Apple Unveils AppleCare One for Multiple-Device Protection
Apple has launched AppleCare One, a new device protection plan that consolidates AppleCare coverage for multiple Apple devices under a single monthly subscription. For $19.99 per month, customers in the US—it’s not available in other countries—can protect up to three devices, with additional devices costing $5.99 each per month. The plan includes all the benefits of AppleCare+, such as unlimited accidental damage repairs, battery replacements if capacity drops below 80%, and up to three annual claims for theft and loss protection for the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Don’t forget that Apple charges additional service fees or deductibles for accidental damage, theft, or loss.
A notable aspect of AppleCare One is that you can now add devices up to 4 years old to your plan, a significant change from the traditional 60-day window for purchasing AppleCare+. The only catch is that older devices must be in good condition and may be required to pass a diagnostic check or inspection to verify that fact. However, AppleCare One is a per-user plan; you can’t use it to cover multiple devices in a family.
AppleCare One offers welcome flexibility in device management: you can add or remove devices at any time, and the coverage automatically transfers when you trade in a covered device to Apple and purchase a new one—no need to manually cancel or restart coverage. For iPhone Upgrade Program subscribers, Dan Moren reports at Six Colors that you can still participate in AppleCare One by contacting Apple Support to unbundle your AppleCare+ coverage from the iPhone financing.
Deciding if AppleCare One Is Worthwhile
Apple claims that customers can save up to $11 per month compared to individual AppleCare+ plans. However, the actual savings depend on which devices you’re protecting. For instance, AppleCare+ for my 14-inch MacBook Pro currently costs $9.99 per month, and my iPhone 16 Pro is $13.99. If I were to enroll those devices individually in AppleCare+ with Theft and Loss today, it would cost $23.98 per month. AppleCare One’s $19.99 monthly fee would represent a noticeable savings, and I could get coverage for my Apple Watch Series 9 for free, rather than the usual $4.99 per month.
The value proposition becomes more complicated for those of us with existing AppleCare coverage, especially given that Apple has seemingly raised prices and discontinued multi-year plans recently. For example, I currently pay $9.99 monthly for AppleCare+ on my iPhone 16 Pro (purchased September 2024) and $279 for 3 years of coverage on my 14-inch MacBook Pro (purchased June 2025, equivalent to $7.75 monthly). I opted not to purchase AppleCare+ for my Apple Watch Series 9 due to its high durability and lower cost. My total monthly equivalent is thus $17.74 for the devices I want to protect, making AppleCare One’s $19.99 monthly fee excessive for my situation.
Also, individual AppleCare+ plans cost less for lower-end devices. If you’re protecting entry-level devices—such as an iPhone SE ($7.99/month), iPad mini ($4.99/month), and Apple Watch SE ($2.99/month)—the combined monthly cost would be only $15.97, which is well under AppleCare One’s $19.99. Even adding a MacBook Air ($6.99/month individually, or $5.99/month as a fourth AppleCare One device) wouldn’t make it financially worthwhile.
While AppleCare One simplifies device protection, it’s essential to remember that, overall, extended warranties benefit the companies offering them more than the customers buying them. Apple wouldn’t be introducing AppleCare One if it didn’t expect the program to increase its Services revenue well beyond what it pays out in AppleCare coverage. If you can afford to repair or replace a broken or lost device, self-insuring is often a more financially prudent option.
That said, AppleCare One could make sense if you:
- Prefer the peace of mind of being able to have damaged or lost devices fixed or replaced for a relatively low service fee
- Own multiple devices with high AppleCare+ costs
- Have older devices that you’d like to protect
- Prefer predictable monthly payments over unexpected repair or replacement costs
You can sign up for AppleCare One directly through your devices (in Settings/System Settings > General > AppleCare & Warranty) or at an Apple Store. Whether it’s worth it for you depends on your devices, risk tolerance, and how much you value simplified coverage over likely long-term savings.
