Strange pop-up asking for connection with Apple ID from time to time.

[Mickeymaus]

I have nothing to do with Apple, the best phones in the world ????????????????. I always buy Samsung because Apple is so expensive ????. But a Thai friend has one and she always asks me when there are problems. Here a new problem where I would be happy to get an explanation for it and an easy fix - without changing her Apple ID. 

 

The problem is that pretty often she gets this annoying pop-up asking if she wants to allow a connection with her Apple ID. She has the choice to allow it or not. Does anyone else have this problem? 

 

[sometimewoodworker]

4 hours ago, Mickeymaus said:

 

The problem is that pretty often she gets this annoying pop-up asking if she wants to allow a connection with her Apple ID. She has the choice to allow it or not. Does anyone else have this problem? 

It isn’t a problem. It is a standard part of Apple’s security and the 2 factor system. 
 

If it is appearing without her doing anything then it is somewhat concerning. It’s certainly possible that her Apple ID email address/phone number is close to another and the other person is making a typo, it’s also possible that someone is actively trying to access the account.

 

My first action would be to ensure that the Apple ID password is secure and uncrackable (change if required) then depending on the number of times the pop up appears (more than about 3~5 times in a shortish period) change the Apple ID email address (or phone number, if the Apple ID is a phone number not email)

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202667

 

TLDR keep the Apple ID, change the address/PW used for it.

[Mickeymaus]

5 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

It isn’t a problem. It is a standard part of Apple’s security and the 2 factor system. 
 

If it is appearing without her doing anything then it is somewhat concerning. It’s certainly possible that her Apple ID email address/phone number is close to another and the other person is making a typo, it’s also possible that someone is actively trying to access the account.

 

My first action would be to ensure that the Apple ID password is secure and uncrackable (change if required) then depending on the number of times the pop up appears (more than about 3~5 times in a shortish period) change the Apple ID email address (or phone number, if the Apple ID is a phone number not email)

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202667

It shows up randomly. I was thinking about changing the Apple ID but I have no idea what problems this will cause because I have no idea what she does with this ID. And I don't see her that often to be able to provide a quick fix then. But if there is no other way we will change it.

 

Always problems and because I don't have an iPhone I can only help her when we meet. I have Android. And she has two iPhones that she uses all the time... ????????????. It is a completely different world than Android. 

[sometimewoodworker]

46 minutes ago, Mickeymaus said:

It shows up randomly. I was thinking about changing the Apple ID but I have no idea what problems this will cause because I have no idea what she does with this ID. And I don't see her that often to be able to provide a quick fix then. But if there is no other way we will change it.

 

DO NOT CHANGE THE APPLE ID!!!!!
 

Yes you can do it but it will cause problems that are unpredictable and likely unpleasant.

 

You can change the password.

You can change the email address.

Neither one of these changes the Apple ID 

You can change the secure phone number associated with the account.

 

None of these changes are particularly drastic and none of them should cause problems.

My Apple ID has about 15 devices and is probably about 20 years old, so a change would take a bit of time and I wouldn’t do it unless I had to.

 

I have a single android device that I very occasionally use so I know very little about the system

[Mickeymaus]

7 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

DO NOT CHANGE THE APPLE ID!!!!!
 

Yes you can do it but it will cause problems that are unpredictable and likely unpleasant.

 

You can change the password.

You can change the email address.

Neither one of these changes the Apple ID 

You can change the secure phone number associated with the account.

 

None of these changes are particularly drastic and none of them should cause problems.

My Apple ID has about 15 devices and is probably about 20 years old, so a change would take a bit of time and I wouldn’t do it unless I had to.

 

I have a single android device that I very occasionally use so I know very little about the system

The connection requests happen with the Apple ID. 

[Mickeymaus]

Can't edit my post before. But I studied a little bit the really great Apple documentation. Mr. Sam Sung could learn from this... 

 

Nothing much happens when I change the Apple ID. It simply replaces the old with the new. In the worst case, she has to log out everywhere with the old ID and log in again with the new one. Please correct me if I didn't understand that correctly.

 

But the other question still remains - why does something like the shown problem happen at all. An idiot trying to use her Apple ID sometimes ????? A hacker that hopes that she allows to use it ????? 

