How to Unlock Locked Apple ID

You may see any one of the three following messages that will indicate your Apple ID is locked:

• This Apple ID has been disabled for security reason.
• You can't sign in because your account was disabled for security reasons.
• This Apple ID has been locked for security reasons.

At the core of all of this messages is that someone, somewhere, tried entering the username and password associated with your Apple ID, didn't get it right, and now you're locked out. The good news is that if it was someone else trying to hack in to your account, Apple stopped them before they got anything. Additionally, the problem of people getting locked out of their Apple IDs without hacker involvement has been known to happen to developers testing beta releases of Apple software. However, the bad news is that you now have to jump through some hoops to unlock your Apple ID.

If you don't have two-level authentication set up for your Apple ID, use the following instructions to reset your Apple ID:

1. Navigate to www.iforgot.apple.com.
2. Enter the email address associated with your Apple ID in the text entry box in the center of the Having Trouble Signing In page, and then click "Continue." An email will be sent to the email address you entered as being associated with your Apple ID. The subject of the email will be How to Reset Your Apple ID Password.
3. Click the "Reset Now" link in the body of the email to navigate to a temporary website where you can reset the password associated with your Apple ID.
4. After resetting your password, navigate to the location where you were previously locked out of your Apple ID, and then try entering your Apple ID information again to validate that you are no longer having issues.

This can get sticky. You can get locked out of your account temporarily if you are using two-step verification, which means that you're using two of the following three items to log in to your Apple ID every time: your password, a trusted device, or a recovery key. As long as you have access to two of those three items, you shouldn't panic because you'll always be able to get into your account. If you're temporarily locked out, you'll have to wait 24 hours or contact Apple Support, but you'll get back in to your account. However, if you lose two of those three items, you'll never be able to unlock your Apple ID and you'll be forced to set up a new one.

The good news here is that as long as you are the true owner of the Apple ID, you shouldn't be locked out of your Apple ID forever. Two-step authentication lets you register devices that you trust with Apple, and then pushes a request to those devices to allow access to your Apple ID when someone attempts to log in to it on another device. However, in the event that you're not able to access any of your established trusted devices, you can request account recovery after a failed login attempt. You'll be prompted for a phone number where follow-up instructions can be sent when your account is ready for you to access it again. Simultaneously, Apple will send you an email to the email address associated with your Apple ID asking you to confirm that you requested for your account to be recovered. Confirming through the link in that email will make the Apple ID recovery process go much faster.

If all else fails you'll need to contact Apple, talk to a support representative, and see what options are available to you. There are some circumstances, such as two-step verification, where they may not be able to do anything for you, but for most other options they should be able to help you recover your Apple ID. You can contact Apple support through: https://getsupport.apple.com/