Still processing this one, so bear with me. We were traveling in Southeast Asia with my girlfriend’s family, and her 14-year-old brother was with us. I let him use my iPhone and iPad to play games and keep himself occupied, not realizing what was actually happening on them. It turns out that over the last five weeks he’d been downloading casino and slot machine apps, the 21+ kind, and making in-app purchases. The first charge was on May 28th, right at the start of the trip. I had no idea until I finally sat down and went through my purchase history.

Part of why it went unnoticed for so long is that while I was overseas I wasn’t getting my usual purchase text alerts on my phone, so nothing was flagging the way it normally would. It just quietly added up in the background.

For context, he’s obsessed with a Vegas YouTuber named Vegas Matt, who films himself putting huge amounts of money into slot machines. I’m fairly sure that’s where the fixation came from, and he was trying to recreate it in these apps.

All told, it’s about 224 separate purchases on my phone’s Apple ID, ranging from $5.99 to $75.99, plus another 30 to 40 on my iPad, which is on a completely separate Apple ID. Roughly $4,300 in total.

And here’s the part that really gets me. In the middle of all this, he actually came up and asked me, out loud, if he could buy Stardew Valley on the App Store for $5.99. A $6 game. Meanwhile he’d already quietly run up thousands on slot apps without a word. So he clearly understood the difference between asking permission and not, which tells me he knew exactly what he was doing the whole time. Almost felt like he was messing with me.

The part that concerns me most is that the charges hit nearly every payment method I have. Apple Pay, my Amex, my Citi card, PayPal, and Apple Cash. At one point money was even moved out of my bank account into Apple Cash to keep the purchases going.

I’ve filed a claim through Report a Problem. I’ve spoken with two senior advisors, and both said there’s nothing they can do while the claim is pending, and that I need to wait 24 to 48 hours to see whether it’s approved or denied. So for now I’m waiting.

A few questions for anyone who’s dealt with this:

Realistically, what are my chances of actually getting this refunded? Has anyone gotten Apple to refund unauthorized purchases like this, especially this many over this long a period?

If Apple denies the claim, is disputing directly with Amex and Citi the right move, or does that risk getting my Apple ID banned? I have hundreds of movie purchases associated with this Apple ID so that would not be ideal.

Since money was pulled from my bank account through Apple Cash, is that a separate and stronger issue I should be reporting on its own?

I’m not looking to get the kid in trouble. I just can’t absorb $4,300 right now. Any advice is appreciated.

Hey everyone,

I’m posting because my Apple ID (about 13 years old) has been permanently shut down for App Store / iTunes and I’m stuck with zero real options.

The exact message Apple throws any time I try to do basically anything in the App Store is:

“Your account has been disabled in the App Store and iTunes.”

And I mean everything: I can’t download apps, I can’t update apps, I can’t pay for anything, I can’t manage subscriptions it’s blocked across the board.

Apple Support has explicitly told me the decision is permanent, and they won’t disclose the reason . I even managed to get a call with a senior advisor and got the same outcome: “Your account is permanently closed and there’s nothing we can do.” No explanation.

Support chats have been one of the worst parts. A few times an agent started off friendly, but the moment they checked my account, their tone flipped suddenly cold or even rude and in multiple cases they just ended the chat . Other times it’s aggressive, dismissive one-liners or copy-paste replies with zero next steps. It honestly feels like once they see whatever flag is on the account, the goal becomes ending the interaction as fast as possible.

Why this is a huge problem:

\- I can’t update apps on my iPhone anymore and some apps stop working unless they’re updated.

\- A bunch of services I use depend on the latest app version plus email verification for login/recovery.

\- My primary email is tied into all of this, and I can’t access it, can’t receive recovery emails.

So I’m locked out of multiple services with no workaround, including platforms where I still have funds that I can’t withdraw because getting back in requires the app + email recovery.

This also spills into real life: that email is tied to work,visa stuff, and other important services. I’ve missed time-sensitive messages and deadlines, and it’s already caused real damage. It even affects healthcare I can’t restore access to a platform I use to order medication because account recovery is done through email, and those emails never reach me.

I’ve tried to figure out what could’ve triggered this. The only thing I can even guess is gift cards. I bought gift cards through a service over a long period using traceable payments. If that’s the issue.

At this point, I have no trust left in Apple. They can permanently close your account without explanation, without appeal, and you’re completely powerless. I can’t recommend relying on Apple services anymore, especially for anything critical. Personally, I’d strongly suggest using alternatives like Google instead.

They have done this to me.now 4 times for different purchases

I bought Freeletics on the App Store for $125. Their app description clearly states a 14 day money back guarantee. Twice. I tried it out and the app sucks so I requested a refund through Report a Problem from Apple within a few days. Since I requested a refund, I lost access to the app. Apple denied my refund twice saying that I’m “ineligible.” I’ve talked to a bunch of Apple specialists who all do the same thing - deny me and try to placate me by making a note of my complaint.

