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TIL it's impossible to delete a free trial account for AppleTv+ or Apple Music without an Apple Device (www.reddit.com)

submitted 5 days ago by Peter_Arbeitsloser@feddit.org to c/mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world

44 comments fedilink hide all child comments

So I struggled to delete a free Apple TV+ account for a day now (tried different browsers etc) and decided to search if anyone else has had the same problem. Turns out this issue is at least a year old, is known by apple and the Apple support suggests to find someone else with an Apple device to help you out.

Just wow. This can't be legal by EU law.

all 46 comments

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[-] sevan@lemmy.ca 89 points 4 days ago

I tried to sign up for an Apple TV free trial without an Apple device. It let me create the account, but then I had to "activate" the account, and I couldn't do it on any of my devices (android, windows, the TV that gave me the free trial). I talked to tier 1 and tier 2 support, they couldn't get it working either.

Then it gets even more ridiculous. The tier 2 agent asks me to upload screenshots of the errors I was getting for the tier 3 (?) engineers to review. Oh, I need an active Apple account to upload anything. I emailed the images and their email system stripped the attachments from the email. Tier 3 closed the ticket and banned my account. I talked to Tier 2 again and all they could do was put in a ticket to request I be unbanned...it was denied.

Finally, I gave up and asked them to delete my account. They said my account can only be deleted if I log in and use the delete account function. I pointed out how that was not possible and they said there was no other option. The whole situation reinforced my plan to never buy an Apple product.

[-] prole 3 points 3 days ago

Kafkaesque.

[-] BehindetheClouds@reddthat.com 9 points 4 days ago

Lol that's madness.

[-] FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io 123 points 5 days ago

Apple: Think Different

...as long as Different is Apple, otherwise, you are dead to us, pleb.

[-] _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 4 days ago

I subscribed to Apple TV via their Usenet option. I get only the shows I want to watch, and for free!

[-] lud@lemm.ee 6 points 4 days ago

I thought usenet cost money.

I have never tried it since i like torrents, but from what I have heard it costs money.

[-] __nobodynowhere@lemm.ee 9 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

ISPs used to provide usenet access for free back in the day.

It's a distributed federated system in which content is exchanged between different news servers. Clients connect to particular news server which has to be hosted somewhere (and have a lot of storage space) which isn't free to operate.

Torrents forgo all that and have clients directly connect to one another.

Usenet really wasn't designed for file sharing. It's a message board system, but you can easily encode binary data as ASCII text and wham bam now you're sharing media.

[-] _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 days ago

Can't talk any more about that here, due to the rules.

[-] Alcatrazblaze@lemm.ee 1 points 4 days ago

Damn what's the process for this

[-] _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 days ago

Probably better to ask in the biggest comm on my instance, you can't talk about it here.

[-] kingblaaak@lemmy.world 93 points 5 days ago

Using the apple ecosystem, that was your first error. Try the Apple store

[-] Peter_Arbeitsloser@feddit.org 16 points 5 days ago

I'm trying really, really, really hard to not go back to streaming piracy, you know. :(

[-] 0xD@infosec.pub 11 points 4 days ago

That's what you get. Vote with your wallet and boycott the streaming, if not the whole entertainment industry.

[-] prole 2 points 3 days ago

Streaming was a solid option for a while, but these days I've found it's so much easier to just torrent. If it takes up too much space, just delete the file when you're done.

[-] hungryphrog 1 points 3 days ago

Sail the high seas!

[-] FundMECFSResearch 8 points 4 days ago

Why?

Piraten sind Frei

[-] rageagainstmachines@lemmy.world 16 points 4 days ago

You also can't activate an apple card or airtags without an iPhone. Welcome to the apple ecosystem. Enter once, forced to stay forever.

[-] _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 4 days ago

If you're not in the Apple ecosystem already, why would you use Airtags? If you really need a tracker, Tiles are cheaper at $50 for 4 verses Apples $80 for 4 Airtags. Makes more sense to get the Tiles, since they work just as well.

[-] rageagainstmachines@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

I don't disagree. I was just stating a fact.

[-] cyberfae@lemmy.world 33 points 5 days ago

Maybe you can contact your bank and explain what's going on, and ask that they cancel the charge. This might cause your apple account to be banned though, but I'm not 100% sure.

[-] MisterFrog@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

It 100% will cause your apple account to get banned.

There was a fraudulent charge on my card once to iTunes, so I got it reversed by the bank, because it was fraud.

This banned my account and I had to go to apple support when months later I discovered my account was banned. They give you one chance.

