Let us consider the average user. The one who manages to lose their iPhone and has no idea what their iCloud account login is because they were aware of having to log into it once when they created the account at phone purchase 3 years previously.

That's where the trap is.

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jon-wood 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That person is fucked when they lose their phone anyway, because they're also the sort of person who has never backed up all their photos/contacts/iCloud files anywhere that doesn't require iCloud auth to get at. At some point we have to either properly educate people on the fact that they need to have a recovery path, or we have to accept that they're going to need to rebuild their entire digital life every 2-3 years.

This is your cue to go get your parents to add you as recovery contacts for their Apple account now, rather than finding out that exists when they lose their phone.

	▲	TheSkyHasEyes an hour ago \| parent [-]
		This is presumptuous. Many people back up their devices and have no idea how they did or whether or not it succeeded. Seen it many times(fortunately). > That person is fucked when they lose their phone anyway I am hoping nowadays most people lock their devices. I rarely see unlocked in my adventures anymore.

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linkregister 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Impossible. Because iPhones randomly force you to enter your iCloud password, often at the worst possible time. Such a user would have already been prevented from signing in to their own iMessage on a random Tuesday afternoon.

One of the most frustrating issues with Apple's UX.

	▲	jeroenhd an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I've never experienced that. The only time I've entered my password was when I set up the iPhone and when the phone got into a weird state after a software update.
	▲	dogleash an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		It depends. It sounds like you're all in on the ecosystem. I only have the apple account because I have an iphone. I didn't get one of those double check reauthentications since many years ago, up until last month when I got apple tv. I know because I had to reset my password and it was older than my use of a password manager.

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mixdup 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

As long as they didn't turn on the advanced protection features on their account they just go to the Apple Store who can help them get back in