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.

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.

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

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?

I have no music or videos downloaded to my phone. I cant understand why this app has 14gb of data??

Hi! So I am trying to download an app on my iPad however for some reason it keeps saying cannot connect to iTunes Store. It’s a legit iPad from Apple so I have no idea why this is happening. Any help? Tried restarting, logging back in and out, disconnecting from my wifi… same thing used a different Apple ID nothing working. Getting so frustrated.
(Edit: I’m trying to download an app from the App Store, so trying to connect to the App Store, it’s a iPad 4th gen, running on iOS 10. (The settings says my software is up to date)
Thanks y’all.

I'm sharing because I guess this is a common issue among people and apparently it isn't getting resolved? I just downloaded iTunes 5 minutes ago, and I never had it on my Windows 11 computer. How do I get this to work?

Before you say upgrade, she’s old. She had an original ipod until last year and this is her replacement for it. All she does on here is play music and audiobooks, her actual phone is only a few years old.

Anyway, she’s put in her password like 5 times and is calling her live in tech support in to fix it. I don’t use apple. It worked yesterday, never told her to sign in before.

Excuse me if this has been done before but it’s an urgent matter for me, my Apple account got locked and can not be used. While I tried to access it Apple sent me an email saying that my account has been permanently disabled.

Thing is, I need to access my WhatsApp but everytime I do so it says I need to update, but I can’t do that cuz my Apple is locked.

Everytime I try to sign out it needs my old account but it says it’s disabled, so I’m stuck in this loop where I can’t get out my old account or create a new one.

So far I’ve tried resetting, putting a different iTunes account in the App Store to update it but all failed.

It’s taking a lot of storage on my pc so I was planning to delete it but I’m scared it’ll delete all my phone content. I already deleted all the syncs on ITunes, there is nothing appearing there. Yet the folder is still full.

What’s the point of Apple offering a refund process if they just deny almost everything? I accidentally purchased a book to find out it’s in a language I cannot read or understand. So I submit a request to get a refund and explain this in the report. Gets declined. So I attempt again for review and it’s declined again and there is no more options. Why even offer the option if there doesn’t appear to be a human behind it? There use to be someone, but now it just seems automated. Apple needs to fix this internally. I love giving them my money, but there has to be a better way for when things like this happen.

I have an Apple account but not an Apple phone or product (just Android) so I made my account online (on Windows 11). I've installed the iTunes app on the computer and it's been letting stream fully and buy (download) anything I'd like without having enough money. I'm just curious if there would be any repercussions in the future on my account or card, or if the artists are getting the money for example.

I have a brand new AppleTV device. It is my first Apple device. After creating an Apple ID I sign in on my AppleTV. To download an app I receive the prompt that I need to create an ITunes account. All the help I see on creating an iTunes account says to use my Apple ID. This not helpful in regards to the iTunes account requirement on my Apple TV. Software on the Apple TV is up to date.

I don’t understand the ins and outs of back ups, this sort of thing confuses me. At most, I manually drag and drop Photos and Videos folders from my iPhone to my windows pc and hard drives. I don’t bother with iTunes but recently I used it to update my iOS as I didn’t have the space on my phone to do it.

What is the MobileSync on PC and can I delete it to free up space? What will happen to my photos and videos, if anything?

Thank you

my apple gift card doesnt seem to wanna work on anythingn, i thought it was supposed to work on subscriptions on ios apps but ig not. for some reason it worker a few months ago on a 2 quid purchase on pokemon go but now it doesnt wanna be available for anything

I was watching this video on how to fix “iPad disabled, connect to iTunes” and I lowkey did not follow every instruction because the guy in the video had a macbook and I had a windows laptop. I did as he told which was to download this software for the latest update for my iPad model, which was the first generation iPad Air with cellular, I downloaded iTunes, and did the steps on how to update the iPad. I expected it to turn on with the hello and white background, but when my iPad turns on, I could no longer see the time and date, I couldn’t move anything on the screen including the assistive touch, and I couldn’t shut off the iPad. How do I fix this, it says connect to iTunes

I’m sorry if what I did was extremely unadvisable for this kind of situation, I don’t know how to recover old iPads. Feel free to ask me more details in the comments

