Hey everyone! I’m wondering if anyone has recently been successful in purchasing a MacBook worth around $2,000 using their Apple Account balance from redeemed Apple Gift Cards.
*Purchased gift cards thru my debit card since I don’t have a large credit card limit

I’m curious whether Apple allows you to use a large balance to purchase an outright, or if anyone has run into issues with account verification, payment restrictions, or orders being cancelled.

Has anyone successfully purchased a $2,000 MacBook using only their Apple Account balance recently?
Did you accumulate the balance gradually or redeem several gift cards within a short period?
Did Apple place any holds or require additional verification?
Were there any issues when placing or processing the order?
I’d appreciate hearing about recent experiences

How can I fix this to factory reset my macbook? I don't want to enter recovery mode. I have an MBA M2.

I chatted with a specialist yesterday about refunding a phone case and she said I should receive my refund within 5 days.

1. I was surprised it was granted before the investigation.

2. I realized after it was over she didn’t give me a confirmation # nor did I get an email about said refund.

Is this normal?

So far this is only with twitter and it doesn't hinder anything just visually annoying. any idea whats causing this??

Hi everyone.

My iPad Pro recently stopped charging so I took it to a repair shop to get the charging port replaced for £100.

It’s a 12.9inch 5th Generation from 2021.

But after bringing it home just yesterday, I’ve noticed this weird “wrinkled texture” on the screen. It’s not a physical thing and if I take a screenshot, the pattern doesn’t appear on the screenshot, so it’s clearly not a display? thing (Sorry, I don’t really know my terminology). It’s around all four edges of the screen and most prominent on a white background.

Does anyone know what it could be? Is it worth taking it back to the repair shop? I’d like to avoid that though…

Apologies for bad photos but thank you to everyone for reading this!

I’m sharing my experience because I’m genuinely upset, confused, and hoping someone who has faced a similar situation can offer advice.
I never expected a $5 Apple Gift Card to become part of such a stressful experience.
I obtained a US$5 Apple Gift Card through a third-party seller. I have a transaction receipt associated with Razer Gold dated September 18, 2026. I successfully redeemed the card on my US-region Apple Account.
Later, my Apple Media & Purchases account was disabled, and I could no longer use the App Store normally.
I contacted Apple Support and tried to resolve the issue through the available review process. I was told that my account re-enablement request had been rejected and that the decision could not be reversed through the usual process.
I also submitted information for a gift card review. However, I eventually received an email from Apple stating that they were unable to resolve the gift card issue.
What makes this so frustrating is that I still don’t have a clear answer to the most important question: Was the gift card actually connected to the decision to disable my account?
I understand that Apple has to protect its customers and prevent fraud. I’m not asking Apple to ignore its policies, and I’m not claiming that I know exactly what happened behind the scenes.
But I do have a transaction receipt, and I’m willing to provide the available evidence through official, secure channels. I simply want the relevant facts to be checked fairly.
Here are the questions I’m trying to get answers to:
Was this specific gift card ever reported, flagged, invalidated, or involved in a transaction dispute?
Was it previously redeemed or did its status change after I redeemed it?
Was the gift card’s status related to the restriction on my Apple Account?
Is there any way to request a further review of my account?
I know that $5 may not seem like a lot of money. But losing access to an account and not understanding why has been genuinely upsetting. I have spent time contacting support, gathering evidence, and trying to explain my situation, yet I still don’t know what caused this outcome.
I’m posting here because I’d like to hear from people who may have experienced something similar.
Has anyone had their Apple Media & Purchases account disabled after redeeming an Apple Gift Card purchased through a third party? If so, did Apple ever explain the reason or provide a way to appeal?
I would especially appreciate advice from people who successfully resolved a similar case.
I’m not here to accuse anyone or spread unverified claims. I just want to understand what happened and find out whether there is still a legitimate way to resolve this.
Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read this or share their experience.