AppleCare Recommendations
I’ve developed a set of policies surrounding AppleCare for myself and anyone who asks me for recommendations:
- iPhones: Because they’re constantly mobile, easily dropped or lost, and rather expensive, I always get and recommend AppleCare+ with Theft and Loss. (I also always use and recommend a case; every phone will be dropped at some point.)
- Mac laptops: Although laptops aren’t moved around as much as iPhones, they’re more fragile because of their size and the clamshell design. We also often pick them up and set them down in awkward positions, increasing the chance of accidents. I always get and recommend AppleCare+ for laptops, and doubly so for students.
- iPads: The wide price difference between iPads changes the equation. For a $349 iPad, it’s hard to recommend AppleCare+ unless the iPad will be used by a small child or if it’s a stretch to afford even that much. The higher prices of the iPad Air and iPad Pro might make AppleCare+ worthwhile, but the iPad unibody design makes them much less fragile than MacBooks. Personally, I wouldn’t buy AppleCare+ for an iPad, but I’d tailor recommendations to individual situations.
- Mac desktops and displays: Since desktop Macs and displays are rarely moved, I consider the standard Apple warranty to be sufficient for them.
- Apple Watches: Given the extreme durability of Apple Watches, I never get or recommend AppleCare+ for them. I wear mine while doing fairly intensive outdoor work, and only slight wear is visible on the black case. Additionally, the Apple Watch will be attached to your body, making it less likely to be lost or stolen.
- AirPods: Although it’s easy to drop AirPods, they seem to be quite durable and are fairly inexpensive, so it’s hard to see AppleCare+ being worthwhile. They do often go missing, which is why Apple doesn’t offer theft and loss protection. The AirPods Max may require a different decision because they’re much more fragile and expensive.
- Apple TVs and HomePods: They sit quietly on a shelf and don’t cost much—what’s to insure? Don’t bother getting AppleCare+ for them.
- Vision Pro: No one has ever asked me if they should buy AppleCare+ for a Vision Pro (or if they should buy a Vision Pro at all), but given how expensive and fragile they are, I’d recommend it.
Is there a more concrete way of deciding whether AppleCare+ is worthwhile, and thus if AppleCare One might be a better choice? I decided to build a spreadsheet that might shed light on that question. (It was partially an excuse to see if I could get ChatGPT’s Agent mode to extract all the AppleCare+ prices from Apple’s interactive tool, along with entry-level list prices for each product, a task that it performed well but not perfectly.) I then added a column to the spreadsheet with my estimation of damage risk and calculated the percentage of the list price that paying monthly for AppleCare+ would amount to. Please let me know in the comments if you would find additional information helpful.
Something to think about when deciding whether to self-insure is that it’s possible to earn interest on set-aside funds and unused funds.
A couple of examples:
Finally, when you decide it no longer makes sense to self-insure a device, you can use the principal + earnings towards a new item or recommit the $$$ to self-insuring a new item.
Looks like if you buy a Mac mini or Studio from the online Apple Store, there’s no longer an option to buy AppleCare+ with it – not even a monthly subscription! AppleCare is greyed out unless you buy a display at the same time, but it apparently only covers the display.
Which in itself is a big switch. From what I remember (and Google confirms), it used to be that if you bought AppleCare on an order for a Mac, it covered accessories on the same order, including displays.
The way I used to figure AppleCare cost/benefit was a) is the device difficult to repair?, combined with b) and really expensive?
So I didn’t get AppleCare for Apple desktops, because you could open up the case yourself and replace parts. That changed when Apple started gluing the iMac screen. Nor did I get it for phones, because they’re cheaper and less likely to malfunction out of warranty.
I didn’t figure breakage or theft into it. Theft would be covered by insurance. Breakage (such as cracked screen)? Don’t do that.
But an iMac? It is all in one like a laptop, so if anything malfunctions, you’re completely dead until is fixed. I’m not going to try and fix it myself, so we’re looking at an expensive repair.