 

 

[sometimewoodworker]

2 hours ago, Mickeymaus said:

Nothing much happens when I change the Apple ID. It simply replaces the old with the new. In the worst case, she has to log out everywhere with the old ID and log in again with the new one. Please correct me if I didn't understand that correctly.

There are 2 completely different things that you may be referring to.

 

The first one is the Apple ID that is what you do not want to change. There is little benefit (for the majority of users) in changing to a new Apple ID

 

The second are the credentials used to log into her Apple ID.

 

I strongly suspect that you are changing the credentials for the account. If that is what is being done there is no problem and little difficulty other than logging in with the new credentials. 
 

If however you are actually creating new Apple ID accounts you will find there are some hard limitations to that.

 

2 hours ago, Mickeymaus said:

But the other question still remains - why does something like the shown problem happen at all. 

An idiot trying to use her Apple ID sometimes ????? A hacker that hopes that she allows to use it ????? 

She has a gmail address so the “idiot” could just be a fumble fingered person (cure, use a long non obvious email address) more likely a hacker (cure, use a very long non obvious email address

[Mickeymaus]

2 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

There are 2 completely different things that you may be referring to.

 

The first one is the Apple ID that is what you do not want to change. There is little benefit (for the majority of users) in changing to a new Apple ID

 

The second are the credentials used to log into her Apple ID.

 

I strongly suspect that you are changing the credentials for the account. If that is what is being done there is no problem and little difficulty other than logging in with the new credentials. 
 

If however you are actually creating new Apple ID accounts you will find there are some hard limitations to that.

 

She has a gmail address so the “idiot” could just be a fumble fingered person (cure, use a long non obvious email address) more likely a hacker (cure, use a very long non obvious email address

I am referring to the Apple ID in the link that you sent me ????. Apple calls the email address Apple ID. Also in this strange pop-up it calls the email address Apple ID. Now I am confused. Is this not the Apple ID?

 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202667

[sometimewoodworker]

28 minutes ago, Mickeymaus said:

I am referring to the Apple ID in the link that you sent me ????. Apple calls the email address Apple ID. Also in this strange pop-up it calls the email address Apple ID. Now I am confused. Is this not the Apple ID?

 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202667

You are misunderstanding the difference between an Apple ID 

and the credentials used to log into the apple id

”From the link. above”

Quote

How to change your Apple ID to a different email address

 

Of necessity, Apple uses the term “Your Apple ID” to refer to the email address (or phone number) that are used to log into an Apple ID. However, that email address is not the Apple ID as it can be changed. The password is not the Apple ID because it can be changed, the secure phone number is not the Apple ID because it can be changed.

 

 

You can create an Apple ID using a different email address (I have 3) using different, or creating new, Apple IDs is neither simple nor without problems 

 

You can change the credentials used to access your Apple ID (changes to an Apple ID email don’t change the account) this is reasonably easy and repeaters no problems 

 

28 minutes ago, Mickeymaus said:

Also in this strange pop-up it calls the email address Apple ID. Now I am confused. Is this not the Apple ID?

Yes and no. It is the address used to log into the account.

 

The difference between changing the account is that you loose all the purchases you have made with the account and history of downloads. If you change credentials you don’t loose anything.

[sometimewoodworker]

Now to throw even more cats among the pigeons there is the difference between an AppleID and a iCloud account. In general you will setup both at the same time and will get 5GB of free storage.
However on any one device you can only ever Create 3 Apple IDs with free iCloud accounts.

This does not stop you using accounts that have been created on other devices but creating new ones is strictly limited.

 

So that is even more reason to change credentials not create new accounts.

[Mickeymaus]

Thank you for your patience with me ????????????.  I'm not smart enough to use Apple products... Must stay with Sam Sung.

I will change this email address and hope that the problem is solved. Before that, she always had Samsung phones. But her sister works in the US and always gives her her old iPhones when she comes to visit Thailand. So we have to live with it ????????????. The main problem is that I cannot help her when talking on the phone since my Android OS is very different. We always have to meet then.

[sometimewoodworker]

12 hours ago, Mickeymaus said:

Thank you for your patience with me ????????????.  I'm not smart enough to use Apple products... Must stay with Sam Sung.