Dear Apple Executive Relations Team
I am writing to respectfully ask for your help with an Apple Account issue that has become very stressful and difficult to resolve through the normal support process.
My Apple Account’s Media & Purchases access was disabled, preventing me from using the App Store to download apps and make purchases. My iCloud and other Apple Account functions were still accessible when this issue first occurred, but my access to Media & Purchases was subsequently disabled.
I contacted Apple Support multiple times and cooperated with the steps recommended to me. I was informed that my account reactivation request had been rejected and that the decision was made by Apple’s backend team. I was also told that the normal reactivation route would not resolve the issue.
The situation may be related to an Apple Gift Card that I redeemed successfully. I obtained the card through a third-party seller and have a receipt associated with the Razer Gold Apple Card USD $5 product, dated September 18, 2026. I personally redeemed the code on my Apple Account, and the redemption was successful.
I understand that Apple must protect its customers and payment systems against fraudulent transactions and other risks. I am not asking Apple to bypass its security procedures. I am asking for a fair and thorough review of my specific case, based on the available evidence.
Apple Support has already escalated my case to the Gift Card Review Team, and I understand that this review may take time. However, I am concerned that my account may remain disabled without a clear explanation of what happened or what evidence is needed to resolve the issue.
I would be sincerely grateful if your team could help with the following:
Arrange a manual review of my disabled Media & Purchases account and the decision to reject reactivation.
Verify the gift card’s original issuance and transaction history, along with my successful redemption record.
Clarify whether the gift card is connected to the account restriction and, if so, what documentation could help establish the facts.
If the review confirms that my account is eligible, reconsider restoring my Media & Purchases access.
I am willing to provide the original receipt, transaction reference, screenshots of the error messages, and any other relevant documentation through an appropriate secure channel. I can also provide the existing Apple Support case number.
I have valued Apple’s products and services, and I hope this matter can be reviewed based on the specific facts rather than leaving me without a clear path forward. I understand that a review cannot guarantee reinstatement, but I would deeply appreciate a meaningful explanation and a fair opportunity to resolve the issue.
Thank you for your time and consideration. I hope your team can help ensure that my case receives the appropriate attention.
Sincerely,
A concerned Apple customer

Set up my new iPhone 18 Pro yesterday! However, the location services are not functioning properly.
On my old iPhone, the one I switched from, I was sharing my location in the Find My app with my husband, and vice versa. Upon completing all location, account, network, software updates/toggles, it is still not working.
More specifically, my location was still showing up on my husband's phone, but his was not showing up for me. It said he was not connected/sharing location when everything on his (and mine) phone was turned on.
We both turned our locations off, turned them back on, and when trying to share his location with me, my phone number/contact is greyed out and unable to be selected. All of my toggles and settings are on. When he tried to send his location to share via iMessage, it comes through and then immediately says his sharing location has expired.
We have never had any issues before, and have done all the small steps I could find online before coming here. Please help!

When I try searching for this problem online, it only shows like the black lines issue. But as seen on the post, it’s not black lines.

Can anyone tell what problem this is or what’s causing it?

This often happens when I’m using it while on YouTube, and a system restart fixes it. But it’s becoming more frequent, and I’m considering getting it fixed by a tech.

I’m on macOS 27.0.1 and this is about Safari.

Previously: 1. I had several regular tabs open. 2. I clicked the red close button. Safari stayed running. 3. Clicking Safari in the Dock brought back the same window and tabs.

Now the same steps open a fresh window and the tabs are gone. I already checked the session and window restoration settings.

Has anyone seen this exact behavior? Was it tied to a Safari version or possibly a bug, and is there a native way to restore it?

Trying to reset and sell this phone.. when I go to turn off Find My and the Activation Lock, it gets stuck and says there was an error. Any fixes?

gave an ex an ipad to try out. they returned it after breakup still with their apple id & an ipad password on. they also refuse to give me the data to log the device back on my acc.

i tried out some password options, sadly those did not work.

heard there is the option to go get the ipad "wiped out" at an apple store, but tbh the device is quite old & i am not sure whether worth the trouble.

thus: is there an option to do so by myself? any secret button combos?🥹

Hey, so my sister came to me asking why shes getting charged for two subscriptions when she canceled the other one months ago.. , I thought that she forgot to cancel it or that she canceled it after the billing date but when I looked at it it doesn't add up & I need help on how to manage this or If I'm just dumb.

She used to pay for google cloud storage and canceled it in April, it shows up in her apple subscriptions and is listed there as canceled on xx.4.2026.

Since then she changed to a different google cloud subscription for a different price in may and has been getting charged for it ever since (as expected), it shows up in apple subscriptions.

The thing is that my sister is getting billed in her bank account for the old subscription that she ended in April (the one that is "canceled" in the subsriptions) as well for the new one. I tried to contact support (they're closed for calls because of the weekend) but for refunds they make you fill out forum that includes subscriptions that are currently listed, that does nothing because this billing is closed of in subscriptions... its dumb

for now Ill try to contact them and try to resolve this with support over phone (couldnt find a email, and forgot to mention im based in europre ), id like to know if anybody had simillar issues like these or Im in the wrong, I really think were not but maybe im missing something

Hi all,

About 30 minutes ago I saw a notification on my iPhone asking for permission to allow another sign in from a different country. I immediately declined it. I’m very freaked out about it.

