I am an Apple hostage

avatar

I ditched Apple all at once. Morally it was the right thing to do, but personaly I am suffering the consequences.

You see, Apple has some very useful features, that are designed to lock you, in an evil way. For years I have had a Macbook, an iPad and an iPhone. I used their password manager to store my keys so that I could register in one device and easily login on the others.

They do have a password manager for Windows, but you need to use a 2 factor authentication method from an Apple device to login. You can use an iCloud app on your Windows and you get the 2 factor authentication method from your own Windows, so that seems like an issue that is solvable, but it is not.

Knewing that, I thought I could simply abandon it all at once. I logged into iCloud and the Apple password manager on my Windows computer and I was slowly transfering my hundreds of login methods to Bitwarden, just in case, so that I wouldn't have to rely on Apple's password manager.

Well, turns out I should have given full priority to transitioning from Apple to Bitwarden and should have done it all at once. Today I was logged out of my iCloud on my Windows computer, and that was my last logged in Apple session.

To log back in I need to fill in a 2 factor authentication code, sent to an Apple device of mine, which I have none. Well, "luckily" to login on iCloud they allow the code to be sent to my phone number. I received the code on my phone and logged in on iCloud from my Windows computer.

But to access the password manager I need to enable it from the iCloud configs, and to enable it I need to enter another 2 factor authentication code and that one code DOES NOT ALLOW ME TO GET IT FROM MY PHONE NUMBER!

I am not getting 2 factor codes on my Windows computer anymore. I could log in on iCloud by getting a code on my mobile phone, but to enable the password manager I need to get a code specifically on an Apple device, my Windows counted as an Apple device when the password manager was enable, but since it was misteriously disabled I am not getting the code on my Windows anymore like I used to, and I can't get it on my phone, like the one to login to iCloud.

Apple has taken my passwords hostage.

I knew the password manager would be trouble eventually, but I didn't expect it to be this quick and this dramatic, and to be fair I didn't take it seriously, I thought "haha, how paranoid I am, thinking I am gonna be locked out, where is the tinfoil hat at?".

The lesson here is, if you use an Apple device, keep a backup of everything outside of Apple. Don't trust their iCloud to store your files, don't trust their password manager to store your credentials, copy everything outside of Apple as soon as you can.

I knew all of that, but I thought it would not happen to me.

If eventually you want to, or you need to, stop using Apple (losing devices, changing platforms, etc) you will thank yourself for having your data outside their walled garden.

I luckily did copy my main credentials to Bitwarden when I had the opportunity. Today I wanted to login and copy the remaining ones just in case, but now I can't. Apple is not to be trusted with any data.

Because I have my most important credentials already on Bitwarden this is more of an inconvenience than an issue, unless I discover I had an important credential I forgot to copy. I can be patient and hope that one day Apple will change it's way and simply allow me to log back in and use their password manager and 2 factor authentication without having any Apple device whatsoever.

When that time comes, the time when Apple is not a jail anymore and not evil anymore and does not push their products down my throat, then, ironically maybe I will go back to using their devices, because then they will "deserve" my trust, but then for using their devices I won't need their "pardon" and graces...



0
0
0.000
8 comments
avatar

Even if I ever get an Apple device, I won't be using anything that's locked down. The only reason I trust Google with my files or Mozilla with my history and bookmarks is because they're not locked down to their own ecosystems.
If I get an iPhone, I know all my Google stuff will be there.
If I change my operating system, I'll still have all my stuff.

Despite owning a Samsung phone, I use literally none of their services. I don't even have a Samsung account and changed everything to stock. I should be in control, not corpos.
Hope you can get all your stuff back. In any case contact Apple support or something, threaten legal action if needed (that worked for me when dealing with Nintendo).

0
0
0.000
avatar

Legal action seems to be the way to go. I went from Apple to Samsung and I did notice their attempt of a password manager, I ain't getting fooled twice

0
0
0.000
avatar

You can switch password managers in the settings to use Google or whatever else you want. It's pretty nifty.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Apple deleted all the photos that I stored in iCloud for years and did it without notifying me. It's that simple, that's why I don't trust any apple service...

0
0
0.000
avatar

They are suckers for user data, bet they still have that somewhere but just say they don't. I doubt their really actually delete stuff permanently.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Thanks for your contribution to the STEMsocial community. Feel free to join us on discord to get to know the rest of us!

Please consider delegating to the @stemsocial account (85% of the curation rewards are returned).

You may also include @stemsocial as a beneficiary of the rewards of this post to get a stronger support. 
 

0
0
0.000
avatar

I ditched Apple all at once. Morally it was the right thing to do

You would've done well in the garden of Eden!

Seems there's scarcely a person who hasn't had trouble with their passwords at least once. One would think the companies would've somehow solved it by now.

0
0
0.000