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Oh No

Author takes to Twitter after breaking iCloud with 'True' last name

True is totally unable to access her iCloud, despite still paying for storage...
Stephen Warwick

How to back up your iPhone or iPadSource: Joseph Keller/iMore

What you need to know

  • Author Rachel True has taken to Twitter after her iCloud was locked due to a coding error.
  • It seems Apple's system mistook her last name for a coding prompt, and now she can't access the service.

Author Rachel True has taken to Twitter after her iCloud account was locked due to what seems to be a rather strange coding mishap.

It seems even the best cloud storage apps aren't infallible, as True found out in unfortunate fashion thanks to her last name:

As True notes, the issue, which has been persisting for some six months, seems to be a coding issue. As she notes elsewhere, 'true' uncapitalized is a coding term, which is why most sites choose to automatically capitalize words or names to stop their systems from mistaking names like 'True' for coding prompts.

Unfortunately, that didn't seem to happen in this case, and True is now met with the following error message from Apple when using iCloud:

iCloud has stopped responding. An error has prevented this application from working properly. Help Apple improve its products by sending us diagnostic and usage information about iCloud.

According to True, numerous hours on the phone with Apple has not brought a fix to the problem, despite the fact she's still paying for iCloud:

3+ hours on phone today w/ customer service + the 2+ hours yesterday + the countless other times I spent 2+ hours on phone... make this my new part time unpaid job @AppleSupport 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...

One commenter in jest joked that the fastest solution for True would be to marry and take her spouse's name, but that "Mr/Mrs 'Null'" was not recommended.

It seems Apple is trying to work on a fix for the issue, but True despaired that the problem has been ongoing since September, and that it was her, rather than Apple's own team, that suggested the error was possibly related to her last name.