- A developer says he’s been “permanently” locked out of his Apple account
- This happened after he bought a compromised Apple gift card
- That leaves ’20 years of digital life’ out of reach as Apple can’t seem to help
An Apple fan who spent “nearly 30 years as a loyal customer” says they have been “permanently” locked out of their Apple account due to what may be the overzealous actions of Apple’s automated anti-fraud system. It’s left them locked out of “20 years of digital life,” and it all started with the seemingly straightforward purchase of an Apple gift card.
According to a blog post by developer Paris Buttfield-Addison, their entire Apple account has been suspended, locking them out of their entire purchase history, saved photos, and more. This apparently happened with “no explanation and no way out”, putting “terabytes of family photos” and their entire message history out of reach, as well as preventing the ability to sync work across devices.
It all apparently started when Buttfield-Addison tried to redeem a $500 Apple gift card to pay for their 6TB iCloud+ subscription. The card was purchased at a major brick-and-mortar retailer, but its code didn’t work. The seller suggested it might be compromised and issued a new card, but that didn’t stop Buttfield-Addison’s account from being locked by Apple.
As a result, Buttfield-Addison says his devices cannot “sync, update or function properly”, while software and media worth a total of thousands of dollars are now inaccessible to him. The result, the author says, is “over $30,000 worth of previously active ‘walled’ hardware.”
We’ve asked Apple for comment on this matter and also its official guidance for anyone in a similar situation, and we’ll update this story if we hear back.
“Terribly dismissive”
Unfortunately, Buttfield-Addison says Apple has been either unwilling or unable to help him. “Most of the ways Apple has suggested to get help from them involve logging into an Apple service to upload something or communicate with them,” says Buttfield-Addison. “This doesn’t work because the account is locked.”
Apple Support was also apparently “horribly dismissive,” the blog post said, with staff refusing to tell Buttfield-Addison why his account was banned and apparently blocking his request to escalate the matter.
An Apple Support representative suggested that Buttfield-Addison create a new Apple account and add their payment information to it. The problem, however, is that this would mean giving up the “thousands of dollars of purchases” associated with the locked account. Buttfield-Addison was also concerned that this could earn the wrath of Apple if it decided he was trying to circumvent or bypass his account ban.
In the end, Buttfield-Addison has publicly asked someone at Apple to review his case, as he suspects the compromised gift card triggered an automatic fraud alert, which then triggered a high-level ban that Apple’s support staff can’t seem to undo.
The situation has been covered by several prominent Apple blogs and websites, and Buttfield-Addison has issued an update that “Someone from Executive Relations at Apple says they’re looking into it.” So far, however, it appears that the case remains unresolved.
It’s a stark reminder that putting all your eggs in one basket can be risky. Although Buttfield-Addison apparently did nothing untoward to invoke the ban, the result is that a large part of their digital lives is now inaccessible.
If you store your photos and files in a single location, it’s a good idea to back them up to multiple locations to protect against something going wrong. But with how integrated devices are these days, it’s hard to avoid having all your apps, purchases, and media within a single ecosystem. In such cases, there is not much you can do.
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