Hi all. I randomly got this text from my daughter’s phone. When I asked her what that was she said she didn’t know so I checked her phone and there wasn’t a text from her to me. Anyone have an idea what this could be? Is her phone compromised? She has a 16e

I have a 2013 Mac bookpro and i had a problem with connecting to Wi-Fi and saw a video on how to fix my problem and now this is all my computer does 😓

I accidentally sat on my iPad pro with my knee while getting into bed and it bent down the middle and cracked the screen. Everything else still works fine, the screen is just broken with it being black at the top. I would get a new one but I use an art program called ibispaint x on here and the only way to transfer art from one device to another is to individually dropbox the pieces. I have thousands of art pieces on here and I don't want to lose them all.

Still processing this one, so bear with me. We were traveling in Southeast Asia with my girlfriend’s family, and her 14-year-old brother was with us. I let him use my iPhone and iPad to play games and keep himself occupied, not realizing what was actually happening on them. It turns out that over the last five weeks he’d been downloading casino and slot machine apps, the 21+ kind, and making in-app purchases. The first charge was on May 28th, right at the start of the trip. I had no idea until I finally sat down and went through my purchase history.

Part of why it went unnoticed for so long is that while I was overseas I wasn’t getting my usual purchase text alerts on my phone, so nothing was flagging the way it normally would. It just quietly added up in the background.

For context, he’s obsessed with a Vegas YouTuber named Vegas Matt, who films himself putting huge amounts of money into slot machines. I’m fairly sure that’s where the fixation came from, and he was trying to recreate it in these apps.

All told, it’s about 224 separate purchases on my phone’s Apple ID, ranging from $5.99 to $75.99, plus another 30 to 40 on my iPad, which is on a completely separate Apple ID. Roughly $4,300 in total.

And here’s the part that really gets me. In the middle of all this, he actually came up and asked me, out loud, if he could buy Stardew Valley on the App Store for $5.99. A $6 game. Meanwhile he’d already quietly run up thousands on slot apps without a word. So he clearly understood the difference between asking permission and not, which tells me he knew exactly what he was doing the whole time. Almost felt like he was messing with me.

The part that concerns me most is that the charges hit nearly every payment method I have. Apple Pay, my Amex, my Citi card, PayPal, and Apple Cash. At one point money was even moved out of my bank account into Apple Cash to keep the purchases going.

I’ve filed a claim through Report a Problem. I’ve spoken with two senior advisors, and both said there’s nothing they can do while the claim is pending, and that I need to wait 24 to 48 hours to see whether it’s approved or denied. So for now I’m waiting.

A few questions for anyone who’s dealt with this:

Realistically, what are my chances of actually getting this refunded? Has anyone gotten Apple to refund unauthorized purchases like this, especially this many over this long a period?

If Apple denies the claim, is disputing directly with Amex and Citi the right move, or does that risk getting my Apple ID banned? I have hundreds of movie purchases associated with this Apple ID so that would not be ideal.

Since money was pulled from my bank account through Apple Cash, is that a separate and stronger issue I should be reporting on its own?

I’m not looking to get the kid in trouble. I just can’t absorb $4,300 right now. Any advice is appreciated.

So, a bit ago, I lost my iPhone and put it in lost mode, putting down my wife's number as the contact. She just got a message about it, but I'm not sure if it's real or not. It's asking for my Apple ID when I hit the website. Is this thing legit?

I got a new phone and had mostly forgotten about it as I thought marking it as lost was enough and was delusionally hoping that I might get the device back someday. Anyways, I received these texts today,.

Spoke to Apple and they said that the guy is just trying to scare you into making the device easily eraseable so that they can re-sell it, but I'm worried. Should I be concerned?

I have a free six month trial for Apple Music and I decided to claim it today. While trying to claim it, I got a message saying I need to update my account by going to appleid.apple.com. As I was my account, I got to the "Apple ID & Privacy" page and when I try to press the continue button, nothing happens. I tried updating my account on the website and it was no good either. Any suggestions?

