Sunday, June 25, 2017

How to delete your iCloud account and Apple ID

First, invent a time machine.

Second, go back in time and force Apple to add account removal.

For now - you can’t.

You can remove your Google account. You can remove your Facebook account. You can’t remove your iCloud account and your Apple ID. They are eternal.

I’ve run into this little oddness before, but I was reminded of it when cleaning up my deceased father’s online presence.

A 2013 Apple forum post says: “Access can be stopped by Apple if they are provided with your Death Certificate.” I bet you have to fly the certificate to Cupertino. Even then it’s not clear if any data is deleted. I wonder if anyone has ever done this.

Apple gets away with a lot.

PS. I did set his email to forward to me.

5 comments:

George Crashdummy said...

wow, that is as bad as trying to take over a domain from a deceased colleague. His wife was very uncooperative so no death cert and registrar would not budge. I left the org. and we let the domain die.

Anonymous said...

From my understanding one cannot delete an Apple ID as it's for life, but in cases of Activation Locks, Apple may be able to assist unlocking a device from a deceased individual if the death certificate is provided.

Anonymous said...

Addendum to my above post -- I think you said well yourself in one of your past posts -- http://tech.kateva.org/2015/02/you-can-delete-facebook-id-and-google.html

JGF said...

I thought something felt familiar. Deja Vu indeed. How did you remember that Chris? I'd forgotten.

Anonymous said...

I monitor your blog like a hawk! LOL