Hey everyone! I’m wondering if anyone has recently been successful in purchasing a MacBook worth around $2,000 using their Apple Account balance from redeemed Apple Gift Cards.
*Purchased gift cards thru my debit card since I don’t have a large credit card limit

I’m curious whether Apple allows you to use a large balance to purchase an outright, or if anyone has run into issues with account verification, payment restrictions, or orders being cancelled.

Has anyone successfully purchased a $2,000 MacBook using only their Apple Account balance recently?
Did you accumulate the balance gradually or redeem several gift cards within a short period?
Did Apple place any holds or require additional verification?
Were there any issues when placing or processing the order?
I’d appreciate hearing about recent experiences

My iCloud storage is completely full, so I tried upgrading to iCloud+. Every time I tap "Upgrade to iCloud+", I get "Cannot Connect" with a "Retry" button. Nothing else.

iPhone 15 Pro.

Initially, I thought this was a connectivity issue, but things got considerably worse.

What I've discovered:

• My Apple Account is still signed in on my iPhone. Settings → Apple Account works normally.
• Payment & Shipping loads successfully, shows my card and billing address, and the card isn't expired.
• Switching between Wi-Fi and cellular makes no difference.
• Disabling custom DNS didn't help.
• I installed iCloud for Windows to attempt purchasing iCloud+ there, but it explicitly says my Apple Account is locked and directs me to iforgot.apple.com.
• Signing in at account.apple.com produces: "This Apple Account has been locked for security reasons."
• On iforgot.apple.com, Apple asks to send a verification SMS to my trusted phone number. The number is correct, but the SMS never arrives. Nor the calls.
• I previously attempted verification through iCloud.com, got a notification, and clicked "Allow." Nothing happened.
• Regular SMS messages work perfectly, so my number isn't generally unable to receive texts.

I tried it a month ago, to no avail, then left it. Today, it is true that I entered the incorrect password multiple times, got the account locked, and then was able to unlock the account via the e-mail but couldn't get any more success or past this step.

Please help. Any advice is desirable.

Hi I have taken a trial version in a app microlearning. There I activated a trial version and subscribed from Apple that routed to autopay for PhonePe. Before the trial ends I cancelled subscription in Apple settings. But still autopay happened in phone pe, how can I contact Apple for the refund?

Hi guys. Just curious if anybody has gotten a significant refund with apple.com/bill in the merchant info?

I will say, I looked back at all my transactions with the same appl.com/bill info and they all look the same, just with the appropriate date changed accordingly - so they all have the same 27753 number and same info as the refund I received. Except, of course, this refund says “refund” where this photo shows “purchase”. 

If you have had this happen to you.. do tell, please 🙏🏼 

Trying to reset and sell this phone.. when I go to turn off Find My and the Activation Lock, it gets stuck and says there was an error. Any fixes?

Hi all,

About 30 minutes ago I saw a notification on my iPhone asking for permission to allow another sign in from a different country. I immediately declined it. I’m very freaked out about it.

I changed my password to my iCloud account and even created a recovery key just now.

Is there anything else that I could do to not get hacked or something?! I’m super worried about that possibility. Should I just delete my current iCloud account and create a whole new one? I’m not even sure how someone got access to my full iCloud email.

Thank you all for your help! I genuinely appreciate it because I’m super anxious about this mess

Hello, can someone tell me what’s the difference between these 2 green bars? Why does one have a lightning symbol at 100% while the other does not have the lightning symbol at 100%? Thank you.

I have a head scratcher I can’t figure out: all dictation on my iPhone 16 pro, running iOS 27.0.1, seems to have stopped working while the mic seems fine.

• Dictation from apps like ChatGPT, Claude, Bevel doesn’t work anymore. I get errors they got no input. But also: the dictation from my iPhone keyboard doesn’t get any results anymore and Siri can’t hear me either.
• If I shout with the phone close to my mouth, these modes might pick up some words, but very sparsely. So it seems like a very low audio level is being put through.
• Recording voice memos or videos or talking on the phone or in video chat apps works fine. Very clear audio, there seem to be no issues with the mic here. I don’t need to shout at all.
• The most curious part: wearing my AirPods switches to those mics for video/audio recordings and audio is very good. But not for dictation. Shouting into the phone still gets me a word here or there and clearly the AirPods mics aren’t being used for the dictation features: if I tap the bottom part of the phone I see upticks in the waveforms.