The problem is not with “smarts” it is that Korean and USA designed devices do things differently. Along with Alphabet, Apple, Micro$oft and Blackberry (if the last 2 still exist) all do things differently enough to make swapping knowledge difficult.

[sometimewoodworker]

13 hours ago, Mickeymaus said:

I will change this email address and hope that the problem is solved.

You must use the gmail function that allows for really long email addresses while actually using a short one. If you don’t do that then she WILL get hacking attempts since gmail is the place for neophytes and so dictionary attacks are very common, the only way to reduce dictionary attacks is using a very long email address. This works because Apple will only use the complete (as registered) email address gmail will filter out the extra characters.

 

dots in the name mean nothing to gmail everything to other companies 

characters after a + symble mean nothing to gmail everything to other companies 

 

so 

note I have converted the above to a picture as probably the software will do funny things to text email address 

[Mickeymaus]

1 hour ago, sometimewoodworker said:

You must use the gmail function that allows for really long email addresses while actually using a short one. If you don’t do that then she WILL get hacking attempts since gmail is the place for neophytes and so dictionary attacks are very common, the only way to reduce dictionary attacks is using a very long email address. This works because Apple will only use the complete (as registered) email address gmail will filter out the extra characters.

 

dots in the name mean nothing to gmail everything to other companies 

characters after a + symble mean nothing to gmail everything to other companies 

 

so 

note I have converted the above to a picture as probably the software will do funny things to text email address 

This gets on my nerves that Gmail ignores the extra characters. I use my name as an address and some use the same name with a dot between the first and last name and I get all their emails. 

 

Whatever. We will change her email next time when I meet her and I hope the problem is history. Thank you for your support. I will let you know if we get such pop-ups again. 

[sometimewoodworker]

2 hours ago, Mickeymaus said:

This gets on my nerves that Gmail ignores the extra characters. I use my name as an address and some use the same name with a dot between the first and last name and I get all their emails. 

It is actually a very useful function, though using your name as an email address is not a very good idea if you don't want spam.

I give a different email address to everyone I contact. The benefit of this is that I can virtually immediately know if I get a spam mail or phishing attack, or is some corporate dingbat has got their mailing list compromised.

 

my strategy is to include the company’s own name in the email address I give them. So if I get an email porting to come from, for example, SCB bank that is using an email address that includes dropbox in it I know immediately that it doesn’t come from SCB bank but from some Russian or Chinese hacking attempt.

[Mickeymaus]

17 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

It is actually a very useful function, though using your name as an email address is not a very good idea if you don't want spam.

I give a different email address to everyone I contact. The benefit of this is that I can virtually immediately know if I get a spam mail or phishing attack, or is some corporate dingbat has got their mailing list compromised.

 

my strategy is to include the company’s own name in the email address I give them. So if I get an email porting to come from, for example, SCB bank that is using an email address that includes dropbox in it I know immediately that it doesn’t come from SCB bank but from some Russian or Chinese hacking attempt.

I have many different email addresses. The spam problem is the biggest with the ones I use the most. I only use the real name Yahoo and Google account for banks and very close friends. I have these real name accounts because I was one of the first users of Yahoo and also Gmail. My name is VERY common. Otherwise they would have been used by others already.

 

But putting the company name or perhaps better a number for them in the email address is a good idea. Then you know the bad guys who give your email address to others.

Regarding phishing attacks.  For example, if I get an email from a bank with a link, I will never use that link. I will always type their real address into the browser and log in from there. I will also never open attachments that don't make sense to me.

[sometimewoodworker]

18 minutes ago, Mickeymaus said:

putting the company name or perhaps better a number for them in the email address is a good idea. Then you know the bad guys who give your email address to others.

