The Most Important Things You Need To Know if You Use Apple Products

Apple support hates when you don’t know them

Kids are good at figuring out how to keep their parents from snooping in on their iPhones.

However, it occasionally gets them into trouble.

I have friends who gave their 12-year-old son an iPhone. They asked to see his phone occasionally and believed they had set up the youth filters correctly. What they didn’t know was that their son was creating a new and different Apple ID every month and was signing in and out of it to block his activities from his parents.

One day, he locked himself out of his iPhone.

The only solution was to erase it and start at the beginning. For this, you need to know your Apple ID password.

The problem? Over time he had created dozens of Apple ID’s, and he couldn’t remember which one was currently signed in, let alone which password he used.

You can’t go back and use another Apple ID until you sign out of the current one. This is to prevent thieves from erasing your phone and starting over.

Apple support can’t help.

As a security measure, they will not tell you which Apple ID is signed in, and they don’t know your passwords.

My friends called support because they didn’t understand why the Apple ID and password they knew didn’t work. There is a recovery process, but it also requires knowing which ID the phone is signed into. The only option they had left was to find the receipt.

Their son begged the support person to give him the information, but then he finally had to confess about the multiple ID’s. My friends said the support person remained on the line during the ensuing argument. That must have been awkward.

Their son didn’t get his iPhone back. My friends replaced it with an old flip phone.

If you’re an Apple user, nothing is more important than your Apple ID and password.

The Apple ID is used for everything Apple, from signing into their devices to using their services.

Knowing your Apple ID and password can save you time, especially for Genius Bar appointments.

Even though it’s essential, people tend to forget the password because they don’t need to use it often. It’s not difficult to reset unless you’re missing other information — for example, your security questions.

I have often encountered people who couldn’t answer the questions because they were not the ones who set up their Apple ID. Their kids or grandkids did it for them.

It’s also remarkable how many customers get upset at Apple store employees when it’s their own fault they can’t remember their password.

Sometimes they whip out their driver’s license to prove who they are, but that doesn’t prove the device in their hand is actually theirs.

Criminals don’t make things easier.

If you Google the Apple Support phone number, the actual number does not come up first! Always go directly to Apple’s website.

It also doesn’t help that writing down your Apple ID password, or any password, is dangerous.

Someone who knows yours can do damage very quickly, especially if they can spoof your phone number for 2-step verification, which happened to my mother-in-law.

Sometimes there is a Catch-22.

I’ve known people who write down the password somewhere on their phone, but if they become locked out, they can’t retrieve it. This goes for password manager apps as well.

People complain the rules for the password are too difficult, even though they are not as complicated as others. At least Apple won’t let you use the most common passwords, like the word ‘password.’ Seriously, people.

Apple has tried to ease the burden. If you’re already logged into a device, resetting the password is simple, even if you don’t know the current one.

The bottom line is your Apple ID and password are the keys to the kingdom, and are the most important things to remember.