I had an iPhone 11 a while ago, its power button stopped working after a while and the phone went to recovery mode I couldn't do anything to recover it I tried connecting it to my laptop and do the process as it was mentioned on the apple.com website but nothing happened, I tried to reset it and update it from the iTunes application since these two were the only options present but it would just show me an apple logo and then go back to recovery mode. I changed phones since I got a phone from girlfriend soon after, but now after 2years the same thing is happening with my girlfriends iPad, its an iPad Air 4 and she doesn't remember dropping it or so but the iPad's power button stopped working too and its stuck in recovery mode too so I don't know how to help her as she uses this to take notes and doesn't have another iPad tried connecting it to iTunes application and formatting and updating it but It doesn't seem to work.
Any help will be appreciated

I have an old iPad at home and wanted to use it for watching YouTube or reading. The problem is that it asks me to update the system in order to use apps like YouTube, for example.

It says the update has to be done through iTunes. I connected it to a MacBook Pro and the computer detects the iPad, but iTunes doesn’t. I also tried doing the same thing with a Windows PC, and I have the same problem.

I’ve also tried using older versions of iTunes, but nothing seems to work.

Any ideas?

Warning: righteous crash out ahead. Back in April, I noticed that my C: drive was almost full. When I checked into it, I saw that iTunes had at some point decided it wanted its library on the C: drive instead of on the SSD I'd set it up on years and years ago. So I changed the library folder back to the SSD, and the SSD itself didn't like that. Instead of doing the logical thing, it all just completely eliminated my iTunes library. Playlists? Gone. Music files? Gone. 4TB SSD? Dead. I have no idea how or why. I was able to save about 95% of my music by using a third-party app (AltTunes) to pull it down from my iPhone and rebuild playlists from there, but it was a mess.

Fast forward to about a month ago, iTunes decided that it wasn't really feeling E:\iTunes Library again, and it moved everything back to the C: drive. Lather, rinse, repeat, but this time I had backups and it wasn't nearly as painful. Unfortunately, and it took me a couple of weeks to figure this out, but about half of the music files in the backups and on my iPhone were corrupt. They either weren't recognized, wouldn't play or would just freeze halfway through. I ended up using files from my iPhone 15 Pro, files from an iPhone 11 Pro that had an older version of the library from right around the time of the first crash, and a backup from December of last year that's missing quite a few songs, but nothing is corrupt in it. I pieced them together into one library without any corrupt files (as far as I've found), rebuilt about half of my playlists again (because there were thousands in there and I don't have time for all of that) and just today got my library set up, backed up five ways in five different places and plugged my phone in to sync, wiping away the last of the stink.

And you know what this mother flubber did?

The iPhone "<device name>" could not be synced because the sync session failed to start.

This is me not downloading the iTunes installer onto a thumb drive so I can throw it at the wall, stomp on it, set it on fire and flush it down a fully-loaded toilet.

So, from the top, here's what I've tried:

• Eject and reconnect the iPhone
• Close iTunes and reopen it
• Restart the iPhone
• Restart my PC
• Reset the Apple Sync History
• Disassociate the iPhone 15 Pro from my iTunes account
  • Side note: I can't figure out how to reassociate it, at least in a way that my store account in iTunes sees it.
  • It was there and it was nagging me anyway, so why not?
• Reset Location and Privacy Services

• Update to iOS

  27

• It was there and it was nagging me anyway, so why not?

Hey! The reinstall fixed it! I'm at syncing step 2 of--

The iPhone "<device name>" cannot be synced. An unknown error occurred (-42553)

Ok, I'm at the end of my rope. I need this whole "corrupted library" BS to reach an immediate conclusion. I am honestly a little afraid of doing an actual uninstall/reinstall of iTunes, because I don't want to know what kind of jumbled up chicken turd salad it turns my life into this time. As of right now, I have an updated, correct library on my PC and a library on my phone loaded with files that don't work. What the heck do I need to do to clear this magical new error 42553 and end this madness?

And if anyone has thoughts on iTunes alternatives that let me make playlists with my local media and don't periodically just decide to throw my entire music library into a blender, I'm on board at this point. I'll convert Apple Lossless files to a different format. I'll recreate my playlists from scratch if I need to. I'll switch the f to Android if I have to. I've been using iTunes for over 20 years, and it's feeling like the transition from couples therapy to divorce lawyers isn't too far away if anything like this happens again.

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).