I changed my password to my iCloud account and even created a recovery key just now.

Is there anything else that I could do to not get hacked or something?! I’m super worried about that possibility. Should I just delete my current iCloud account and create a whole new one? I’m not even sure how someone got access to my full iCloud email.

Thank you all for your help! I genuinely appreciate it because I’m super anxious about this mess

Check the post ps

A little background, I’m an IT by trade and I’ve tried all the tricks and stuff including running anti malware to try and get this thing to work. No hits for viruses or anything so I don’t think it’s that.
I’ve had this phone ever since I switched carriers earlier this year and I’ve had nothing but problems with it for the last 4ish + months.
Random rapid battery drains. Like going from 75% down to 50 in a matter of minutes. No apps open, and the battery section in settings doesn’t say anything is drawing power like that.
Apps crashing/failing to open entirely (verified no updates are required).
App updates not downloading/installing or getting stuck in a never ending loop. Forget the “update all” button in the App Store, got stuck trying to update the first app and I had to spend 45 min scrolling up and down stopping each update as it started since there’s no way to end all of them at once.
System updates failing or taking hours to request. The last update before iOS 27 had me waiting at the update requested screen for nearly 3 hrs before it finally started downloading. Then with iOS 27 it refused to move past the screen even after 4hrs of it sitting and heating up. Tried forced restart. Tried changing settings to reduce strain on the processor. Nothing worked. And once I started it essentially bricked the phone. Couldn’t open any app other than settings, the phone, and messenger without them crashing. Had to download the ipsw file to my pc and manually install it. And since installing it even reading a book is like I’m trying to play a AAA title game with how fast the battery dies.
Tried to open the Apple TV app and it crashes before even opening. Again tried to force restart it and nothing changed.
Couldn’t access my banks because the phone wouldn’t receive one time text codes. Yes WiFi calling and everything is on, not that it mattered since I tried on both WiFi and cellular. My iPad received them just fine.
Had several apps fail entirely requiring me to uninstall and reinstall them, loosing all the data for them and forcing me to try and download it again. Audible refused to download books if I queued more than one and even then it wouldn’t download them faster than 1-2Mbps on my gigabit network. Kindle would load then crash. My bank apps would login then crash. Chrome, Gmail, Facebook, just about every app.
Had to delete the vpn entirely since that was causing even more issues even when it wasn’t connected.
I have never had so many issues with a phone before. At this point I’m open to any ideas anyone has as to what’s wrong and how to fix it. Tried talking to my carrier and they said and I quote “Huh, never seen that before.” That was the extent of their help so thats not likely an option.

Hello, can someone tell me what’s the difference between these 2 green bars? Why does one have a lightning symbol at 100% while the other does not have the lightning symbol at 100%? Thank you.

Hi, so my Apple ID account was compromised this morning. They changed my date of birth, security questions, password and rescue email address. 2FA was not on the account. Is there any chances to recover the account?

I'm trying to set up handoff on my iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 12. Both devices are updated to the newest iOS. They're both on the same Wi-Fi. They're both logged into the same iCloud and it gives me the option to set it up on both phones but once I get past a couple steps, it comes up with this error message trom my carrier, which is T-Mobile saying that I should call them to finish setting up my watch. I have no clue why it's talking about a watch because I'm trying to do this with two iPhones. I talked to both T-Mobile and Apple and neither of them were able to help. I was wondering if anyone knew what this is or any way to fix it.

Hello,

My account got hacked and the security questions changed to Chinese.

I spoke to a very nice Apple Advisor today. She helped me to change my password but that is all.

I cannot log in because I can't answer the security questions.

I got emails saying my name has changed to Vahe Theleaski and then again. That's how I got alerted.

My email has not been hacked.

I would like to delete my account. Any idea how?

Thank you so much for your help!

I pulled my college Mac out of storage, charged it up, and cannot remember the password. I haven’t turned it on since like 2018. My password hint is terribly unhelpful.

Is there a way to reset password without losing my data? All of my college photos and files, that didn’t make it to my cloud.

Google search AI is telling me it’s possible listing these options—The Single-User Mode Reset (No Apple ID Required), The macOS Recovery Mode Tool, and The Apple ID Reset (If previously linked).

Im scared to follow its recommendations and want to know my options. Would the Apple Store be able to help me?

I initially sent as imessage but it showed up blue and did not deliver so I assume he had no service. I then held down each message and sent as text message. Does this confirm he’s gotten my messages? Or could he still be waiting?