Password recovery for iCloud email account on erased iPhone

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Level 1

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Password recovery for iCloud email account on erased iPhone

My son got a new phone & we transferred everything from his old phone to his new one & erased everything from the old one. We then realised that he couldn’t remember his password for his iCloud email account & now can’t get logged in to use his new phone & we can’t use his old phone to help as it’s been erased. Recovery said it’ll send an email to his iCloud account but we don’t know the password to access this.

Tearing our hair out with this, googled everything but nothing is working.

Can anyone help?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Help! iCloud issues

Posted on Oct 3, 2025 11:54 AM

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Answer 1

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shoeluvr13

Level 6

18,529 points

Oct 3, 2025 1:10 PM in response to OLW27

Account recovery is a two phase process once started. Phase 1 is the evaluation period, usually 24-72 hours. This phase says Apple is evaluating your info and you’ll get emailed an update after the posted time is over (people mistakenly think it means they’ll be able to reset the password immediately after this first phase.)

Once phase 1 is done it enters phase 2 where https://iforgot.apple.com/ will give you the final amount of days (can be weeks) you’ll wait. On that final day you’ll get a text/call, follow that text/call immediately. If you don’t receive the text or call, once the period specified in the original email is over, you can still go directly to apple.com/recover. Follow the instructions to regain access to your Apple Account.

During the wait period make sure you are carefully following “After you start account recovery“ at How to use account recovery when you can’t reset your Apple Account password - Apple Support

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