Which makes me wonder where current Mac mini and Studios land. Can you open them yourself without dealing with adhesives?
I just checked and AppleCare+, either monthly or annually, is still being offered. That’s without adding a monitor, using the Apple Store app on my phone.
In safari, I saw that if you chose no display that AppleCare at the bottom is grayed out as you report, but once you add the studio to your “bag” you can then add AppleCare+ (monthly or annually) or AppleCare One. It asks you right away after you add the Mac to the “bag”.
@glennf wrote about that recently.
I just ran through the shopping process and the option appears after you’ve added it to your shopping bag:
What seems to have gone missing is the classic AppleCare - extend the warranty to 3 years for a fixed fee. That seems completely gone now.
I only get AppleCare with my iPhone, I drop them daily it seems. I’ve found Apple’s products increasingly reliable, damage and loss is the most likely need.
Apple Newsroom article says “Starting tomorrow, customers in the U.S. can sign up for AppleCare One …” - Nothing is announced for users who don’t live in the U.S.
Weird. I added a Mac mini to my bag, and now see a choice of annual $34.99 or 3 years at $89. Same for Mac Studio: 3 years at $152.
What’s not available is a 3 year option for a Studio display.
OK. Now I’ve got to try it again…
Trying it again with a mini:
What about a MacBook Air laptop? Same. Only AC+ and AC1.
MacBook Pro? Ditto.
It would appear to me with the introduction of AppleCare One, they have dropped the classic AppleCare. At least in the US.
And had I been paying attention, I would have seen this coming.
Back in February, Apple dropped pre-paid AppleCare in retail stores only offering subscription-based extended warranties. It would appear that they are now doing the same for web-store orders.
Classic AppleCare is no longer listed on Apple’s AppleCare web page either.
If you’re still seeing prepaid/classic AppleCare in your location, then I assume you’re not in the US. Otherwise I don’t know why we’re seeing two different options.
It was because I was shopping via an EPP Perks at Work store link.
Major catch, @ace. This looked like a no-brainer decision for me since I pay for AppleCare+ monthly for 3 iPhones (mine, my wife’s, our daughter’s). $19.99 instead of $34.97, sign me up!
So I signed up and… I cannot add my wife and daughter’s iPhones. Even though I bought all these iPhones, I pay for AppleCare+ for all of them and we are all on Family.
(If there is a way to do this, someone please tell me!)
US only, currently.
Another thing to note, is Macs (including portable MacBook Pro/Air) are still not covered for Loss & Theft under any of these plans; AC One or otherwise.
So ultimately, even if you want the tech help & hardware cover under these AC plans, you’ll still probably need typical home insurance (often having to specify expensive items separately) if you want to cover for loss/theft. Or simply self insure using savings, of course.
I was unable to get AppleCare for my Iphone 16 because I am stuck outside the USA, had to buy it on the local host nation’s market, and AppleCare is not in this country. Might anyone know if this new program allows my phone to get covered? Thanks
IMHO it makes most sense to self insure via savings except in the special case where you know you simply cannot afford to replace an item if it’s a loss.
As a student that was the case for me and my Mac, although that was well before AppleCare+. But in the days since, Macs, especially the portables, have become far more solid (no moving parts, unibody, etc.) while things like Find My and encryption help to protect to a certain degree from theft. My main personal Mac these days is well spec’ed out 14" MBP and while I’d hate to have to shell out big $$$ if it were to get run over by a truck, I could afford it. My iPhone is a regular 15 and rather than pay Apple for insurance, I’d prefer to just get a new iPhone should mine ever get stolen. I have yet to break an iPhone (or even just its screen) even without a case because I rarely drop it. APP and the likes, is even cheaper to just replace. As always with these insurance subscriptions, if you can afford to replace your own, you’re going to be saving money.
