icloud access dilema

[remingtonsteele78]

a few weeks ago my elderly friend bought a new iphone se. asked me to transfer old phone to it.

i did this using itunes as the do not remember icloud password, icloud email password and the security question answers are not right.


we didn't really need the icloud login details as transferring old iphone that was backed up to my itunes worked as it was a brand new phone. everything transferred over (but we still couldn't log in to icloud)


yesterday i added her gmail account so she could access her emails. i also updated to the new ios as it was there. I also created a new icloud account for her but couldn't add it as we couldn't sign out of the old one.


she called me this morning. the contacts have disappeared from her new phone (whats app is still there but numbers are not recognised)


im presuming that this is because contacts is not being backed up through icloud as is everything else?


we are happy to reset the new phone, back it up again from the old one and add new icloud account but i cant sign out of old icloud account to do this. plus i think that the old icloud account will be re added when restoring from itunes.


i'm at a brick wall here. i don't want to download dodgy software online to resolve this.


Any thoughts/advice/recommendations on this would be much appreciated.

 

[J. A.]

Welcome to iPhone Forums!

The Gmail address doesn’t need iCloud to sync the contacts. They are stored/synced online. These shouldn’t have disappeared from her device. Make sure Contacts is enabled for the account.
As the old/former iCloud ID is still set up, the contacts saved there should also still be visible, except if the feature is turned off. (Settings - Passwords & Accounts - Accounts).

If she can’t remember the password for her iCloud ID (the email address), there are various options to reset it:
If you forgot your Apple ID password

If all of this doesn’t work, she should take the iPhone to the next Apple Retail Store. They can help with her problem. It’s important that she can prove she’s the owner of the device (billing).