of a security breach (still not showing on haveibeenpwned.com). And the hackers managed to change the 2FA because apparently you only need to know the phone number to recover the account. I wasn't even notified of the change until I started getting receipts with someone else's name but still going to my email.

None of my financial info or documents were in the cloud. I don't really want to repair an Apple product that was substandard to begin with. I am slightly worried about identity theft.

But Apple won't shut down my account even though I have a license, passport, proof of receipt and original device.

They will however ALLOW:

- someone to change 2FA without notifying me from a telephone in Brazil (I'm Australian)

- allow person to recover account even without security question because I set those when making the account

- add a totally random credit card with a different name to the account

- charge that credit card to make a purchase in Ukranian currency 3 days later

I don't want anything from that account I really just want it shut down. I don't know what to do at this point....

On the other hand my Google account wants me to relog even if there is a change in IP or detected location and I can use another email as backup, not just a phone.