I recently subscribed to AppleTV+ and wanted to share it with my wife through Family Sharing. The issue is, she doesn't own any Apple devices at all. When she tried to log in, it turned out she had an old Apple ID set up, which accepted her usual login details but requires two-factor authentication. The last two digits it listed for verification don't match any of her phone numbers, and she's had her current number for decades. Without any Apple devices, she can't verify or change the phone number, and the system doesn't recognize her Android number. Is there a simple solution to this problem, or is she just out of luck?
3 Answers
I'm not even sure this is the right place for this question. Maybe there's a different forum more focused on Apple issues?
You might want to reach out to Apple Support. They could provide a way to validate her email without needing the phone number. They must have a procedure for situations where someone's changed their phone number or if they can’t receive the verification code for any reason.
I think a straightforward fix is to create a new Apple ID for her. Since she doesn’t have access to the old phone number, she really won’t be able to log in using that old ID anyway. Just set up a new email and Apple ID to avoid all this hassle.
But the old ID is tied to her email, so she’d have to create a completely new email account just to do that!
Gotcha, but which forum should I be checking out instead?