Dr Paris (he/him)Dec 13

posted about my Apple ID woes, please share widely?

https://hey.paris/posts/appleid/

20 Years of Digital Life, Gone in an Instant, thanks to Apple

Summary: A major brick-and-mortar store sold an Apple Gift Card that Apple seemingly took offence to, and locked out my entire Apple ID, effectively bricking my devices and my iCloud Account, Apple …

Dr Paris Buttfield-Addison
Show threadGlyphDec 13
@parisba This seems like something @gruber might be interested to write about.
Show threadDr Paris (he/him)Dec 13
@glyph Great point. Hi @gruber ...
Show threadJohn GruberDec 13

@parisba @glyph Indeed. Godspeed and good luck.

https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/12/13/buttfield-addison-apple-account

Paris Buttfield-Addison’s Apple Account Is in Kafka Mode

Link to: https://hey.paris/posts/appleid/

Daring Fireball
Show threadDr Paris (he/him)
@gruber FYI, John, I'm fully back on the air as of today, but share your concerns on Apple Gift Card safety. Small update here: https://hey.paris/posts/appleid/ — longer one soon. @glyph
20 Years of Digital Life, Gone in an Instant, thanks to Apple

Summary: A major brick-and-mortar store sold an Apple Gift Card that Apple seemingly took offence to, and locked out my entire Apple ID, effectively bricking my devices and my iCloud Account, Apple …

Dr Paris Buttfield-Addison
Dec 18 at 12:14amWeb
Show threadJohn GruberDec 18
@parisba @glyph Ha! Nice. Figures that that happened just after I posted. Murphy's Law never fails. Very happy for you.
Show threadDr Paris (he/him)Dec 18
@gruber I suspect I'll get more info soon, as he's off doing some research for me (he's very accomodating within the limits of what he can do/say), but he was VERY adamant that gift cards should only be purchased from Apple, not "Authorised Retailers", if one wants to be guarantee of their safety. I found that odd. @glyph
Show threadDr Paris (he/him)Dec 18
@gruber thanks for your part in drawing attention to it, by the way. Long time listener, first time caller, so to speak. Have attended many WWDC--adjacent theatre events, and really appreciated the coverage. Apple mentioned it as a source that drew their attention to it.
Show threadWolfgang LutzDec 18
@parisba @gruber After some of this stuff, press inquiries are my favorite support tickets. Google only fixed a long standing issue with our companies name on Google Maps (which there simply doesn't seem to be a reachable support team for) a day after a big german tech site asked them about it.
Show threadJason Evangelho 🐧🎒Dec 18

@parisba @gruber @glyph I'm happy to hear Apple finally restored your account. Your story has inspired me to cut ties with iCloud and set up my own NAS to get my memories back under my control.

I sincerely hope you'll do the same.

Show threadGlyphDec 18
@parisba @gruber Whew. Very glad that they managed to address this somehow, feeling an intense vicarious relief.
Show threadDr Paris (he/him)Dec 18
@glyph Likewise! I'm evaluating my ability to use a Linux laptop day to day at the moment, though. Still Big Mad.
Show threadGlyphDec 18
@parisba We Mari Kondo'd our tech life a few years ago which has *largely* been a good decision, but it does mean that I no longer have access to a dumpster full of white-label commodity hardware running free OSes available as a backup. This story has definitely encouraged me to reopen the possibility of at least having a "project" computer again
Show threadDr Paris (he/him)Dec 18
@glyph I used to love computer tinkering, but the older I got the more I enjoyed being actually productive instead of the tinkering. Still not sure if I can actually be productive on Linux though. We shall see. And agreed, project computers can be useful.
Show threadGlyphDec 18
@parisba s a m e
Show threadmasukomiDec 19

@parisba

This story has definitely fueled my motivation for having a backup of all my photos that doesn’t involve Apple’s Cloud

Show threadfluxDec 18
@parisba @gruber @glyph congratulations!!
Show threadAngus GibbinsDec 18

@parisba @gruber @glyph thanks for sharing your story, I will now be extremely vigilant about gift cards from retailers. Even if legitimate.

I’m glad you got your account back, but I agree, none of this is good enough.

Show threadlalala sombraDec 19

@parisba This is quite a radical way to avoid gift card tampering.

There should surely be a less nuclear way.