November 24, 2015 | Leave a comment ***UPDATE*** It looks like this may be a wider spread problem than I thought. I had it happen again on my iPhone this morning – apparently, this is a pretty serious/widespread issue that Apple is taking their sweet time to work on. Apple Care is no help. ***UPDATE*** So I’ve been stuck in an infinite loop of having to re-enter my AppleID password every time I restart my iPad or iPhone. This is directly tied to iCloud – which unfortunately, is the default backup/app info sharing service. There’s a lot of stuff on the web about people suffering this problem – some of it going back to iOS 4, and Apple’s solution to most people on their forums has been “wipe your device and lose everything” or, my favorite “buy a new iDevice!” Since I’m a broke musician, the latter is not likely to happen. After two weeks of trying to fix this, I finally broke down and called Apple Support – un-surprisingly they were no help (“have you tried rebooting your device?” “yeah, that’s when it starts this damn sign in loop!”). I even went so far as to wipe my iPad, redownload iOS 9.1, and do a new install. Still the same problem: iCloud. It’s all iCloud’s fault. About two weeks ago, IMMEDIATELY before this started I was forced by the iCloud server to change the password on my MacBook – “because you’ve used the same password for more than X number of days, and screw you, that’s WHY!” Since then, every restart has required me to re-enter that damn password. And yesterday, it started asking for the password at random times when either the iPad or iPhone were turned on (Tweeting? Up yours! Re-enter Apple ID password!). The only way to stop it was to turn off ALL iCloud services (iCloud, AppStore/iTunes Store, Messages, and FaceTime). A less than ideal solution. So, after going through Support and getting nowhere, I was back to experimenting on my iPad, and I actually found a way to fix this. It’s time consuming and painful, but it works. As always, your mileage may vary, and I take no responsibility for the following advice: BACKUP EVERYTHING TO YOUR COMPUTER VIA ITUNES!!! Sign out of ALL iCloud services on your device iCloud AppStore Messages Facetime Hard Reset your device. To do this, hold down Home and the Power Button until the device restarts with the Apple logo – it will take longer than usual to reboot. This is normal. Turn it off just for good measure. Go to https://appleid.apple.com/ and sign in as normal. Change your Apple ID password (yes, it sucks to do this, I know. I recommend something like “SteveJobsRollingOverInGrave!12345″* in order to meet their ludicrous requirements**). [OPTIONAL] Sign out of Apple ID, and go get some coffee. [OPTIONAL] Turn your device back on. Sign back in to ALL iCloud services, restarting the device in between each one. iCloud AppStore Messages FaceTime You’re probably going to have to go into iCloud and manage your storage settings – Mine reset to backup every app and all their associated data. Not convenient for things like DropBox or Google Drive (since either one has 2-3x the capacity as iCloud) or ForScore (I have HOW MANY scores on my iPad???). If everything works, BACK IT UP!!! [OPTIONAL] Go get more coffee, or better yet, an Irish coffee. You’ve earned it! [OPTIONAL] References http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ios-9-1-apple-id-bug.1916296/ http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/help-cant-get-rid-of-apple-id-verification.1931541/ * Not my Apple ID password. ** They really are pretty insane requirements, and are only there for security theater reasons. For something actually difficult to crack, take a look at Diceware.