So yeah, you gotta ask them first if you don't wanna get banned. But you should basically say, cancel my subscription, please and thank you, I'm not required to use your device to do so if you let me sign up without a device.

I suspect in multiple countries they would have to comply under consumer law, and I know for a fact they would be obligated to on Australia.

[-] cyberfae@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

I thought so, but as I don't use any of Apple's products, I don't know their policies and didn't want to give false info.

[-] Scubus@sh.itjust.works 7 points 4 days ago

free

Sounds like he is wanting to get his account banned, if he can get them to charge him this seems like the way to go.

[-] cyberfae@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago

It's pretty common for free trials to require a credit/debit card to automatically charge you once it's time to renew. Normally you should be able to cancel it before the charge or get a refund shortly after, but some companies don't make this an easy process.

[-] paraphrand@lemmy.world 20 points 5 days ago

Canceling the trial should be possible without an Apple device.

But deleting the account… I bet Apple refuses to do that for you over the phone due to possible social engineering issues. But that’s just a suspicion.

[-] Peter_Arbeitsloser@feddit.org 17 points 5 days ago

Correct, canceling the trial worked on the Apple TV page, but deleting the account does not work (see my other comment that describes the whole process).

[-] PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago

You can download iTunes on windows still to this day. That should be able to fix it, then I would think.

[-] wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

"you can give yourself cancer as a step to solve your problem"

[-] PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

At least it doesn’t require you to buy another Apple device. You don’t have to keep it installed my dude.

[-] wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

If you've ever installed iTunes, you're aware that the uninstaller leaves tons of shit behind. Back in the hayday it'd require three seperate programs (iTunes, quicktime, and a software updater), which all needed to be uninstalled individually, and all left traces on the system. Ew.

Like yeah it's a method, but it'd be faster and easier to just let it charge you and then file a chargeback to get the account nuked.

[-] labbbb2@thelemmy.club 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

it's impossible to delete a free trial account for AppleTv+ or Apple Music without an Apple Device

Then just delete an Apple Device. I mean throw it out of the window.

[-] bokherif@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

Same thing with apple cash. I had some money in there and you need an apple device to transfer your own money to your bank account. Apple products are a total PITA if you use multiple platforms

[-] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 9 points 5 days ago

The Apple account situation has been a shitshow since ProTools/.Mac/iTunes/MobileMe/iCloud.

I’m stuck with a separate iCloud and iTunes account to this day because there was never an option to merge them.

[-] cupcakezealot 10 points 5 days ago

Do you mean cancel the subscription before it's up? You should be able to do it in the Windows Apple Music or Apple TV apps under your account settings (it's listed under subscriptions); I just did it the other month.

Warning; if you cancel your trial it ends immediately, not at the end of the term, so I just set a to do reminder for the day before.

[-] Peter_Arbeitsloser@feddit.org 20 points 5 days ago

I subscribed Apple Tv+ (free 7 day trial). I just needed to provide my personal data, email address and PayPal data. When I decided to cancel I could cancel the subscription on the Apple TV+ page, but when I wanted to delete the apple account in itself, I was forwarded to accounts.apple.com where I was asked to login first. When I tried this, I needed to enter my 2FA that I got by email and then I had to enter my mobile phone number for another 2FA. After that the screen that you can see in the reddit post comes up and I cannot proceed past it. I tried this process dozens of times with different browsers and configurations to no avail.

... I now sent in a GDPR account deletion request.

[-] 0xD@infosec.pub 5 points 4 days ago

https://www.edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/about-edpb/members_en

Find your data protection agency and send in a violation, please! Let's see what happens :)

[-] HeyJoe@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago

I just did this 2 days ago. Worked fine from my non apple web browser. And yeah they definitely let you know that the trial ends immediately if cancelled. I got a 3 month trial and I always sign up and cancel it, but apple, paramount+, and i wanna say either fubu or sling do this immediate cancel of the free trial so I have to setup calender invites.

[-] benignintervention@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago

I did this a couple years ago so I could binge the dino doc. I think I needed to go to the Apple TV site on a desktop to get the subscription settings. It might have changed since then

[-] waterSticksToMyBalls@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago

I had the opposite problem and couldn't cancel without an apple device. Deleting the account was easier.

[-] HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com 5 points 4 days ago

yeah apple accounts at some point became impossible without an apple device.

[-] SaltySalamander@fedia.io 4 points 5 days ago

Funny...I've signed up for ATV+ twice using free trials and I've had no issue cancelling either time. No Apple devices in my house.

[-] ltxrtquq@lemmy.ml 18 points 5 days ago

Cancelling is probably different from deleting the account

this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2025

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