{"id":47350,"date":"2025-04-08T14:26:28","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T18:26:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=47350"},"modified":"2026-11-10T10:51:48","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T15:51:48","slug":"locked-out-of-apple-developer-accounts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/08\/locked-out-of-apple-developer-accounts\/","title":{"rendered":"Locked Out of Apple Developer Accounts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@davedelong\/114298274966216722\">Dave DeLong<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@davedelong\/114298274966216722\"><p>In the past 24 hours I&rsquo;ve heard of four different developers who have been entirely locked out of their Apple Developer accounts for seemingly no reason whatsoever, with no help from support and no apparent way to escalate.<\/p><p>No idea what&rsquo;s going on, but this for sure does not seem good.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/appdot.net\/@RedQueenCoder\/114298310257909727\">Janie Larson<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/appdot.net\/@RedQueenCoder\/114298310257909727\"><p>Last year I had my developer account labeled as inactive in spite of it being paid at the time. It wouldn&rsquo;t give me the option to reactivate it because it was paid in full. I eventually just let it lapse and now I don&rsquo;t publish anything on Apple platforms. &#x1F605;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@JonathanGerlach\/114298567398605395\">Jonathan Gerlach<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@JonathanGerlach\/114298567398605395\">\n<p>I&rsquo;m a developer who was locked out of my developer account, btw. I can&rsquo;t log in or reset my password.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@st3fan\/114298709517909197\">Stefan Arentz<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@st3fan\/114298709517909197\">\n<p>It happened to me last year. After a bunch of one way communication it was suddenly restored. No explanation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/02\/27\/our-changing-relationship-with-apple\/\">Our Changing Relationship With Apple<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/02\/03\/2024-six-colors-apple-report-card\/\">2024 Six Colors Apple Report Card<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2023\/08\/24\/digital-will-sues-apple-over-developer-account-termination\/\">Digital Will Sues Apple Over Developer Account Termination<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/developer-account-in-limbo-due-to-popularity\/\">Developer Account In Limbo Due to Popularity<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/12\/07\/apple-accounts-permanently-blocked\/\">Apple Accounts &ldquo;Permanently&rdquo; Blocked<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/10\/students-developer-account-mistakenly-terminated\/\">Student&rsquo;s Developer Account Mistakenly Terminated<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2020\/10\/02\/another-developer-account-nearly-terminated\/\">Another Developer Account Nearly Terminated<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/09\/epic-barred-from-sign-in-with-apple\/\">Epic Barred From &ldquo;Sign in With Apple&rdquo;<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/25\/developer-accounts-nearly-terminated\/\">Developer Accounts Nearly Terminated<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/17\/apple-to-cut-epic-off-from-ios-and-mac-developer-tools\/\">Apple to Cut Epic Off From iOS and Mac Developer Tools<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2019\/11\/20\/guilherme-rambo-locked-out-of-apple-developer-account\/\">Guilherme Rambo Locked Out of Apple Developer Account<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2016\/10\/05\/apple-removed-dash-from-the-mac-app-store\/\">Apple Removed Dash From the Mac App Store<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p id=\"locked-out-of-apple-developer-accounts-update-2025-04-10\">Update (<a href=\"#locked-out-of-apple-developer-accounts-update-2025-04-10\">2025-04-10<\/a>): <a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@davedelong\/114314583142959467\">Dave DeLong<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@davedelong\/114314583142959467\"><p>I&rsquo;m happy to report that <em>everyone I&rsquo;ve heard about<\/em> has managed to regain access to their accounts. Kudos to the folks in WWDR who helped them through the hoops to make that happen. &#x1F44F;<\/p><p>And shame on whatever caused this to happen on the first place.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p id=\"locked-out-of-apple-developer-accounts-update-2026-09-02\">Update (<a href=\"#locked-out-of-apple-developer-accounts-update-2026-09-02\">2026-09-02<\/a>): <a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@siracusa\/117196097301277170\">John Siracusa<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@siracusa\/117196097301277170\">\n<p>I&rsquo;ve had to &ldquo;unlock&rdquo; my developer Apple ID once every 5 days on average for the past three months, and once per day for the past three days.<\/p>\n<p>Each time I do it, I have to perform a delicate dance to navigate what seems to be some kind of request throttling that gives me HTTP 503 responses during the unlock process, making it impossible to complete its several steps. Then my session times out and I have to start over.