Apple ID Glitch Locks Out iOS 10 Beta 2 Users

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It looks like iOS 10 beta 2 is causing some serious problems for some users who are reporting that they’ve been locked out of their Apple ID. Although the number of people affected by the glitch appears to be small, the size of the problem is huge as it rewards those willing to take a risk on the iOS 10 beta 2 by locking them out of their Apple devices.

iOS 10 beta 2 users locked out of devices

According to Digital Trends, iOS 10 beta 2 testers who have two-factor authentication enabled on their Apple IDs are reporting that they’re being signed out of their devices. What’s even worse, however, is that they’re not even being allowed to change their passwords, meaning that they’re effectively locked out of their Apple IDs and, by extension, all of their Apple devices.

One Reddit user posted that all of the Apple devices they were signed into asked them to enter their password in Settings. After entering their password, the devices then stated that their account had been locked for “security reasons.” Upon trying to reset the password, affected users were transferred to Apple’s iForgot page where they were greeted by the message: “Your request could not be completed at this time.”

Digital Journal reports that a server bug is believed to be the cause of the glitch.

Two-factor authentication in iOS 10 beta 2 may be a factor

Digital Trends reports that using two-factor authentication may be a risk factor for being affected by the Apple ID glitch. The reason is because most of those who have been locked out of their devices have it switched on. The problem is made even worse because Apple Support is unable to manually reset the passwords of affected users because they have two-factor authentication enabled.

According to Digital Journal, one user who was able to reset their password successfully appeared to have been able to do so only because two-factor authentication was disabled. Those who have been locked out can request account recovery, but unfortunately Apple said it could take “a few days – or longer – depending on what specific account information you can provide to verify your identity.”

The issue may not be entirely the iOS 10 beta 2, however, as some Apple users on iOS 9.3.2 and the iOS 9.3.3 beta are also reporting the same problem.

Two issues identified

Digital Journal also states that although Apple hasn’t publicly commented on the problem, two different problems have been identified. One is a bug in app-specific passwords which requests that users re-enter their passwords and then locks their accounts. Resetting the password is usually the way to fix this, but iForgot appears to be broken for users of the beta versions of iOS. The bug affecting iForgot for the beta testers is the second problem.

It sounds as if the bug affecting in-app passwords can occur on any version of iOS, which may be why some users of iOS 9.3.2 are also being affected. However, it also sounds like they’re able to reset their passwords using Apple’s iForgot system, which appears to be broken only for the beta versions. iOS 10 or iOS 9.3.2 beta users who haven’t been locked out of their accounts yet are advised to disable two-factor authentication so that hopefully they won’t be completely locked out of their Apple devices for days. Another option would be to revert back to iOS 9.2.2 instead of using a beta version of iOS.

The full version of iOS 10 is expected to be rolled out to the masses this fall, but until then, Apple definitely has some serious bugs to work out.

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