Christian University Student

I'm new to using Apple products. I got my first iPad this past year, and I loved it. I started using it so much, for everything, to the point where I couldn't go without it most days. I even thought about actually switching to an iPhone too (I have an Android phone), since they tend to have a lot more storage and there are a ton of apps.

However, a little while back, I had to reset my Apple ID. I changed it to something really secure - a new password I didn't use anywhere else. That would be all fine and dandy, except I didn't write it down anywhere at all.

My iPad usually uses my fingerprint or whatever to open it, but every two weeks or so, it says I have to use my Apple ID password to open my iPad. When those two weeks passed after I reset, I realized I couldn't remember that password off the top of my head. I did remember it after a bit of thought and entered it fine, and had a passing thought that maybe I should write it down, but I was usually rather good at remembering passwords, plus, I had opened my iPad for a reason and soon got busy again and forgot.

Another couple weeks pass, and whoops, gotta enter the password again. But this time... somehow... I can't remember my password. I get out my list of previous passwords and try most of them. None of them are it, of course, not even with the little variances I usually make. I don't panic really, just a little nervous because I use this thing literally everyday, but I google how to reset my password and the support page says I can reset it from any iPhone, iPad, or Mac computer.

Well... I don't have any of those. No one in my family has one easily available. I try a few more passwords to no avail, and now it's saying I have to wait an entire hour to enter another password??? That's frustrating. I watch some Netflix, wait an hour, try another password... it's not it. I google again what else I can do and send in a request to change my Apple ID password. It says they'll call me the next day at 10:50:49 PM PDT. Uh... weird I guess, but okay?

So I go to bed for the night and the next day I just use my phone to do the stuff I might use my tablet for. It's a bit frustrating because I don't have all the same apps, and certainly can't write on my phone with a stylus like I can with my iPad. That night, I make sure to get home a bit before 10, take a short nap, play some games, and wait for them to supposedly call me.

At 10:56, I notice the time and realize they didn't call me. So I go to the link they say you can check your request progress on and it just sends me to the page to send in another request. I know how that didn't work out already, so I google some more. I dig out my dad's years old iPad and try to use it to recover my Apple ID like the directions say online you can with another iPad, but it doesn't let me get far doing anything because, lo and behold, my dad's forgotten his password too, and although he never put on a screen lock, it doesn't let me do much without me entering in a password.

Needing my iPad to work on school work, and kind of annoyed that I didn't get a call like I was supposed to, I try another password combination that I hadn't tried yet, and the message comes up, "iPad is disabled connect to iTunes".

"Darn," I think, "now I really do have to wait for them to call me, or at the very least wait til I get on a Mac or something somehow." I try the support site for Apple one more time, looking for something else I can do, a number I can call instead of just waiting around for them to call me, when I see it.

"If you enter the wrong passcode on an iOS device too many times, you'll be locked out and a message will say that your device is disabled. At this point, the data on your device has been erased." -https://support.apple.com/bg-bg/HT204306

What?!?!?? Deleted?????!!?!????

That's when the panic sets in.

I have taken hundreds of photos on this iPad. Too many for the basic storage the iCloud provides. The next iCloud package is only like a $1, but being the college student tight on cash, living paycheck to paycheck just trying to afford my car repairs and gas and food, I had thought it would be fine because I would just always have my iPad and could transfer the photos whenever I needed.

A little background: I'm a rather forgetful person sometimes, especially when it comes to long-term memories. The best way for me to remember all the precious memories I have hidden away in my brain somewhere is to have a physical reminder or picture of something from the event or memory for me to recall it.

As you might be able to infur, this makea it extremely difficult for me to let go of objects that I have memories attached to, but over the years, living in a single bedroom apartment, objects can quite literally pile up very easily, which is a fire hazard and hoarding and not healthy. So~, usually if I no-longer use an object that has memories to me, I'll simply take a picture of it.

After I had gotten my iPad, I started only really using the iPad to take pictures because it had a better camera than my phone and far more storage space in the iPad itself.

Welp. Needless to say, I'm very concerned. I broke down crying once the reality hit me that I couls have just lost all those pictures that literally contain my memories in them. I've scheduled for support to call me tomorrow morning. The only thing keeping me from bawling is writing this right now, and a little phrase I read somewhere while googling that it might depend on my settings. I don't remember changing a setting like that, and assuming the default is to lose your data, I'm honestly severely sorry for whatever customer service person calls me tomorrow because I will likely start crying my eyes out on the phone.

If I just lost all my photos on my iPad because Apple is a self-serving prick of a company that doesn't let you reset your Apple ID easily from non-Apple devices, and didn't call me despite promising me in writing in an email to do so, I am officially never touching another Apple product for the rest of my life (unless for some reason they gift me one for free that doesn't have that vile feature). You might think you're protecting my iPad, but the only way a thief could open it at this point would be to reset the device anyway, which erases the data already. There's no point to erasing the data before it's reset. Also, even if someone stole it and did find out a way to unlock it, I'm pretty sure no one cares about my doll from 3rd grade whose dress tore and I didn't have use for anymore, or the poems I wrote in 7th on actual paper and take up so much physical room when I could just store it digitally. Even if it's a money thing, I HAVE NO MONEY. (Well, I have like $6 last I checked.) EVERYTHING WOULD BE DECLINED.

Inspiring false reliability and then destroying the things I trusted you with. What a joke.