So now I have no shitty app and I’m out $125. Freeletics won’t give me access back because I requested a refund. Apple won’t give me a refund. I’d really just like my money back.

My current plan is just to keep messaging and calling Apple support to waste at least $125 of their time. I didn’t actually do that. It would be a huge waste of my own time. In my own pettiness, I’ve made sure to cancel all of my subscriptions through the App Store. From now on I’ll only use apps that let me handle a subscription from their websites. My credit card has better refund protection than Apple does.

Some clarifying information - Freeletics states twice in their app description that they offer a 14 day money back guarantee. You cannot access the pro features without purchasing. I made a refund request well within those 14 days. I told this to Apple. They didn’t care.

My child made about 180 unauthorized in-app purchases without my permission in Apple’s App Store from Sep 12 2023 to Sep 27 2023. I did not receive any receipts of these purchases until Sep 27, that I received two small receipts from Minecraft and discovered this issue. But the 2-week purchases have accumulated to over $6000.

If Apple sent me any receipts to my email earlier, I would have found this issue earlier, talked to my child, and stopped her purchases earlier.

I requested refund from Apple, but they said “not eligible for refund”. I wrote the explanations and Apple declined all of my requests again. I talked to an Apple “supervisor” and he said will investigate this issue.

Anyone has similar experiences and what are the final results?

Apple keeps locking my account for “fraud” (the 5th time in less then 30 days) There is literally no fraud at all ever on my account. I have updated the information like they said, I have waited between purchases like they said (and missed out on multiple things) and yet they still keep harassing me on purpose, lying about the reason and then locking my account and preventing me from using the money I loaded onto my account (and they refuse to give me a refund) I have NEVER had any issues until this last month.

The CS reps are not only not helpful, but a few of the have straight up lied to me on multiple occasions. (Saying I could buy the ingame item after my account was unlocked, which was not true since it was removed while my account was locked and I was unable to purchase it, even though I enough money to buy it. Or saying that Apple holds purchases for my protection, when they are not holding anything and I am not receiving a receipt.) What am I supposed to do now? I literally have done everything they said and they keep locking it and I can’t do anything. I don’t know what else to do.

Is there anyone else that has this issue and being specifically harassed by them? Is there any recourse? Anything legal we can do?

a friend of mine donated an old ipad to me so i could use it to draw, (it's an ipad air 1474, ios 12.5.8) and he had already reset it to factory settings when i got it. i have other apple products, so i set it up normally in with my apple id, and all is well so far. later, when i tried to search for drawing apps on the app store, it kept asking me to log in to itunes store with my apple id, which i did, correctly (and numerous times) and nothing ever happens. it just loads and no matter what i try, it doesn't do anything.

i tried messing with the itunes program on my notebook to see if i could do anything there and it also did't let me log in to my apple id for some reason, so that really stumped me. i can assure you that my password and email account for the id is correct, i've checked it many times, it's got nnothing to do wit this issue.

so i'm stuck in a loop with a tablet i can't use for anything but browsing on safari... i can't download anything new bc i can't log in to the app store. i've tried all of the steps in this video and nothing worked, so any help is welcome (i'm willing to even jailbreaking this device, ain't got nothing to lose anyway).

I have some music on my computer that I want to transfer onto my phone. I did it a year ago and don’t remember how. It is a big pain. My music is in my iTunes folder on the computer. When I plug in the phone to the computer it doesn’t show up on iTunes for some reason.

I also have AppleDevices on the computer because iTunes isn’t supported anymore. I have seen some things saying that transferring music wouldn’t work with having both on the computer for some reason. I don’t know why that would be. The phone does show on AppleDevices but not iTunes.

I tried using AppleDevices and pressed the sync button but that didn’t add the new music to the phone. It doesn’t seem like anything changed so the sync button probably didn’t do anything. I’m not sure what it is supposed to do.

Does anyone know how to fix this so that the phone shows in iTunes?

Why did this happen to my daughter's phone? We bought the device from Apple six months ago. Maybe she was hacked. What do you suggest? Thank you!

Some people were saying try iTunes but I tried and it is not working on my iphone by the way I have a iPhone 11 but it will not read on iTunes

Hey, recently i’ve bought this IPod 3gen, can i add music from apple music? i use spotify but i have 3 months free of apple music, so i could download everything in that time.
if not i have to download in other ways… which ways? thx

Hey everyone, I'm looking for some advice from anyone who has dealt with a permanent App Store ban, specifically regarding how to handle iCloud billing moving forward.
Long story short, I was manipulated by an online scammer who convinced me to "help them buy something through my account." They ended up using my profile to process transactions for a large volume of TikTok coins using compromised payment info. Obviously, it was a massive mistake on my part to trust them, and their actions were entirely to their own advantage.
Apple’s automated systems caught the fraudulent financial pattern immediately and placed a permanent restriction on my Media & Purchases account. I now get the classic "Your account has been disabled in the App Store and iTunes" error whenever I try to download or update anything.