Regardless of which route somebody chooses to go though, you absolutely positively 100% NEED a good and current backup that can be used to restore everything in a quick and reliable manner. There should be no compromise there and every once in a while testing your backup strategy to see if it actually allows you to recover everything as you’d imagine, is a good practice.
I recently had an issue with an AppleCare+ replacement of an iPad Air - when I traded it in, I was told the screen showed signs of burn-in, and my trade-in value was reduced to $0, but I just received it a few months before as an AppleCare+ replacement (after leaving the iPad out in the rain
). I’m completely sure that the device they sent me had the problem - it wasn’t caused by my use.
So now I’m completely in the self-insure camp*. I keep a spare iPhone in case something happens to one of our four, especially while we are traveling, and a spare Apple Watch because so much of my fitness stats are collected by the watch, but otherwise I’ll just repair the old one (if it’s a quick repair), or replace with a purchased new model and either repair and trade in the old model, or just recycle it. (And hope that this doesn’t happen 20-ish days before a new model is released, since I could always buy and return after 14 days and then get the new model.)
For years I’ve been setting aside money each month (in a high-yield savings acct) for planned device purchases (an iPhone every 30 months for me, one every 3 years for my wife, a MacBook every 4 years, etc.), so I’ll just add $30/month for our own “SelfCare” plan.
* Well, except my wife has an iPhone 13 mini and loves the size, so I’m keeping the monthly AC+ for that just so she can get a replacement if she needs one, until iOS no longer supports the 13, or Apple can’t replace the 13 mini with a like-new model.
Ach, sorry, I should have said that it applies to a single user, not to a family.
We too have spare devices for whoever might need one for whatever reason, Macs, iPads and older phones.
My son quipped when I got an extra pair of AirPods - “they’re the SparePods”.
Within a few minutes of updating from macOS 15.5 to 15.6, I received a message from Apple Support:
" Sign in to keep coverage
A new Apple Account has signed in to your MacBook Pro. To avoid losing AppleCare One coverage, you must sign in to the MacBook Pro with the Apple Account associated with your AppleCare One plan.
You have 24 hours from when this email was sent to sign in, or your MacBook Pro will be removed from your AppleCare One plan."
I was certainly unaware that anyone else had signed into my MacBook Pro, but I suspect the issue is related to the newness of AppleCare One and the update to 15.6. I have a support call lined up, so I’ll be trying to gather other details.
As I understand it, there is a problem with AppleCare One that didn’t exist with AppleCare+
I put both my wife’s and my apple devices on my Apple Care+ account.
The problem seems to occur with AppleCare One - when she now uses her MBP and it is signed into her Apple Account (which it always has been) there is a hiccup with AppleCare One.
They only want the devices on an AppleCare One account that are signed into the same Apple Account associated with the AppleCare One account. It didn’t seem to make a difference with AppleCare+
David
I could see an argument for keeping this per user in that a single user is not as likely to have three high value devices as a family might.
I wonder if they might offer later a family plan set up like Apple One?
A Redditor has created a web app to figure out how to most optimally split Apple Care coverages for multiple devices between AppleCare One and individual contracts for specific devices. Youlist the devices to be covered and the app produces a monthly cost for using AppleCare One for all of them, covering each device independently, and also gives an optimal mix. There is also a selection for whether you will be paying annually if it is an option.
After I opened the support case regarding the incident, the responding Apple agent asked permission to schedule a support call. I was put on hold, then the agent came back and told me the specific time to expect the call, and stated that it would occur “later today”. It was after that that I reported my experience in this forum. Later, when I received an email confirmation about the scheduling of the support call, the appointment time appeared as two days later than the representative had originally stated, which meant that the support call would occur after the warranty removal time specified in the problematic warning message. There had been no indication from the agent during our previous communication that scheduling the appointment had not yet actually been done. After asking Apple about this discrepancy, I was told that the time (apparently delayed by two-days) was the first available on the schedule. In my opinion, if the agent had not actually scheduled the call by the time the agent gave me the call’s scheduled time, then the first communication about the scheduled call time (which concerned a time sensitive matter) was made to appear disingenuous by the appointment confirmation email. This constitutes precisely the sort of discrepancy that has had the effect of eroding my confidence in Apple support recently.
