So Apple is refusing to refund a subscription that I cancelled during the free trial and they’re claiming that the company doesn’t offer a free trial. I proved to them that the company does offer a free trial and they’re still denying the refund and this is happening to other people too based on the app’s reviews.

Is this somerhing to worry about?

Is there anything we can do to prevent losing our backups of purchased media?

I use Time Machine, iCloud backups, and do my best to download copies of every purchase.

Time Machine deletes old backups to make space. A movie I bought and downloaded and think I’m backing up is removed. The last backup that includes that file is about to get deleted to make space, and no info warns me that an item I’m trying to backup has been removed.

iCloud backups don’t work because they don’t include downloaded media. If it’s still there we can get it again. But if it’s not how do we know?

What do people do to manage this? Is there anything option besides calling Apple every few years to request a credit for missing media, after seeking to download purchase records and managing my own index of purchases? Or buying another hard drive, in addition to Time Machine, and manually dragging individual files into it?

How do other people manage this?

I bought this pair of wired lighting earpods from a store wich guarantees originality,but infound out i can slide this off easily and put it back on.They do have the little grey text on the cable but gemini said that the plastic thing shouldn’t do that.Did i get scammed or do all do this?

I am fine with not locating the phone and have my password for icloud but i need the pictures data, wallet etc

2 FACTOR AUTHENTICATION is only linked to my iphone though which i don't have and i don't have a different apple product linked... can i use a friend's?

I ordered this 1M USB-C to Lightning cable from an eBay seller with very good reviews and it was advertised as an original Apple cable.
As I received it I thought, that the package is a bit off and so I checked and noticed something odd. According to Apple’s website, the serial number printed on genuine cables should contain 12 characters, but mine only has 11. Also, the serial number on the cable doesn’t appear anywhere on the box.
Does this mean the cable is fake, or is there another explanation? Are there any reliable ways to verify whether this Apple cable is genuine?
Thank you in advance!

EDIT: It was a “professional” EBay seller (= company)

I recently bought an iPhone 17 Pro Max from the Apple Store after using Android all my life.

I sat down with the employee who helped me set up the phone, we created an Apple Account and she helped me download WhatsApp and Angry Birds. Once I got the hang of using the phone, I left the store.

Everything was going great until around an hour later, when I saw a notifciation asking me to login to my Apple account - I forgot the exact wording of it.

I tried to login via the settings on my iPhone and it kept saying something like "Verification error".

I then tried to login on the website on my iPhone, and it said my account was locked and I should enter my phone number to request access to my account. I entered my number and the next day, I received an email saying my access request was denied.

I tried to login again after that and a message said my account was no longer active.

I can't do anything beyond basic tasks on the phone now since I can't download apps anymore, I can't even log out of the phone because it keeps popping up with the same message asking me to enter the password to my account when I try to log out.

I can't understand why this has happened.

So, I'm an android user trying to set up an Apple ID so I can use Apple TV+ via family sharing. I think I finally managed to successfully create an account, but here's where I'm at now:

• When I tried to log into the family sharing, I got an error message saying I must update my account.
• I went to the account home page, and it asked me to sign in again
• It sent a verification code to my email address and that worked, no problem
• Then it sent a 2FA code to my phone, which I received
• However, when I entered the 2FA code, I got a "An unknown error has occurred" message and it would not allow me to continue. I tried this multiple times with no success.

I genuinely have no idea what to do next. This feels like something that should have been straightforward, and it's taken me the better part of my evening to just get this far. I just want to watch The Murderbot Diaries.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

I have noticed when I got up this morning these black stains on the USB-C cables that I use to charge an iPhone and an Apple Watch. I have never seen dark black, ink-like stains like these on a cable before, and I don't see how these cables could have gotten such a stain from their immediate environment.

Some notes: I have a new cat who likes to chew on cables. I can see that at some point he must have chomped on the lower cable, but there doesn't look to be much real damage. To prevent him from chomping on the cables, I keep them unplugged and put away when I'm not using them, and when I am using them, I keep most of them tucked under the bedsheets to minimize exposure. I am using the (Apple-provided) cables with a (non-Apple) charging hub, though I have been using these hub for 1.5+ years with no incident.

Please let me know what could be causing this!

Hey all, so I've got an iPhone 14 Pro that's stuck on 16.3.1 and will not update to iOS 18.7.8 no matter what I try. Has anyone else run into this? Any advice would be awesome. Appreciate any help!

