Several users have reported that an alert message saying “Update AppleID Settings” keeps appearing in Settings after upgrading to macOS Catalina. Furthermore, it seems that the message won’t go away and it just keeps asking users to update Apple ID settings on Mac, no matter what users do.
Sometimes a Mac may get into a loop of continuously asking for your Apple ID details and password. Even entering your Apple ID, and password may not fix the problem and you will be asked to update Apple ID settings again (and again, and again).
Does this sound familiar? Then you are not alone. This short article explains how you can fix this problem.
How to fix “Update Apple ID Settings” on macOS Catalina
Important note: Please try each step one at a time until you resolve your issue.
First check the Apple System Status page. You may be having this problem because some Apple services may be down and not working.
1. Restart your Mac. You can do so by going to Apple Menu > Restart…
2. On your Mac, Go to Apple menu and choose System Preferences > iCloud. And click Sign Out. Now restart your Mac and go back again to System Preferences > iCloud and sign in.
3. On your Mac, Go to Apple menu and choose System Preferences > iCloud and scroll down and find Keychain. Was Keychain selected? If not, select (enable) Keychain and enter your password, note that you may have to enter your password a few times.
See also: Slow iCloud Keychain Passwords/Forms Autofills On Mac
4. It is possible that you keep seeing this pop up message because your Apple ID password is not strong enough. Here is how:
- Visit the Apple ID site: https://appleid.apple.com/
- Find the Security section and then click Change Password
- First you will have to enter your current password. Then enter your new password.
- Click Change Password
- Now on your Mac, try to update your Apple ID info in Settings.
See also: How To Change Apple ID Email Address
Please note that now your Apple ID password has been changed, this means that you will need to update Apple ID information with any Apple services that you use such as FaceTime, iCloud, App Store etc.
If nothing above helps you, you may want to contact Apple Support.
I finally got it working on my Mac Pro. I can’t tell you exactly how I did it, but it mostly involved just waiting while I ate lunch. I have noticed that many operations in Catalina require a significant waiting period even though there is no progress indicator to tell you that the Mac is actively working on it.
Additional instructions needed: when you sign out, do you keep iCloud info or not. Does it make duplicates of that data if you do or don’t keep it, etc.
I tried to not download any iCloud data because I simply did not have enough space available. As the dialogue boxes say, everything will still be available om iCloud so why me worry? 🙂
I tried to sign in again but the three-factor authentication stopped my for the moment to sign in. I will do this later today. I think this will work.
I was able to fix it after going to “iCloud”, a few thing where unchecked, “Find My” and “Keychain”. After enabling this two thing the error message loop went away.