Because the notification had indicated that the MacBook Pro’s removal from warranty status would occur 24 hours later (before I was now to receive the scheduled support call), and because the alert in the AppleCare & Warranty system settings item had since stopped appearing by the time I received the call scheduling confirmation anyway, I chose to cancel the call.
Now it is days later, and the MacBook Pro is apparently still signed up for the warranty protection agreed upon when I adopted AppleCare One. That fact now makes the entire matter seem moot, except for my dissatisfaction about the way my complaint was managed by support.
As an Australian I’m clearly not going to be eligible for the new AppleCare One plans.
Despite this, it’s worth remembering many upper level credit cards offer additional warranty on items purchased with the card. The card I have even covers mobile phone insurance - including theft and major damage - for as long as you pay a monthly phone contract with the card.
It might be worth considering your credit card insurances when assessing the worth of AppleCare/One.
I came back here because I also got the “Sign in to keep coverage” email. I’ll wait it out like you suggest.
I got a similar message. I have had to split my wife’s devices and mine on 2 Apple One accounts. We have 3 devices each so that worked ok.
I was signed in with my MBP - signed out and signed in. Alert in system settings - Apple Care and Warranty for the MBP eventually went away.
Caused some additional work when I signed back in due to used of iCloud Drive.
David
One other thing to note regarding AppleCare One, your device purchase needs to match your iCloud region. At least appears to. I realised i had two devices, an iPhone 16 pro and a recent iPad mini, on AppleCare+ and would save with the upgrade. But the only other device I could add was my AppleTV 4k, the rest were all either too old or purchased ‘out of region’ in Europe. Having AppleCare+ already purchased for those two devices seems to have bypassed this requirement, one purchased in Ireland, the other in Germany. So that maybe a workaround but I can’t swear to it.
This to my mind is new. As someone with a foot either side of the Atlantic, and who purchased equipment on both sides of it, frequently with AppleCare, I’ve never encountered this. So folks who purchase Apple Watches in Europe to get the Blood Oxygen app functionality but whose AppleID is US won’t be able to immediately add them to their AppleCare One plan. The rollout of the offer is currently limited of course, so there’s that, possibly it will change, but folks might try a standalone AppleCare plan for the watch and add it later, but can’t swear to that. Those two devices AppleCare+ plans predated my upgrade of one of them to AppleCare One. There may be a sweep of existing plans to add which happens first.
As far as I know, this has always been the case. I did some searching and there are plenty of posts that confirm this. For example, see the reply here.
It’s one reason why I always travel internationally with a spare iPhone in case something happens to one of ours, rather than purchase a new device locally in the foreign country, because I always understood that an iPhone purchased in a foreign country meant that I had a warranty in that country only.
I’ve read about the new option to cover three devices for $20, but just today they’ve started sending out notifications to all my devices about it.
I understand how it’s all supposed to work, but what I can’t find an answer to is the question of how it applies to those of us who are subscribed to the iPhone Upgrade Program, which includes AppleCare+ at no additional cost. Anyone gotten an answer about that?
I called Apple to ask directly this afternoon, but promptly got disconnected. Sigh… I’ll probably try again soon, but thought I should check to see if any of you wise ones had any info in the meantime.
Thanks!
John
I’ve been interested in how generative AI’s handle various questions. So I put your question into Perplexity (an “answer engine” that has been discussed on TBT). How do you rate its answer, assuming you’ve talked with Apple?
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/how-does-apple-care-one-apply-j.sRUm1hSkyFVM_mk2gG.Q
Well it’s out of date. AppleCare One is available in Europe.My AppleCare One plan only covers my iPhone and iPad mini. The only other device I could add was my AppleTV. Not that I worried about that particularly. I’d much sooner have added my laptop or iPad Pro. After a day I received an email saying unless I logged into the AppleTV with my account it would be removed. Which it was… both my App Store ID and my personal iCloud. Anyway it booted the device off the list. If I pick up a new Mac Mini this year (fingers crossed) I’ll add that.