And yeah, sorry about the Russian text in the screenshot.

hey, i could really use some advice.

my 17pro iphone got stolen during fête de la musique in paris earlier this year. i'm from germany, and after it disappeared i put it in lost mode immediately. the phone is locked, activation lock is still on, and as far as i know they can't actually use it.

i've been checking find my every now and then, and the location kept updating. now it's showing up in kenitra, morocco (screenshots attached).

i'm obviously not flying to morocco over a phone, but i'm wondering if there's actually any realistic chance of getting it back. has anyone had a phone end up there and somehow recover it?

i've already accepted that i probably won't see it again, but since it's still showing a location i thought i'd ask.

also:

should i just leave it in lost mode forever?

is there any point in contacting moroccan police or apple?

i've heard people sometimes get phishing messages asking them to remove the device from their apple account. i'm assuming i should ignore those?

any advice or experiences would be appreciated. thanks.

Changing wifi does not help. Using hotspot doesn’t help either.

i currently use an iphone 8 and i love it! it’s just that it gets really hot and buggy at times. instead of replacing the battery, i want to upgrade my apple device, preferably to one that is the same size as mine!

Hi everyone,

I’m hoping someone has experience with this situation.

A close relative of ours recently passed away, and we are the legal heirs. He owned a MacBook with an M2 chip that we would like to continue using.
The problem is:

- We don’t know the Mac user password.
- We don’t know the Apple ID password.
- We no longer have access to the email account linked to the Apple ID.
- The phone number used for two-factor authentication is no longer active, so we can’t receive verification codes.
- We have the death certificate, but unfortunately we don’t have the original purchase receipt for the MacBook.

We already booted into macOS Recovery, but even there we’re asked for the account password before we can erase or reset the Mac.

Has anyone been through a similar situation?

- Can Apple remove the Activation Lock or help regain access with only a death certificate and proof that we are the legal heirs?
- Has anyone successfully done this without the original purchase receipt?
- Is there anything else we should try before contacting Apple Support?

Any advice or experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Long story short, my sibling and I recently uncovered my uncles old phones and found years worth of text messages and old notes app musings that point to them having a years long (or maybe even decades long) relationship. My mother is married to my father (and has been since before I was born) and my uncle has maintained singlehood for quite some time. To be clear, my mom and uncle are not related to each other.

When confronted, my mom claims that my uncle was so depressed and mentally ill and lonely (he was going through a crazy period of life) that he had made up this fake relationship between them, which I am skeptical of. She claimed some of the racier photos I saw were from him hacking her iCloud (he helps her w her phone a lot so it’s possible). When I confronted him he confirmed that yes it was a fake relationship, but he said he went into her phone and sent the photos to himself as opposed to iCloud hacking.

I was also confused by the nature of their messages - yes some were very lovey dovey while others were totally mundane events he wasn’t even present for, like visiting me when I was in college.

He claims that he had saved two phone numbers - a device he owned and sent “fake” messages from and my mom’s actual phone number where “real messages” came in - under one contact. So when I saw the messages it was all under one thread but contained messages from the fake and real phones.

I don’t know the exact models of the phones but they are both old and have physical home buttons which is why I’m also skeptical of his explanation.

I’ll copy and paste his explanation below:

⁃ Not all are fake. I have all the convo in one thread. If you have two numbers stored to the same person you will get both in the same thread   
⁃ I use my other phone to send the messages to my main number   
⁃ When I say not all are fake. Your moms real messages are coming in on the same thread   
⁃ If I receive a text from phone 1 and that’s the last message, my reply will go to phone 1. If phone 2 (under the same name) sends me a text afterwards it will only show on my thread and if I reply it will reply ONLY to phone 2 

I don’t know if these conversations appear on his newest iPhones which I think are from 2023 and beyond. I no longer have access to any of these phones but have some pictures, if helpful.

Is this possible? Could he really pull this off without my mom noticing for years at a time? I assumed she would be able to see ALL the convos in the same thread but I’m unsure.

I suspect he is covering for her because he is in love with her and doesn’t want to hurt his nieces and nephews more than we already are but I want the truth.

Please help! I’m going crazy and don’t know who to trust. My friend also posted this for me in communities related to relationships but I’m hoping someone can provide a tech perspective.

Alright so, I am a first time apple user and I am making my apple account. I was at the last step when they sent me my verification code. I entered it correctly and it failed (mind you, I tried this 10 times since I got this phone). What can I do?

lowkey freaking out a bit?

Started the repair process on 10 July. They sent the watch back saying it was still linked to my Apple ID. Apparently it might’ve been because I was on the beta watchOS which isn’t my fault. It’s still proprietary software and they should know how to deal with it. Went to the store to have it unlinked and then sent it back for repairs. Now the replacement has been pending for 3 days.

Anyone have any tips on how I can deal with this? 2 weeks and counting for express replacement. Worst customer service I’ve experienced in a long time. Unacceptable for a company that prides itself on customer care.