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Advanced Protection and older devices

I enabled Advanced Protection recently. I also enabled 2FA with a YubiKey. One of these (I think Advanced Protection) now prevents me from logging in with my Apple ID on any devices that do not have the most up to date - including my MacBook Air (2017). Am I correct that the older devices not only won't work with AA, but that I can now no longer use those devices with the same Apple ID? If that's the case, then this new "protection" has some severe limitations - and is one more reason not to use iCloud any more than absolutely necessary.

Earlier Mac models

Posted on Apr 6, 2023 2:11 PM

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Posted on Apr 6, 2023 2:32 PM

Your understanding is accurate.


Advanced Protection - Among other things - “encrypts more stuff” - so all devices on any particular AppleID need to be able to interoperate and “see the same stuff.” Therefore a certain level of OS functionality is required, necessitating the newer OSs.


Security Keys - As all devices on a particular AppleID must sign-in to that AppleID; all devices must be able to negotiate the “different” 2FA sign-in mechanisms. Again, newer OSs are required to provide this functionality.


While backwards compatibility is ALWAYS a consideration, it can’t become an overriding reason to not move forward.



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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 6, 2023 2:32 PM in response to cedar727

Your understanding is accurate.


Advanced Protection - Among other things - “encrypts more stuff” - so all devices on any particular AppleID need to be able to interoperate and “see the same stuff.” Therefore a certain level of OS functionality is required, necessitating the newer OSs.


Security Keys - As all devices on a particular AppleID must sign-in to that AppleID; all devices must be able to negotiate the “different” 2FA sign-in mechanisms. Again, newer OSs are required to provide this functionality.


While backwards compatibility is ALWAYS a consideration, it can’t become an overriding reason to not move forward.



Apr 16, 2023 6:29 AM in response to Chattanoogan

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I believe I've encountered another problem. I was able to turn off Advanced Data Protection, but I still encountered problems with my older devices - so I think my post above about 2FA not causing the problem is wrong. I was later trying to turn off 2FA and came across this (Two-factor authentication for Apple ID - Apple Support) which contains this gem:


If you're already using two-factor authentication with your Apple ID, you can't turn it off. If you updated to two-factor authentication inadvertently, you can turn it off within two weeks of enrollment. If you do, your account is less secure and you can't use features that require a higher level of security.


Now I not only can't use my 2017 MBA, I believe I'm encountering problems with using AppleTV on my big screen TVs. If anyone can confirm that, it would at least stop me from flailing about trying to figure out the issue. (Note - AppleTV on my Samsung had kicked me out the other day, but I was given a QR code that I could scan and use with my iPhone to login. Now I'm not given that option, or anything like "use your phone to login" - and when I manually type in my AppleID and PW, I just get an error message.)

Advanced Protection and older devices

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