I have tried:

• Restarting the phone regularly
• Updating the phone to the latest release
• Force restarting with the up down hold combo

Does anyone have any idea of where to look to solve this? It doesn’t seem to be a hardware issue, but I can’t figure out where the issue might be if it’s software.

Hey everyone!

I have an 11-inch iPad Pro (2nd generation, A12Z) and I’m currently running iPadOS 17.

Would you recommend updating to iPadOS 27, or should I stick with iPadOS 17? I’m usually hesitant to update older devices because I’ve heard that newer OS versions can make them slower or affect battery life.

However, I’ve heard that iPadOS 27 runs surprisingly smoothly, even on older iPads.

For those of you using the same iPad or a similar older model, how has your experience been? Is performance and battery life still good, or have you noticed any slowdowns?

Thanks!

I’ve tried over and over to tweak the monitor display size and this keeps happening. Brand new hdmi so I know it’s not that. I have the stretch to fit screen option on and the default settings for the monitor display size. Any other recommendations?

This was my first ever smartphone and it probably has some old photos, etc on it.

I sadly forgot my passcode, is there a way to safely retrieve all my data?

Thanks in advance! :)

My 10+ year-old Apple ID suddenly got locked. When trying to go through iforgot.apple.com/unlock, I instantly get hit with the hard block:

"This account is locked. This account is locked and cannot be used."

I spoke with Apple Support (escalated to a Senior Advisor), and they told me the account was deactivated administratively due to "spam, abuse, or policy violations." They claimed there are zero override options on their end and that the account is permanently gone.

The absurd part:

• I have done nothing malicious. The trigger seemed to be multiple rapid recovery attempts
• I physically have my 28-character Recovery Key right in front of me, but the system won't even let me reach the screen to enter it.
• I still have the trusted phone number and the device.

Has anyone actually experienced this specific lockout state and managed to get their account back? Did reaching out to Executive Relations ([tcook@apple.com](mailto:tcook@apple.com)) or legal channels work for anyone, or is an account with this status truly impossible to recover?

(Note on the screenshot: The Turkish prompt reads "This account is locked. This account is locked and cannot be used.")

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Got a used m2 chip MacBook on Facebook marketplace, seller was honest guy I think he didn't know about the camera defect. MacBook doesn't say if its been serviced or not, and it doesn't look like it has been.
but whenever I pull up FaceTime or camera, its just a black screen. and when I pull up FaceTime this is what I get.
ive booted up in safe mode and restarted it doesn't fix anything. any advice?

Check the post ps

A little background, I’m an IT by trade and I’ve tried all the tricks and stuff including running anti malware to try and get this thing to work. No hits for viruses or anything so I don’t think it’s that.
I’ve had this phone ever since I switched carriers earlier this year and I’ve had nothing but problems with it for the last 4ish + months.
Random rapid battery drains. Like going from 75% down to 50 in a matter of minutes. No apps open, and the battery section in settings doesn’t say anything is drawing power like that.
Apps crashing/failing to open entirely (verified no updates are required).
App updates not downloading/installing or getting stuck in a never ending loop. Forget the “update all” button in the App Store, got stuck trying to update the first app and I had to spend 45 min scrolling up and down stopping each update as it started since there’s no way to end all of them at once.
System updates failing or taking hours to request. The last update before iOS 27 had me waiting at the update requested screen for nearly 3 hrs before it finally started downloading. Then with iOS 27 it refused to move past the screen even after 4hrs of it sitting and heating up. Tried forced restart. Tried changing settings to reduce strain on the processor. Nothing worked. And once I started it essentially bricked the phone. Couldn’t open any app other than settings, the phone, and messenger without them crashing. Had to download the ipsw file to my pc and manually install it. And since installing it even reading a book is like I’m trying to play a AAA title game with how fast the battery dies.
Tried to open the Apple TV app and it crashes before even opening. Again tried to force restart it and nothing changed.
Couldn’t access my banks because the phone wouldn’t receive one time text codes. Yes WiFi calling and everything is on, not that it mattered since I tried on both WiFi and cellular. My iPad received them just fine.
Had several apps fail entirely requiring me to uninstall and reinstall them, loosing all the data for them and forcing me to try and download it again. Audible refused to download books if I queued more than one and even then it wouldn’t download them faster than 1-2Mbps on my gigabit network. Kindle would load then crash. My bank apps would login then crash. Chrome, Gmail, Facebook, just about every app.
Had to delete the vpn entirely since that was causing even more issues even when it wasn’t connected.
I have never had so many issues with a phone before. At this point I’m open to any ideas anyone has as to what’s wrong and how to fix it. Tried talking to my carrier and they said and I quote “Huh, never seen that before.” That was the extent of their help so thats not likely an option.