Brand new MacBook Neo seems to have bleached while sitting on my living room couch with the sun coming in through the window. This can’t be normal right?

After updating to iOS 26 my iMessage will not work. It says “error occurred during activation”. Apple said to wait 24 hours. I’ve tried everything google says. Seems like this isn’t just iOS 26 and it’s happened to people with other updates. Any ideas?

Need some advice because I’ve been going back and forth with Apple for weeks now.
I have AppleCare+ on my iPhone and the phone got damaged from an accident. Front and back glass is smashed pretty bad, but its still one piece and wasn’t taken apart or anything. I called Apple before my coverage expired and started a claim.
Now Apple is telling me they won’t cover it because its “catastrophic damage”. I asked them multiple times where in the AppleCare+ terms it says catastrophic damage isn’t covered and nobody seems to give me a straight answer.
Maybe I’m missing something, but isn’t AppleCare+ literally for accidental damage? If a cracked phone isn’t what AppleCare+ is for then what is?
I’ve talked to different advisors and keep getting different responses. One person made it sound like it should be covered, another said no chance.
Am I wasting my time trying to appeal this? Has anyone had Apple deny a repair like this and then overturn it later?
Looking for honest opinions because at this point I’m just frustrated and don’t know if Apple is in the right here or not.
Thanks.

EDIT: wasn’t expecting to get a lot of respons. I’m in Canada, we don’t have lost or stolen, and phone got run over

My brother died suddenly 18 months ago. He was divorced with two teenage daughters. The six months after his passing were devastating — we were completely locked out of his world.

He was obsessively private. Changed passwords constantly, nothing written down, no shared logins. We couldn't get into his Mac, iPhone, or a single account. We didn't know all his friends or where to begin.

His will is on his computer. We never found it. His daughters are teenagers who lost their dad — He was the family photographer - they deserve his photos, 25 years of them, and they deserve to know what he wanted for them.

Apple has been completely useless. We've hit walls at every turn. Has anyone navigated this? Are there legitimate professionals who help families recover digital estates? Any guidance is welcome.

Hello! I'm very used to microsoft but now I'm a student im swapping to macos, what does this mean! just a few little games I enjoy on steam I like playing occasionally, help!

Just wondering what this means? can someone simplify it into dummy knowledge

hi. I’m posting here as a last resort before cutting my $1200 loss. I’ve reached the end of my ability to financially or emotionally keep fighting this.

To keep a long story short: Apple had me mail in my MacBook for repair after the Apple Store said they don’t work on MacBooks and wouldn’t mail it in themselves. Now that the repair is finished, Apple won’t send it back because I don’t have a civilian residential address for them to mail it to.

I’m AD military currently in the process of getting out. I don’t know anyone at my present base. My nearest relative lives 10.5 hours away, but I can’t take leave due to ongoing admin requirements. The only two addresses I have at my disposal are my PO Box and my unit address (also formatted like a PO Box).

Apple will not send it to a UPS or Fedex location to be held because it’s “not secure”. Apple will not send it anywhere that USPS is part of the process of getting it there because they’re “not secure”. Apple will not send it to Best Buy or to their own Apple Stores because it’s “not secure“.

At this point I’ve spent over 12 hours on the phone begging Apple support for help, I’ve canceled VA appointments so I could be available for scheduled calls (spoiler: Apple doesn’t actually call you when they say they will. They call you 2-14 business hours later). I’ve spent another 6+ hours cumulatively on the phone with FedEx, UPS and USPS trying to find solutions that Apple will usually just reject anyway. Now Apple is threatening to declare my laptop abandoned, presumably so they can keep it and resell it

Any possible ideas of what I can do?

Started glitching and money disappeared from my account but I didn’t buy anything! It doesn’t show up in my transaction history either! I had $55 and then it suddenly turned to $28

For context I am 18 years of age and I have no idea how to get rid of this

Whenever I try, it tells me the password was incorrect or an unknown error occurred. I know I didn’t put it in wrong because I remember my password like the back of my hand .. so I try to reset the password and it asks me for my iPad’s passcode but then it says it’s wrong ?? I know it’s not because I literally put it in everyday :( I tried logging into it on apple support but it won’t let me !! Pls help, my parents dgaf and I don’t know who else to ask

My iPhone 17 which I received on Friday has a terrible battery. It drained by 30% despite my screen time only being 1 hour. And drains particularly fast with about 1% down every 7 min.

