My Apple Account has been locked three times today with a message saying it was locked for security reasons. I have not seen any unfamiliar devices linked to the account, and my password is strong. I changed it twice today to an 18-character random password, and two-factor authentication is enabled. The password itself works, but I keep having to sign in repeatedly on my 2021 M1 iMac, iPhone SE, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and iPad. Some services require another sign-in afterward, such as the App Store or reactivating Apple TV subscriptions. I was already using Lockdown Mode and am wondering what could be triggering these repeated lockouts and what I should check next.
4 Answers
Repeated lockouts can happen when someone is repeatedly attempting to sign in, even if they never get the password right. Check the account’s device list and sign-in activity, remove anything unfamiliar, and make sure your trusted phone numbers and recovery details are correct. Since you use many Apple devices, also check whether one of them is repeatedly submitting an old saved password.
Lockdown Mode is intended for people who may be facing highly sophisticated targeted attacks; it doesn’t prevent ordinary account lockouts and can complicate troubleshooting. Keep two-factor authentication enabled, contact Apple Support by phone or through the official support app, and ask them to review the exact security event that is triggering the locks rather than relying only on the chatbot.
Changing the password again probably won’t help if one of your own devices or apps still has the previous password cached. Sign out of the affected devices where practical, restart them, update their software, and sign back in one at a time. Pay special attention to the Apple TV and any older account settings, since they can keep retrying in the background.
A network issue could also be contributing if Apple is seeing suspicious or rapidly changing sign-in traffic from your connection. Restart the modem and router, test from a different trusted network, and ask your internet provider whether your public IP can be changed. Don’t assume the IP is the cause, but comparing networks may help narrow it down.
I checked the linked devices and didn’t find anything unexpected. I’m going to inspect the saved credentials on each device more carefully.