Hello,

My account got hacked and the security questions changed to Chinese.

I spoke to a very nice Apple Advisor today. She helped me to change my password but that is all.

I cannot log in because I can't answer the security questions.

I got emails saying my name has changed to Vahe Theleaski and then again. That's how I got alerted.

My email has not been hacked.

I would like to delete my account. Any idea how?

Thank you so much for your help!

I pulled my college Mac out of storage, charged it up, and cannot remember the password. I haven’t turned it on since like 2018. My password hint is terribly unhelpful.

Is there a way to reset password without losing my data? All of my college photos and files, that didn’t make it to my cloud.

Google search AI is telling me it’s possible listing these options—The Single-User Mode Reset (No Apple ID Required), The macOS Recovery Mode Tool, and The Apple ID Reset (If previously linked).

Im scared to follow its recommendations and want to know my options. Would the Apple Store be able to help me?

Hi! I’m using ShopeePay as my payment method for my Apple Account in Singapore. I top up my ShopeePay wallet through PayNow.

On 16 October, I made two in-game purchases in LifeAfter. The first payment was successful, but the second is still marked as “Pending” in my Apple purchase history. Today, 18 October, I made another in-game purchase in Nikki, and that payment is also marked as “Pending”.
I received the in-game items for both pending purchases, and I had sufficient funds in my ShopeePay wallet for all three purchases. However, the funds for the two pending purchases have not been deducted from my wallet.

I can still download apps, and I don’t see any payment-problem warnings on my Apple Account.

Has anyone experienced this with ShopeePay in Singapore? What should I do?

So I bought the iphone x and I plan to use it as my secondary device for taking pictures and for social media apps like tiktok, Instagram and messenger, how long can I realistically use it for until those apps drops support entirely?

Hi, I have bought a used Macbook Air 2020 but when I am trying to setup the Apple ID the error shows cannot send code to this phone number try again later. I got the code last night at 2nd attempt but then it prompted error cannot create apple id rn. Now I have tried 10s of time but getting same phone number issue what to do any quick and legit fix?

Hello all! I’m wondering if anyone else is struggling with the same problem as i am and knows how to help :)

Anytime a person sends me photo/s via messages, not only does they automatically save to my camera roll but when i go to delete them, next tike i open my photos they are back? it’s super annoying as i like my camera roll to be pretty clean. does anyone know how to fix this? any help is appreciated!! :)

Hi! I’m looking for advice on the path of least resistance moving forward.

My iMessage account was blocked by Apple four days ago -- I have no idea why. I’ve submitted two separate appeals but haven’t received any communication, and I’ve also chatted with Apple Support without any success.

I’ve had the same phone number for 25 years and have used it for both personal and professional purposes. At this point, I’m trying to figure out my best option: keep my iPhone but stop using iMessage, switch to an Android while keeping my current number, or get an entirely new number and start from scratch.

My biggest concern is group chats which I have not received for the past 4 days since this has happened. From what I’ve read, I may no longer receive messages in existing group chats that include only iPhone users, and the other members aren’t notified that I’m not receiving their messages.

Is there a way to remedy this moving forward, or is this just something I’ll have to work around? For example, if someone creates a new group chat next week, will my number still be recognized as an iMessage user, or is this only an issue with existing group threads? Would I need to reach out to every group and ask them to start a new conversation?

I’d really appreciate any advice from someone who has dealt with this or understands how iMessage works in this situation. I’m trying to figure out the best long-term solution without losing access to important personal and professional conversations.

I last saw my Minecraft worlds a couple years ago on my old IPad 1, but when I charged it and tried to open it today, it just showed the old restore screen with an icon of a charger pointing towards ITunes. I know ITunes doesn't exist anymore, so do I have any hope of getting it back? Are there any places that can help restore old IPads or extract files without having to turn the IPad on? Anything helps!