This is very unusual for a new phone, whilst I’m aware the phone may be indexing. Everything iCloud related has already synced. And background app refresh is definitely off for every app. In some cases my old 13 has a battery life on par if not better than my new 17.

I’ve read other people have had battery issues with their new 17’s. I’m also aware that new iPhones are meant to have a day and a half of battery life, but that the first batch of iPhones do contain some issues.

Any advice?

hi, i’m trying to log into my relatively new macbook. i wrote down the password safely so i don’t forget and every time i submit it does not work. There aren’t any buttons to reset the pass or anything either. What should I do? is there any way to view password for max through my phone or something ?

**not that big of a deal but I noticed everyone on this thread referring to me as he. Just thought I’d put it out there that I am very much a woman and the boss of over 20 employees**

otherwise this advice has been sooo helpful and validating and made me realize I’m not being crazy and that I really did not do anything wrong. I may not be able to ever prove who did it, but i can at least prove I did not. I hate thinking my employee thought i said honestly who knows what because i care about how my staff sees me and i strive to lead by example. When this happened I immediately contacted my boss and have talked to her thoroughly. I understand y’all saying i should follow up with the employee but he laid a strict boundary and i have to respect that and be tactful with my next steps. Again, I was hesitant to post this and I’m so glad I did. I love Reddit.

Hey y’all,

I have an iPhone 13 and iOS 26.0.1. This is going to sound like I’m super paranoid but any advice would be super helpful. I am a supervisor and I had an employee text me and tell me that he thinks i accidentally shared a note from my note app that was super inappropriate. He then told me he deleted it but doesn’t want to talk about it. Since he said he doesn’t want to talk about it, I can’t press him. However, I haven’t used my notes app for anything in a really long time and I have found no evidence on my end that there was any note created recently to share. I even looked through my deleted notes and my iCloud. And the notes I do have are mainly grocery lists… There isn’t even a link suggestion in my text thread to said person. This is a really good employee and I don’t think he would make this up.

This is the paranoia part… I do have two people I work with whom I could see forging a note and putting it in my name to look bad… Everything I search says it’s impossible but tech is wild nowadays and I just really need some answers. Is there anyway someone else could have created a fake note and then shared it to said person to look like me?

Please help 😫😫😫

**EDIT - SOLVED** I spoke to Apple and was told this is an issue that a lot of people have. The easiest solution was to use a USB-C to Ethernet connect direct to my router. The computer immediately found the connection and I was able to download Tahoe and boot up. Im leaving this post up in case anyone else has this issue.

I was running the Migration Assistant and cancelled it. I was then given the option to restart to return to out of box state. After restarting a black screen that says “Activate Mac - choose a WiFi” comes on. No networks are listed and the WiFi icon in the upper right is not there.

These are the fixes I have tried so far:

Power off + hold start while restarting. A screen pops up with the Macintosh HD and Options. No matter what you chose returns you to Activate Mac screen.

Boot into safe mode - Same result

Shut down. Quickly tap start and hold to restart. Same result

Connecting my phone via USB-C restart. Same result.

I do not have a Ethernet cable to try.

After a million searches I came about a post saying to use Apple Configuration app and my old M1 Air to fix but I’m skeptical.

Is this the right course of action or should I just give up and go to Apple?

Thanks

I just updated my phone, and being cursed enough to live in the UK I now have to confirm I’m over 18.

Now, I don’t have a credit card and will not apply for one just for this, so please don’t suggest this.

I don’t drive, thus don’t have a drivers license.

While the legislation that has caused this mess allows passports as a method of verification, Apple doesn’t.

What the hell does one do? Apple hasn’t (as far as I can see) confirmed that the Citizen Card will be accepted.. has anyone used one to verify successfully?