Can't approve Passwords and Keychain for iCloud for Windows

So I think I found a fix. At least for me anyways...

I had to have both my iPhone and Windows system on the same exact wifi/network. Having same external (internet) IP address.

I have 2 vlans and internet providers. One I use for work, one is personal. So when they reach out the internet they have different IP addresses. I moved the Windows system, to same VLAN as iPhone and it activated without an issue. Once activated I moved it back and has been fine since... Well until next update probably...

So my guess it it checks your connection to make sure someone is not trying to get your passwords by activating it on a remote pc.

Hope this helps some...

I feel like apple support is dense for this, many people have raise this concern but not a single response from any of the representatives.

I encountered the same problem on 2024/7/1 and wasted most of my day trying to solve it. Based on my past experience of wasting a lot of time on it, in order to prevent iCloud for Windows from continuing to waste my life, I uninstalled all Apple software products on my Windows computer, leaving only Apple Music. Now the world has become much cleaner!

Hey, I had a similar issue, and after Apple Support redirected me to Microsoft, I managed to fix it myself.

Please try the following steps:

1. Disable Bluetooth in Windows Settings
2. Reboot your PC
3. Try signing in.

Have a nice day!

I turned my firewall off temporarily and it went thru, which makes no sense as there was an exception for icloud.

After troubleshooting this problem for almost five whole days, contacted Apple Support thrice to no avail, even brought it to an offline technician without any meaningful resolution, and the only thing that solved my issue (not even turning off VPN, connecting the iPhone and Windows laptop through a USB to Lightning cable along with Bluetooth, uninstalling and reinstalling, making sure both devices are connected to the same network, reinstalling/restarting too many times to even count, Advanced Data Protection, downgrading to older iCloud versions, resetting--yes, that was genuinely my last resort--both my iPhone and Windows laptop were able to solve it) was having the Apple ID signed into a Macbook. That's... literally it. Somehow the approval went through after the 6-digit authentication so easily after that, without any hassles or troubles at all. Which sucked really hard because I do not own a Macbook, and probably means that the system somehow doesn't recognise my iPhone as a trustworthy Apple device even when it literally says that it's trusted on my iPhone's devices list. I live in Indonesia and I had to ask a close one from the US to help me out with this, which is even more ironic because other people had to make sure their devices were in the same network for this to work. Dear God, I just hope it won't break all over again because having to input my auto-generated passwords manually were so arduous I just didn't log in to any new services. Man.

I just plugged my phone via the lightning cable into my pc, which enabled bluetooth hotspot. With this setup, it worked after i entered the code from my phone.

Same issue.. Disabling Bluetooth doesn't help... It fixed itself a few weeks ago but now it is back and I cannot access... IT is not windows, it is a iCloud sync issue... We need a fix her Apple Support...

SOLVED.... Use your desktop to connect to web using YOUR wifi or Ethernet-cable network. Use your iphone/ipad/laptop to connect WIRELESSLY to your SAME wifi network. In desktop, click the key-icon on top right to enable the passwords. You will receive a code on your iphone/ipad/laptop. Enter code on desktop window that requested it. And voila.... they both become active..!

Totally worked! Never even thought about it, but I have the same setup because I work from home and didn't realize that one of my devices was on my work IP address. It worked. Thank you for the suggestion.

M

I have resolved this on my Laptop. I uninstalled iCloud for Windows and the browser extension. I changed the Appleid password on my iPad. Then reinstalled iCloud for Windows and the browser extension. Started up iCloud for Windows and with bated breath hit the “authorise” button and …. It all works perfectly now.

Maybe the problem is something to do with 2FA? Or maybe my Laptop was somehow picking up a wrong password as part of 2FA - although Windows for iCloud was always active OK, but within that the Password sync needed authorisation which requires 2FA. That’s the step that had failed.

1. Download Itunes, Install
2. Turn WIFI off of phone and Turn on Hotspot
3. Plug phone into PC with cable.
4. Unplug Ethernet Cable from Computer
5. Go to network settings on PC and make sure you are connected over Iphone
6. Go through the approval process.
7. Done.

Hey! Did you find any fix?

I was able to fix this in my situation by turning off Windows Hello, turning it back on again, and then Approving Passwords and Keychain in the iCloud app on Windows. Hope this helps!