Why do I need to provide verification repeatedly for my Apple Account?

Tim Springer wrote:

Precisely?

I use a fingerprint to unlock my device. I am logged into my Apple ID, where I can see my Purchases, etc. in the App Store. Even that cheesy cartoon emoji…

Despite that, I am asked to provide verification, to sign in with the password associated that unlocks the account..

Apple ID…is autofilled…I’ve tried “autofill”, no joy…

I can open Passwords in Settings and see…copy, paste….no joy…

I delete and begin again…no joy!

seems an infinite loop…apparently, anything is insufficient…

Fully recognizing the need for security, OK…sure, verify I am who I am, like Popeye…

But c’mon man! What is sufficient?!

Apple Account two-factor authentication is a means to make account takeover more difficult.

This reduces the frequency of compromised accounts, making re-used passwords slightly less problematic, making phishing more difficult, and reducing exposure to related frauds.

The Apple two-factor authentication prompts are intended to be infrequent, and triggered when performing account-level operations such as adding a new device to the Apple Account, or logging in from an unusual source.

The Apple Account two-factor authentication prompts can become more frequent when “coffee shop” VPNs are in use, as those metadata-collection services can share infrastructure with common means of masking the origin of attempts to commit fraud.

In Apple usage, biometrics are a shortcut for and not a replacement for passwords. Where Touch ID and Face ID are available, security and data encryptIon still rests firmly upon the associated passwords.

Computing in the 1970s and 1980s was simpler, but all of it had its share of issues. Apple II and III and Lisa certainly had issues, as did IBM and the BUNCH, and as did, well, pretty much everything IT from that era. Networks and servers of that era were also wildly insecure, too. Magnetic tapes jammed or failed to read, paper tape and punched cards had issues, paper chads got everywhere, card decks got dropped, etc.

Tim Springer (author)

Perhaps your inquiries pertain to security; two factor authentication

&/or authorization among means to keep your data accounts secure..

Among info pages are ones such as these:

•Security and your Apple Account - Apple Support

•Recognize and avoid social engineering schemes including phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support

•If you think your Apple Account has been compromised - Apple Support

•Manage and use your Apple Account - Apple Support

•Apple security releases - Apple Support

•Legal - Apple Privacy Policy - Apple

Helps maybe to use a neutral search engine such as duckduck, in safe browser.

Search Apple Support article database too. I use both & then some. And too

there is an Apple Support App; or if you want to see if youtube articles exist.

Sometimes a transition to two-factor can seem to be a bit much and

it tends to be invasive too; helps to keep notes or breadcrumb trails.

While I know what you mean, I see each individual journey is personal.

Tim Springer (author)

Maybe try casting a line and snag some drifting Feedback

Forms? There you may add comment & submit them too?

Product Feedback - Apple

//www.apple.com/feedback/

[Hardware & Software comments] : all start here

Should your issue(s) overlap, with more than one

topic; you may enter different category topics too.

Where your issue may not clearly have form or location

in Main Feedback selection to ask? ~ That may require

additional effort.. Or: A place to work out frustrations?

Apple Account - Official Apple Support

To comment or report any problems you experienced finding

information on our website, visit Apple Website Feedback page.

Some of these Categories offer Forms where you

enter personal info, and if the questions are good

& need additional detail, Apple (may) contact you.

And sometimes a Software Question may need

be asked under a Hardware Product selection..

& never expect a simple inquiry will get a reply.

While this may help indirectly, you may feel free

to find comfort using the Apple Feedback forms.

Are you talking about this forum or some other app on your device?

If you're talking about this forum then there's no question that the account login is f****d up. I too am logged in to my Mac but I have to log in here with a pwd two or three times a day, first thing in the morning and every time I close and re-open the browser. You can give feedback if you like, but if you're annoyed by this site not knowing who you are then the feedback site will annoy you even more. I know that sympathy isn't help.....

Tim Springer wrote:

Life seems simpler in retrospect but you’re right…in many ways-scope and scale of the inter-web…24/7/365, carry it or wear it…has dwarfed questions of user interface, usability, etc.

I have become that old dude who moans about the good old daze…yet…good product design endures, largely because…it just works…remember that slogan? Universal Design principles still apply.

Big Tech seems to have missed that chapter…and don’t get me started on “Intelligence”. My dogs are smarter…

Usability is massively better. 6502 assembler was a slog, and immense amounts of code were required for simple functions. VAX assembler is much nicer, but still needs massive amounts of code.

Many tasks are far easier now, and tasks previously unforeseeable are merely difficult now.

UI work is far easier now than was slogging through X11 calls, and tools including Blender and Godot and Unreal are far beyond Apple Hi-Res.

And while the hyped parts of AI are far too often hot garbage, ML is often very useful. Doing image recognition and pattern matching tasks with ML are vastly easier, too. As for hype, remember chiclet-style computer keyboards? Or :CueCat?

An iPhone and an Apple Watch can both outrun a million dollar custom-built graphics server from the mid 1980s. And the Apple gear is battery-powered and entirely portable devices, unlike earlier gear with multiple cabinets and fat power cables. And far less expensive.

Is there dumb” now? Sure. There was ample “dumb” then, too. Not the least of which included endless arguments back then over using assembler versus using 3GLs, to pick one of very many examples of silliness. Having to stuff apps into 32 KW addressing was no fun too, particularly when that app then involved overlay trees. And we used telnet, FTP, and LAT, and spewed our cleartext passwords all over the network.

Life was simpler, yes. Mostly because the tasks were simpler. What was simple even then is yet simpler now.

As for receiving Apple Account verification codes, those should only trigger when something account-level happens. Something that might involve an account takeover attempt, or phishing.

What verification precisely?