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p id=\"locked-out-of-apple-developer-accounts-update-2026-09-16\">Update (<a href=\"#locked-out-of-apple-developer-accounts-update-2026-09-16\">2026-09-16<\/a>): <a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@isaiah\/117276053790155076\">Isaiah Carew<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@isaiah\/117276053790155076\">\n<p>my apple dev account has been doing this about every 48 hours for the past 15 years.<\/p>\n<p>i long ago gave up thinking that apple might fix this or even care about the devs stuck with this issue. i&rsquo;ve met a number of people now with the same problem.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p id=\"locked-out-of-apple-developer-accounts-update-2026-09-21\">Update (<a href=\"#locked-out-of-apple-developer-accounts-update-2026-09-21\">2026-09-21<\/a>): <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/galooticus\/status\/2101531445626085764\">Adam Maxwell<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/x.com\/galooticus\/status\/2101531445626085764\">\n<p>Third time I&rsquo;ve &ldquo;unlocked&rdquo; my Apple account in as many days. All I&rsquo;m trying to do this time is log in and click &ldquo;Accept&rdquo; on the developer TOS for the privilege of notarizing my software. Love too pay $99 for annoying security theater.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p id=\"locked-out-of-apple-developer-accounts-update-2026-09-29\">Update (<a href=\"#locked-out-of-apple-developer-accounts-update-2026-09-29\">2026-09-29<\/a>): <a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@siracusa\/117349715302788894\">John Siracusa<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@siracusa\/117349715302788894\">\n<p>FB24976658: My Apple Account is locked every day<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>Every reply I get from Apple makes me more angry, which is not a good result for customer communication.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p id=\"locked-out-of-apple-developer-accounts-update-2026-10-16\">Update (<a href=\"#locked-out-of-apple-developer-accounts-update-2026-10-16\">2026-10-16<\/a>): <a href=\"https:\/\/developer.apple.com\/forums\/thread\/849260\">Ekaterina Krasner<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/developer.apple.com\/forums\/thread\/849260\">\n<p>In August my developer account was suspended. I still have no idea why. Zero rejected builds before that, not one.<\/p>\n<p>I sent a description of my projects and the standard documents they asked for. Then on 11 September the email arrived: &ldquo;We approved your reinstatement request. You can now sign in to your account and access development resources.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s October now, and I still cannot sign in or create new certificates.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>Since September I have sent more than ten emails and been passed between three different advisors. Each of them assures me the issue is being actively worked on.<\/p>\n<p>I have an active app with tens of thousands of monthly users. They aren&rsquo;t exactly thrilled that the Android version has already been updated while the iPhone one hasn&rsquo;t. I have no idea what I&rsquo;ll do if I need to release a hotfix.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p id=\"locked-out-of-apple-developer-accounts-update-2026-11-10\">Update (<a href=\"#locked-out-of-apple-developer-accounts-update-2026-11-10\">2026-11-10<\/a>): <a href=\"https:\/\/mstdn.social\/@nriley\/117536342316834344\">Nicholas Riley<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mstdn.social\/@nriley\/117536342316834344\">\n<p>Oh joy, my Apple developer account got locked for no apparent reason. Really hoping this is not a start of the Siracusa cycle.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/09\/developer-accounts-removed\/\">Developer Accounts Removed<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/09\/nudification-guidelines-and-terminating-developer-accounts\/\">Nudification Guidelines and Terminating Developer Accounts<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dave DeLong: In the past 24 hours I&rsquo;ve heard of four different developers who have been entirely locked out of their Apple Developer accounts for seemingly no reason whatsoever, with no help from support and no apparent way to escalate.No idea what&rsquo;s going on, but this for sure does not seem good. Janie Larson: Last [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-04-08T18:26:31Z","apple_news_api_id":"456eeeb9-5b0a-45c5-ba9f-1d70a4f67617","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-11-10T15:51:53Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABw==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ARW7uuVsKRcW6nx1wpPZ2Fw","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2749,707,31,30,71],"class_list":["post-47350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-apple-developer-account","tag-apple-id","tag-ios","tag-mac","tag-programming"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47350"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53810,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47350\/revisions\/53810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}