How-To
iOS 15 added a handy new recovery feature – here’s how to use it
The feature lets you choose a trustworthy recovery contact.
Ever forgotten the password to one of your major accounts? How about the one for your Apple ID or iCloud? It hurts, doesn’t it? Well, Apple is making it easier to recover your accounts in iOS 15, with a new Account Recovery feature.
That means you won’t have to contact Apple Support to get back into your iCloud. You can rejoice now because if you’re the type to forget any of the hundreds of passwords we all need nowadays, this is going to come in handy.
Here’s how to set it up once iOS 15 arrives later this fall.
Here’s how to set up Account Recovery on iOS 15
You’ll need every single one of your Apple devices updated to the latest software before we begin. That’s your Mac, MacBook, or iPhone and iPad. That’s macOS Monterey for your Mac and MacBook, iOS 15 for your iPhone, and iPadOS 15 for your iPad.
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Open the Settings app and then tap on your name at the top of the screen
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Tap on Password & Security > Account Recovery > Add Recovery Contact
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You’ll get a popup that says what your recovery contact can actually access. It’s not much, and they won’t have access to your iCloud content. It’ll also say what you have to do to recover your account.
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Tap on Add Recovery Contact at the bottom of the screen, enter your Apple password at the prompt, then select your recovery contact(s) from your phone’s contacts.
Now if you ever find yourself locked out of your Apple ID or iCloud accounts, all you need to do is call one of your Account Recovery Contacts from your iPhone. Your contact will then give you a short unlock code, and you input that into your iPhone.
Once unlocked, you’ll be prompted to set a new account password. Now is the time to make use of iCloud’s password manager, and pick something long, unique, and even better – saved to your password manager.
You’ll have to wait until iOS 15 is publicly released in a few weeks if you don’t want to install the beta version ahead of time.
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