An Apple fan says they lost '20 years of digital life' after using an Apple gift card – here's what happened

• A developer says he's been ‘permanently’ locked out of his Apple Account
• This happened after he purchased a compromised Apple gift card
• It leaves ’20 years of digital life’ out of reach, as Apple seemingly can’t help

An Apple fan who has spent “nearly 30 years as a loyal customer” says they’ve been “permanently” locked out of their Apple Account due to what might be the overzealous actions of Apple’s automated anti-fraud system. It’s left them locked out of “20 years of digital life,” and it all started with the seemingly straightforward purchase of an Apple gift card.

According to a blog post from developer Paris Buttfield-Addison, their entire Apple Account has been barred, locking them out of their entire purchase history, stored photos, and more. This apparently happened with “no explanation and no recourse,” putting “terabytes of family photos” and their entire message history out of reach, as well as preventing the ability to sync work across devices.

It apparently all started when Buttfield-Addison tried to redeem a $500 Apple gift card in order to pay for their 6TB iCloud+ subscription. The card was purchased from a major brick-and-mortar retailer, but its code did not seem to work. The vendor suggested that it might be compromised and issued a new card, but that didn’t stop Buttfield-Addison’s account from being locked by Apple.

As a result of this, Buttfield-Addison says his devices cannot “sync, update, or function properly,” while software and media totaling thousands of dollars in value are now inaccessible to him. The outcome, the author says, is “over $30,000 worth of previously active ‘bricked’ hardware.”

We've asked Apple for comment on this case and also its official guidance for anyone in a similar situation, and will update this story if we hear back.

“Terrifyingly dismissive”

Unfortunately, Buttfield-Addison says that Apple has been either unwilling or unable to help him. “Most of the ways Apple has suggested seeking help from them involve signing in to an Apple service to upload something, or communicate with them,” Buttfield-Addison says. “This doesn’t work as the account is locked.”

Apple Support was also apparently “terrifyingly dismissive,” the blog post states, with staff refusing to tell Buttfield-Addison why his account was banned and seemingly obstructing his request to have the case escalated.

One Apple Support staff member suggested that Buttfield-Addison should create a new Apple Account and add their payment information to that. The problem, though, is that this would mean giving up on the “thousands of dollars of purchases” associated with the locked account. Buttfield-Addison was also concerned that this could earn Apple’s wrath if it decided that he was attempting to evade or circumvent his account ban.

In the end, Buttfield-Addison has publicly asked for a human at Apple to review his case, as he suspects that the compromised gift card triggered an automated fraud warning, which then initiated a high-level ban that Apple’s support staff seemingly cannot undo.

The situation has been covered by several prominent Apple blogs and websites, and Buttfield-Addison has issued an update stating that “Someone from Executive Relations at Apple says they’re looking into it.” So far, though, it seems that the case remains unresolved.

It’s a stark reminder that it can be risky to put all your eggs in one basket. While Buttfield-Addison seemingly did nothing untoward to invoke the ban, the result is that a huge swath of their digital life is now inaccessible.

If you store your photos and files in a single place, it’s a good idea to back them up to multiple locations to protect against something going wrong. But with how integrated devices are these days, it’s hard to avoid having all your apps, purchases and media within a single ecosystem. In cases like that, there’s not a lot you can do.

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