Apple ID deactivated with no reason given

I know that most people don't sit down and read find print. Understandable, but when you do then you can see pearls about a company's position on things.

Legal - iCloud - Apple

Legal - Apple Media Services - Apple

You're talking to somebody who still buys all their music on CDs, gets DVDs from the library, only had a handful of free apps (and no subscriptions, so I have no payment methods with Apple) on an inherited iPhone (an old SE), and all my computers have been secondhand. I think the only thing I bought from Apple itself was a Snow Leopard DVD 10 years ago (got the last copy of the server edition which it took them 10 minutes to find). I use iCloud but only the free part, and since I have almost nothing on my iPhone I can get by with 5 GB free iCloud. I transfer all photos to my other drives every dozen or so I take. I don't really need to have them with me all of the time. I like using Apple equipment, but if something were to happen to my account or equipment (apart from my backup drives which I keep in multiple copies in safe places) I am pretty insulated from the effects. Of course you have to accept doing things a certain way but I am not of the generation with a cellphone surgically embedded at the end of my arm.

Apple Support Communities is set up as an end-user to end-user technical issue support service (i.e., users like you helping other users). Feedback for Apple will likely get more attention if you send it using: Product Feedback - Apple

MarcC_IT wrote:

which sometimes means that we can easily go over the limit on individual devices.

You are referring to something different from the issue of accounts being deleted (and the subject of this thread).

A message saying, "The maximum number of free accounts have been activated on this iPhone" or, "This iPhone has been used to create/setup too many new Apple IDs" is discussed in the support document: If you see a Could Not Create Apple ID or Could Not Set Up iCloud message - Apple Support

OK 3 hours tonight. Must be factory reset but only after I submit proof of purchase to them and apply then we can reset phone. Otherwise the rest only wipes phone but its useless and still locked to ID that is deactivated that you cannot login or logout of to remove from the phone. This could take a week. can still use phone for phone and texting email and whatever apps are on phone. cannot download any new apps.

[Edited by Moderator]

I get your main point. Cloud things aren't fully in your control if the company storing them can remove or block access to them at any point. I guess that's really the main point that people posting about - the slow erosion of their trust in Apple.

1000 people saying the wrong thing doesn’t make them right. The same as yelling doesn’t make you heard. We are in a digital age where we all have data we want or need to have access to. ALWAYS make a physical copy of your data so if anything happens you don’t have to throw your hands up in the air, wondering how you got here.

Same happen with me also i just tried to purchase app from diffrent country theylocked me even my 3 account get disabled

The people on this forum are almost exclusively users like you (or Apple employees who cannot answer your kind of questions of Apple). We basically have to work with what Apple provides everybody in terms of information, plus whatever we learn here. So as far as why Apple does something, we don't know. From what you describe and what others have said in similar situations it would appear the support people have a limited number of resources which are basically similar to what you can read in Apple's documents. I would try calling them again and see if you can get the issue escalated to somebody higher on the ladder than the first level support people. Ultimately, while not common, yours is not the first story I have seen of unclear issues as to why an account has been disabled. You may just have to be persistent. Frankly I am not all that trusting of any online service and while many of the services they provide can be convenient, I am old-fashioned and there's nothing like having a copy of all your media on a couple of backup drives at home just in case.

We create new IDs mostly to facilitate transfer of some elements from old devices to new, but we also HEAVILY recycle our mobiles across our organisation, which sometimes means that we can easily go over the limit on individual devices.

Wish I knew this in advance - we would have found some other solution to get around it before now.

I'm not talking about something different. We've made our accounts outside of the device (via appleid.apple.com) and then used them on 2 different devices to sync call/message history and contacts. Within a day the account is deactivated.

This is proven by my test today - tried signing out of icloud but couldn't - as it stated on the phone 'This appleid isn't active'.

As per many previous, if you contact Apple support in the first instance they may be able to assist and give you access (managed to get this done a few times but it would only stay active for about 12 hours before going inactive again). Your mileage may vary though.

Same thing happened to me as well… I was not given any reason ; I was asked to read their Terms & Conditions and find out for myself what I could have done to have my account deactivated.

Have you file a complaint to your Data/Consumer Protection Authority ? One of the Apple Advisors told me that the Security System was put in place because of the GDPR so based on that information, I think a good place to start would be to file a complaint to your Data/Consumer Protection Authority in your country.

Exactly the same thing has happened to me. I have been treated in exactly the same way. No one can tell me why the account was deactivated and I don't have access to all my purchased apps! I have now been forced to buy an Android phone because I can't reactivate my account or use it on any of my devices. I have been using Apple products since the iPhone 5 and have two Apple TVs, three iPads, two MacBooks, and an iPhone... Now I can't use any of them and I don't know why the account was deactivated!! I'm from Norway, and Norwegian Apple Support just directs me to "Apple Legal".

Happening to me right now. ID was disabled for no reason. Only thing I can figure is that my ID might have hacked and customer service said I violated terms and agreement but won’t tell me specifics. I’ve talked with multiple people, waited the 24 hours, called back, still no answer, sent an appeal, it was denied, called again, got asigned a senior case agent, got another call back and still disabled.

So incredibly unethical what Apple is doing.

The problem is not the data. The problem is that Apple doesn't explain the reason for an account deactivation or try to resolve the issue for their customers. I have been using Apple products since the iPhone 5. I have two iMacs, three iPads, and an iPhone. I have many Apple-specific apps that I have purchased over the years. I have backed up everything from day one, but that doesn't help when Apple refuses to let me access my account or start a new account using the same phone number as the deactivated account. What good are backups when you can't use purchased apps, physical products, or data in Apple-specific apps!?!?