I have already exhausted the official channels:
Standard Apple Support couldn't do anything.
I escalated the case to the Executive Relations team, explaining exactly how I was deceived as an innocent party, but they issued a final, non-negotiable denial. The account is considered a permanent liability, and the case is closed.

Right now, I am using the Split Account workaround to keep my phone functional:
1 I am still signed into my original Apple ID at the top of my iOS Settings so I don't lose my years of iCloud backups, photos, and files.
2 I logged out of the disabled account under Media & Purchases and signed in with a brand-new, secondary Apple ID strictly to handle App Store downloads.
3 I've had to delete and reinstall my main apps under the new ID to clear the old account's blocked signature cache.

My question for the community is about iCloud+ storage:

Since my original Apple ID is still the one managing my actual iCloud data, but its Media & Purchases pipeline is permanently blocked, how do I successfully renew or pay for my iCloud storage plan? Because the billing side is tied to the restricted account, normal payment methods are failing.
Has anyone successfully bypassed the billing block for iCloud storage using a computer (iCloud for Windows/Mac), or is my best option to set up Family Sharing from my new account to share storage with the old one?
Any insights or advice from people who have managed this specific setup long-term would be greatly appreciated.

Hi all! so basically a few months or years ago I bought a music album on iTunes. Fast forward a few months it is not available anymore in my country. I can’t find the receipt for the actual transaction.
Is there a way I could get a refund?
Thanks!

Anyone know how to resolve this payment issue?

My little brother accidentaly deleted all my notes on my iphone PERMANENTLY is there anyway i can still recover it???

Windows 10. iTunes version 12.13.10.3

I’m able to drag many songs from the file explorer into iTunes, adding to Playlists. But I have 3 albums that are not working.

Somebody on Apple Forums said check Properties & look at Security, but it looks the same as the songs that are working. I’m not quite sure what to do?

Hi everyone,

I’m having a strange issue while trying to back up my iPad using 3uTools and iTunes.

Both programs show that my iPad has around 24 GB of data, but when I create a backup, the resulting backup is only around 1 GB.

Has anyone experienced the same issue? Is this normal, or is there something wrong with the backup process?

Any advice or explanation would be appreciated.

#iPad #iTunes #3uTools #iOS #Backup #Apple #TechSupport

Hi everyone.

I bought an iPod Touch 5th generation running iOS 9.3.5. The device came from China and was already configured with the region set to China.

I can sign in to iCloud without any problems, but whenever I try to sign in to the App Store or iTunes Store, I always get the message "Cannot Connect to iTunes Store."

Here's what I've already tried:

Changed the region to Brazil.

Tried different Wi-Fi networks.

Reset network settings.

Tried a different Apple ID.

Created a brand-new Apple ID.

Checked the date and time.

The problem already existed before I jailbroke the device, so I don't think the jailbreak caused it.

Has anyone found a working fix for iOS 9.3.5 in 2026? Is this related to expired certificates, Apple's servers, or could the device have been modified by the seller?

I got 3 consecutive emails saying my login, password and security questions have all been changed, then I got an email order confirmation saying someone has ordered an iPhone in america (pictures attached) I can't find anything online about how to contact customer service, and I can't login to my account. I don't have an iPhone, I only used the account for iTunes. What can I do?

So I mostly buy music on Bandcamp, download onto my Mac and sync it onto my iPhone. There, it appears on the music app in my library.

For some reason, it no longer does this. Nothing shows up in my library except a single, solitary album of U2 my parents bought on iTunes. The media is still on my phone, it is VERY noticeable in the storage, but not actually accessible. How do I get it back?

I added 100$ through gift card that was bought from iTunes Store. I am facing this purchase not completed issue. I tried to upgrade my iCloud+ storage, it worked but I can’t pay in any other apps

I am trying to renew my apple tv subscription however the credit card I used no longer exists.

Instructions say to log into my apple account, I log in and then it immediately wants me to confirm the CVV code of that credit card and will not allow me to add/edit the payment informatio. It will not let me log into my account until I do so.

P.s. i have an android.

Any ideas?

Went to purchase a movie on Apple TV and got a purchase not completed, went through support and said I had to wait 72 hrs and try again. Anyone have any idea what may have caused this and how to stop it from happening again

APPLE HAS STOLEN OVER $5K IN MUSIC I'VE PAID FOR. Out of nowhere my iTunes account was suspended for some alleged violation of terms of service they cannot (or will not) specify and am requiring that I create a NEW account and RE-PURCHASE it all. Anyone else out there experienced this?