Users of Apple devices, such as iPhone or iPad, have at their service a wide variety of applications that allow them to get the most out of their devices. Sometimes some of them require that we have linked our phone number. But what happens if our beloved smartphone or tablet is lost or stolen? Or if we change our phone number? In these cases, we may want to unlink our phone number from the Apple account and prevent third parties from accessing it.
Being an iPhone or iPad user has many advantages and if you are reading this blog, you probably already know them. Much of these advantages are directly related to linking our phone number to our Apple account, such as:
Use our phone number as a username to identify ourselves after entering a password.
Some applications, such as iMessages, allow you to exchange text messages, photos, and videos with another Apple device.
Others, like FaceTime, allowing you to make calls and video calls.
However, what happens if we have lost our mobile device or if we want to change the main phone number of our Apple account? To solve these problems and prevent future ones, we may be interested in unlinking or changing the phone number of our account at any given time.
How To Delete A Phone Number
Next, we are going to see how to delete a phone number from our Apple ID from iCloud (Apple’s cloud storage system). For it,
- We select our name or Apple ID email address.
- Then we log in, if necessary, and click the name, phone numbers, mail. On the new screen, we can access our data, such as the phone number we want to delete.
- If we click on Edit and select the number, we can delete it by clicking on the red icon (-) and then on Delete.
There is another way to remove a phone number from our account. To do this, we must close the session of the iMessage and FaceTime services of the device whose number we want to stop being used:
- We open Settings on our device.
- We will click on Messages> Send and Receive and select the address linked to our Apple ID.
- Then we click on Logout.
- Finally, we go back to the Settings tab and repeat the same steps in FaceTime.
- In this way, calls and messages will stop reaching the devices that have logged into the account. In the event that we want to delete a phone number from a device that we do not have access to, then we need to change the Apple ID password. This will delete all phone numbers associated with any device, and calls and messages from these numbers will no longer appear.
How To Delete A Trusted Phone Number
We are constantly evolving and updating, and this means that a device or phone number that was previously trusted can cease to be so. In order to improve our security, we are interested in knowing how to modify the list of trusted devices to keep it updated:
- We will go to our Apple account and follow the steps that the verification in two steps asks us, if we have it activated. Also, we can access from our device by clicking on the Settings icon and our name.
- We select the option Password and security.
Here we will find all the trusted phone numbers associated with our iCloud account. If we see any that is not ours and is suspicious, we will remove it from the list as follows.
- We will click on the red Delete icon. It will automatically disappear and you will no longer be authorized to access our account or make any changes to it.
Also, we may find devices pending verification. If we recognize them, we will click on Verify and will send a code to the device that, when entered, will be included in the list.
As we have seen, there are many options when it comes to configuring our Apple account, especially those linked to our phone number and our security. If you want to know more, we recommend you access the official Apple page to find out.
Remember that we can improve our security by applying extra measures to protect our account and the personal data stored in it with the advice and resources of OSI.
Were you aware that you could remove your phone number from your Apple account? Have your phone ever been stolen or lost and you were unable to access your iCloud account? Share your opinion and experiences with other users and stay up-to-date with OSI’s cybersecurity publications to enjoy the benefits of technology.
Also Read: How To Unlink My Mobile Number From My Google Account