2 factor identification becomes 5 factor identification

[Doom]

Actually, it might be more like an 8-factor identification.

First, you enter your password. Then, it sends you a text message, and you have to enter an authorization code contained in the text. Then, it sends an email to every address you have, asking you to confirm it was you who logged in. So you have to hit "confirm" in each of those email addresses.

And then sometimes it asks for a "passcode," which is your fingerprint if your device has a fingerprint scanner, and if your device does not have a fingerprint scanner, then the "passcode" is something you allegedly set up in advance and stored on a flash drive, which you are then supposed to insert into the USB port to verify your identity which you have already identified in half a dozen different ways.

And don't dare ask "Can I set up a passcode now?" because you can't, since the only way to set up a passcode is to already be logged in, but getting in requires a passcode. How to get out of this catch-22, I have no idea. But it is the reason I can no longer get into my OneDrive account.

And if you are trying to activate a new Apple device, logging in for the first time immediately triggers a warning, "A New Device Has Been Activated On Your Account" on every Apple device you own, which you then have to approve. several times over, in order to completely end the activation process. I just activated a new MacBook Neo, which I did by holding my iPhone up to the screen and asking it to transfer all information from the phone into the computer, which took 5 minutes, but then I had to verify that it really was me who did it by clicking "Yes" on my MacBook Air, my iPad Air, my iPhone 17, and even on my Apple Watch.

So long story short, when I first got on the Internet in the early 90's, and set up my first email address, I could choose the password "password123", ask it to "keep me logged in" and never worry about it again. Now, I have to meet increasingly elaborate password complexity requirements, which make it impossible for me to remember any of my passwords, and logging in to check my email is now a convoluted labyrinth. approximately a 10-step process that takes approximately 15 minutes, and sometimes I just give up halfway through and say, "To hell with it, my email isn't that important".

It is getting harder and harder to log in to do even the most basic functions. Is all this extreme security, which often permanently blocks me from getting into my accounts, such as the aforementioned OneDrive, from which I have been locked out for over 2 years, really necessary?

[zeno]

Seems a tad excessive.

[Doom]

Find someone who cares about you as much as Google cares about you when logging in to a new device, which most of the time isn't actually "new," it is just an old device from which you have been inexplicably logged out.

[Highlander]

I feel your pain, brother. I have been trying to login to a rental car account for two days. I can't recover my password until I am logged in; I can't login until I enter my unknown account number. In other cases, I have had accounts I haven't used for years that I can't update unless I have all of the old, unknown login information. The ultimate fallback is to call the company. I have found that calling to speak to someone is another chamber of horrors.

Also, DW and I agree that when the dreaded "An Update Has Been Completed To Improve Your Experience" message pops up, chaos is sure to follow.

[Riverboat]

[W]hen the dreaded "An Update Has Been Completed To Improve Your Experience" message pops up, chaos is sure to follow.

This Boomer is reaching the point where I just want to ditch all the technology and brave the world like a newborn. My life is a constant low-grade burn over all the hoops I have to jump through just to get anything done. Now and then it flares into a white-hot eruption of lava.

[Highlander]

Got an update for Windows last night and just spent 15 minutes getting my machine back up and running. Was forced into a cloud backup.

[Doom]

Most software updates are for security; they are a response to what is called a "zero-day exploit', which means that hackers and makers of viruses, adware, and the like have discovered a gap in security that is currently being exploited in the wild. This is not just true of Windows updates but of macOS updates, iPhone updates, and Android updates.

Once a year, a major OS update is sent out that adds new features and whatnot. You can tell which ones those are because the OS number increases, iOS 26 to iOS 27. These major updates take a very long time, an hour or longer, and you can schedule them to be installed at a convenient time, such as at 2 AM when you are asleep, but if it is not a major update, there will be a second number added, i.e., 26.4.2. These are security updates; you do want to install them, unless you want a malicious hacker to take control of your device.

If updates are happening automatically at an inconvenient time, it is because you have delayed installing them long enough that they decide to do it for you. It really should never come to that, just schedule them at a time when you will not be using the computer.

[BobCatholic]

Inflation. Just more inflation.