Finish Setting Up New iPad Question

March 14, 2023 6:44 AM

I purchased a new ipad - almost have it all set up - outside of one thing I am not sure on...

After using a trusty iPad for MANY years, it finally came time to replace it. I recently purchased a iPad 9th Gen (running 16.3.1).

All good so far, and I have had zero issues setting it up through iCloud, so almost everything was seamless.

However, I am getting one prompt on the Settings App - and it states Update Apple ID settings (some account services will not be available until you sign in again). So I sign into my Apple ID Account on the iPad and then it brings me to this prompt:

Enter iPhone Passcode - Enter the Passcode that you use to unlock the iPhone "iPhone". This passcode protects your Apple ID, saved Passwords and other data stored in iCloud. Your Passcode is encrypted and cannot be read by Apple.

But here's the thing, I currently don't have a Passcode on my iPhone, so I can't do this, and I can't get it to go away and can't finish setting it up until I do.

So can I simply create a passcode for my iPhone and use it here as well as a fix?

Any thoughts?

posted by dbirchum to Technology (10 answers total)

You use the passcode you have for your IPad.
posted by TheRaven at 6:51 AM on March 14, 2023

Response by poster: I tried that, and it doesn't work.
It says, Enter Passcode for Other iPhone - which I don't have...
posted by dbirchum at 6:54 AM on March 14, 2023

Do you have Two-Factor Authentication set up for your Apple ID (https://appleid.apple.com/account/manage > Account Security)? If you do that, I think it may use that at this point in the process to authenticate you via the 2FA device instead of the phone passcode.
posted by staggernation at 6:55 AM on March 14, 2023

Response by poster: I am not sure why its asking me for my Iphone Passcode to set up my iPhone - when I don't have a iPhone passcode...
posted by dbirchum at 6:55 AM on March 14, 2023

Having a passcode on your iPhone is a good idea anyway (I imagine 98% of people do). Go ahead and make one. Apple's 2FA is a bit wonky but I think that should work.
posted by praemunire at 7:18 AM on March 14, 2023

Are you 100% sure you don't have a passcode on the iPhone? Most modern iOS devices will unlock via face ID or equivalent but still need a passcode as a backup.
posted by Alensin at 7:36 AM on March 14, 2023

Best answer: Whenever you connect a device to iCloud that specific device uses its passcode to secure the data it stores in iCloud. If you get a new device, whatever passcode you use on that device (which might not be the same passcode you used on the previous device) would secure the data stored in iCloud from that specific device, but it can't unlock the data secured on the previous device(s) without knowing whatever passcode(s) that device (or those devices) had.

This interface is asking for the passcode for a device named "iPhone" that was, at some point, connected to your iCloud account. It may not be your current iPhone. It may be a previous iPhone on which you did use a passcode. This is one reason I always try to name my phones, so I can tell which iPhone in my device history is which when the UI doesn't have any other information to go off (like, say, whether it was my iPhone [original], my iPhone 3G, my iPhone 4, my iPhone 5, my iPhone 5s, my iPhone SE, my iPhone 8, or my current iPhone 13 mini).

If you go to https://appleid.apple.com/account/manage/section/devices from a browser you can see all the devices associated with your iCloud account, which may help you figure out which phone it means, and then you can enter the passcode used on that device. Also as Alensin points out, even though you don't currently lock your phone with a passcode, that doesn't mean your phone doesn't have a passcode set at all. If you set one previously and disabled it, the data uploaded to iCloud would still be protected by the passcode you once set.
posted by fedward at 7:46 AM on March 14, 2023 [4 favorites]

Have you ever had a device called "iPhone" connected to your Apple ID? Did that device have a passcode at the time it was last connected?

If you're confident that your current device has no passcode, I'd guess you used to have a different/older passcode protected device (which you named "iPhone", so it probably was an iPhone) which you stopped using (broken/lost/stolen), and it was never removed from your Apple ID. They don't know (or care) the difference between a device that has been at the bottom of a lake for years, a device in your junk drawer, and a device that is in your hand but in airplane mode - it's still a device that is currently connected to your account.

I'm not sure if Apple's system has always protected against factory resets, so it may be possible that the "old" iPhone is actually the same phone you have now, if you did a factory reset and then set it up again as a new device.
posted by yuwtze at 7:46 AM on March 14, 2023

I forgot that you can see the devices associated with your Apple ID from within System Settings on an updated device. Apple's documentation on how to see authorized devices and add or remove them is good.
posted by fedward at 7:51 AM on March 14, 2023

Did you previously have a passcode on your iPhone, which you subsequently turned off? If so, I would try that.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 10:39 AM on March 14, 2023