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by nabla9 1473 days ago
I know it does not. It's in the Cloud. I was referring to SIM and phone number when I was thinking potential way to recover.

Can you explain how a person can login into their iCloud and recover their iCloud Keychain after they have lost their only Apple device (iPhone) if Apple Passkey needed to access iCloud?
1 comments
ThePowerOfFuet 1473 days ago
Passkey is not required to access iCloud. You're thinking of 2FA on an Apple ID.

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT204974

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nabla9 1472 days ago
Thanks. As I expected. You need to have your SIM (to get access into iCloud)

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213305

>To recover a keychain, a user must authenticate with their iCloud account and password and respond to an SMS sent to their registered phone number.

In other words. If you lose your iPhone (containing your SIM) you can't get access to iCloud or iCloud keychain until you have a new SIM with the same phone number from your carrier.

If you travel in a foreign country and lose your iPhone you are locked out of "everything Apple".

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ThePowerOfFuet 1472 days ago
You can register VoIP and landline numbers as well, and nothing says the number must be yours; you can also add the number of a trusted family member or friend.

You can choose which preregistered number to send a message to (or to be called with a recorded voice) in the event you need access to your account in an emergency.

This also implies you have no other Apple devices which are signed into your account, as they will receive a code by default.

SMS or voice fallback is "plan B".

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nabla9 1472 days ago
SMS works with password access as 2FA it's part of plan A in recovery.

None of the methods you mention are something that should be expected from normal users. Or they don't work when traveling. I travel a lot.

"There is a way you could set it up" does not mean Apple has a good solution. As I'm a person without family and only one iPhone I stay away. People who don't pay attention are fucked.

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ThePowerOfFuet 1472 days ago
No, the first 2FA step is for Apple to send your Apple devices a TOTP code, which is not delivered via SMS. This is the case in every situation.

Only if you have no access to any device do you need to fall back to account recovery via SMS or phone call, to any pre-registered number.

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