How to Turn off Two-Factor Authentication on Apple Devices

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Updated August 30, 2019

Two-factor authentication adds a much-needed layer of protection to your Apple ID, but it can also be inconvenient at times. This is especially true if you don’t currently have access to the trusted device needed to utilize 2FA, leaving you stuck with no way to log in. Thankfully, there's a rather painless way to turn off two-factor authentication on iPhone and other iOS devices, but it can get a little tricky if 2FA has been enabled for an extended period of time.

How to Turn off Two-Factor Authentication on Apple Devices

2FA is not tied to a specific device like your iPhone or MacBook, but instead to your Apple ID itself, an account used across all of your Apple devices for a number of purposes, including accessing the App Store, working with your iCloud repository, transmitting iMessages, and making FaceTime calls. It can be disabled by following the steps below.

If two-factor authentication has been enabled on your account for more than two weeks, you will not have the option to disable it.

Apple has removed the ability to cancel two-factor authentication following a 14-day grace period, stating that certain features found in the latest versions of macOS and iOS require 2FA’s added level of security and therefore it should no longer be an optional setting. During that 14-day grace period, use these steps to disable 2FA:

Locate the two-factor authentication enrollment email, which should have been sent to the email address associated with your Apple ID as soon as you activated 2FA.
Scroll toward the bottom of the email and select a link or button intended to return your account to its previous security settings.

Any other security settings that were changed on your account since enrolling in 2FA will also be reverted by this process.
Follow the on-screen prompts to commit these changes.

If Disabling 2FA is a Requirement

If you find yourself in a predicament where the grace period has expired, but you absolutely must remove 2FA for some reason, we recommend reaching out to Apple Support.