No product is perfect. After all, they inherit our flaws.
Apple is one of the most popular providers of services out there. And its iCloud, is one of the most popular cloud service, simply because it's the default for all Apple users, regardless the Apple device they use. And a woman learned a flaw in the cloud product, simply because of her name.
An apparent flaw in iCloud’s design apparently locked her out from accessing her account through the iCloud website, due to its interpretation of her last name "True."
Rachel True shared her inconvenience in using the Apple product, with a screenshot on Twitter showing the error that popped out whenever she tried to sign in.
The error reads:
REPORTED ERROR TITLE: Type error: cannot set value ‘true’ to property ‘lastName‘
Anyone else getting this error from Apple iCloud ? In past or now?
I’m 6 months deep freeze & looking for any help.
I rem dead coding languages like kobalt.. & this seems like an Apple coding issue — not hardware pic.twitter.com/05EJmG3d6Y— Rachel True (@RachelTrue) February 27, 2021
It appears that iCloud interprets her last name, which is "True," as a boolean flag, thus preventing her to sign in.
The woman said that she’d been experiencing this, and has been locked out from her own account for over 6 months.
She later followed up that she had spent hours on the phone with Apple support over the issue with no resolution.
" [...] make this my new part time unpaid job @AppleSupport," she said in a tweet.
" [...] the fun part is they won’t stop charging me for the icloud storage I can’t access..."
One Twitter user replied to her tweet, jokingly said that her fastest solution would be to marry and take her spouse’s name. But "Mr/Mrs 'Null' not recommended though," the poster said.
Make that 4+ hours on phone today & the fun part is they won’t stop charging me for the icloud storage I can’t access...
— Rachel True (@RachelTrue) February 27, 2021
iCloud is an integral part of the iOS and macOS experience.
Whenever it's not accessible, many parts of the Apple ecosystem that users use, can turn unusable. This is because iCloud has a huge impact in the overall operation of the many apps and services Apple users are using and depending on.
And made things worse for True is that, she is at this time, a paying user of iCloud.
Apple "won’t stop charging me for the iCloud storage I can’t access," she complained.
With her tweets, she hopes that she can bring the issue to light, give Apple a heads up, and could prevent others experiencing something similar.
Thank you coders & others for amplifying my icloud issue/query. May help bring attention to a big glitch that could affect many more users than I eventually, if not fixed.
I've been told I'll hear back Mon or Tues earliest re latest round w/ apple help. Not good enough frankly.— Rachel True (@RachelTrue) March 6, 2021