That is the exact reason for those addresses, however my number of address is virtually infinite since I have 3 domains. The point of a number isn’t not good because then you have to have a lookup list for that. Whereas my addressing policy, to give one example would be aseannow.spam (at) mydomain.net or bob.smith.aseannow (at) mydomain.net or Mickeymaus.asiannow   (at) mydomain.net if I corresponded with bob smith in this forum (of course mydomain.net is not mine. I use a different domain that is my family name)

 

so using those addresses I immediately know where the mail should come from and where the particular bob smith was from or conversely if one or other has been hacked, no looking up required 

[Mickeymaus]

7 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

That is the exact reason for those addresses, however my number of address is virtually infinite since I have 3 domains. The point of a number isn’t not good because then you have to have a lookup list for that. Whereas my addressing policy, to give one example would be aseannow.spam (at) mydomain.net or bob.smith.aseannow (at) mydomain.net or Mickeymaus.asiannow   (at) mydomain.net if I corresponded with bob smith in this forum (of course mydomain.net is not mine. I use a different domain that is my family name)

 

so using those addresses I immediately know where the mail should come from and where the particular bob smith was from or conversely if one or other has been hacked, no looking up required 

I don't have my own domains. Have to live with Yahoo and Google. But I don't use email much anymore. Mostly I use LINE if possible.

[sometimewoodworker]

14 hours ago, Mickeymaus said:

I don't have my own domains. Have to live with Yahoo and Google.

You don’t need your own domain for this to function, you can use gmail.

[Mickeymaus]

30 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

You don’t need your own domain for this to function, you can use gmail.

I know. I will change this email for the Apple ID.

 

She did not reset the phones when she got them from her sister because she didn't want to delete any data. So we have a mixture of her accounts and the accounts of her sister on the phone. And this on two iPhones. ????????????. 

[sometimewoodworker]

1 hour ago, Mickeymaus said:

She did not reset the phones when she got them from her sister because she didn't want to delete any data. So we have a mixture of her accounts and the accounts of her sister on the phone. And this on two iPhones. ????????????. 

There is only 1 Apple ID registered on the iPhone (you can never have 2) for 1 purposes.

You can buy things using a different Apple ID from the phones Apple ID

This is not a problem if you have contact with the owner of the second Apple ID

This causes no problems for using the iPhone, if used between family there is no need or significant benefit to reset the iPhone, as long as you have trust and friendly contact.

 

so you can have 1 Apple ID(1) that has registered the phone and the iCloud account.

you can have a different Apple ID(2) that is logged into the App Store. Apart from keeping organised this causes no problems.

 

I have apps on my iPhone and iPad got with 3 different Apple IDs as they are geo-locked, no problem.

[Mickeymaus]

44 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

This is not a problem if you have contact with the owner of the second Apple ID

This causes no problems for using the iPhone, if used between family there is no need or significant benefit to reset the iPhone, as long as you have trust and friendly contact.

Her sister lives in Hawaii. So we always have the time difference and in addition she is very busy and hard to reach. But we don't know if she saved all the data from her old phones to the new one, and she's not sure either. Otherwise I would have reset the phones long ago. Her data occupy a lot of storage space. Whatever...

[sometimewoodworker]

What is the data? As it is either already backed up or is reasonably easy to backup

[Mickeymaus]

57 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

What is the data? As it is either already backed up or is reasonably easy to backup

We will clarify next time when she comes to Thailand what we should do with her data. I know how to handle backups. I worked in the computer business for very many years. 

[sometimewoodworker]

7 minutes ago, Mickeymaus said:

We will clarify next time when she comes to Thailand what we should do with her data. I know how to handle backups. I worked in the computer business for very many years. 

It isn’t how to backup, as that is reasonably easy to sort out. It is which data is being retained. As for example messages data will already have been transferred, other data as well. Photos can be transferred to google or backed up in another location and deleted, there is an easy way to see what is being kept and what to spend time pruning.

 

[Mickeymaus]

7 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

It isn’t how to backup, as that is reasonably easy to sort out. It is which data is being retained. As for example messages data will already have been transferred, other data as well. Photos can be transferred to google or backed up in another location and deleted, there is an easy way to see what is being kept and what to spend time pruning.

 

We don't know what she transferred and how she did it. She has been using Apple for very many years but is a little bit unorganised ????. We will check all data before we delete them. Only she can tell if she still needs them.

 

But for sure she will bring more of her used iPhones to Thailand. She and her kids and her husband change them very often. So an endless stream of free iPhones for her family here in Thailand. Perhaps I should switch too from Android ????. My mother has an iPhone. My brother has an iPhone. I have the feeling that I am the only one with an Android device in the meantime. But I've always been different ????????.