The article addresses this—Dan Moren asked Apple:
Huh. In the announcement, Apple at least implied it was US-only to start. Did that change right away, or were there other announcements?
I can’t imagine this making sense for many folks, mostly due to the fact that it would pretty seriously detract from the value of the iPhone Upgrade Program. Am I missing something here?
Argh. Apologies, the AppleCare One info page reads like it’s available. Once you choose your country from a dropdown, it adjusts. Nope, not available.
Forgive my confusion. I have a US iCloud account, the two devices were purchased in Europe put both under AppleCare+ at time of purchase via my iCloud account, so on setup, AppleCare One offered to take them in. Neither seems to have been a problem despite their purchase here. But my other recent devices, not under AppleCare+, were indicated as out of region bar my purchases in the US which were indicated as too old.
I tend to agree with John Siracusa, it’s a mess. Perhaps messy customers but also perhaps it’s just a bit of a mess. Why can’t I add my wife’s phone? Why can’t I add my daughter’s laptop? They should make it ‘Apple Family’ friendly for a start. The regional thing… well who knows, I wonder how even handed the handling of that is across the planet. Here in Ireland, long an Apple base for many reasons, there’s a friendly take on the support phone and I’ve never had an issue with my US purchases for example.
Why does a global company like Apple care about regional purchases? There’s that. If it’s under guarantee or a paid for support like AppleCare why make where it was purchased an issue?
I once had a Sony Clié I had to ship to California for repairs, paid a fortune to do it.
That is not the case. Several times over decades (including recently) I have had warranty repairs on Apple products bought in another country. This is standard warranty, not AppleCare. So it may be that you have to purchase AppleCare from the same country that you purchased the device, but once a device is covered under Apple’s warranty, they will repair/replace it worldwide.
Thanks to @ace and to everyone who has contributed to this discussion.
Quick summary: If you have devices registered to AND logged into the same Apple Account, AND if you want AppleCare+ with Loss and Theft for them, AND if the total cost of separate AppleCare+ policies is more than AppleCare One (be sure to compare monthly totals and annual plans), then AppleCare One is worth considering.
Longer story:
I just had my first — and likely last — experience with AppleCare One and it was dreadful, resulting in five days of phone calls with six different people at AppleCare Support, and me losing the AppleCare+ (without Loss and Theft) coverage I had for my wife’s iPhone and ending paying more for AppleCare+ with Loss and Theft for her phone, outside of AppleCare One.
The first-round AppleCare+ on my iPhone expired and I was happy to renew, first annually. The AppleCare process on my phone pushed me to AppleCare One, and pushed even harder, over and over, to add my wife’s phone. It was cheaper to do so, so I did.
Then, three times a day for five days, I received vaguely threatening e-mails telling me I must change the Apple Account login on my wife’s phone, and her phone’s AppleCare was marked as “pending for 24 hours” for five days. She uses a different Apple Account than I do, although her phone is registered under my Apple Account (probably a remnant of when we shared our Apple Account ages ago).
I’ll spare you the ugly details of the often-contradictory, often-nonsensical interactions with AppleCare support, and just offer the warnings and suggestion:
• If you have AppleCare+ without Loss and Theft coverage, and if you give it up by joining AppleCare One or anything else, you can’t get it back, ever. It’s no longer offered by Apple, so even if Apple sells you AppleCare One you can’t use, and you try to undo it, you won’t be able to go back to the simpler version of AppleCare and will be forced to go to the only version now offered, with one with Theft and Loss.
• All of your devices under AppleCare One must be registered AND LOGGED INTO the same account. This is most definitely not a Family program.
• Unlike other Apple Support teams, who in my long experience range from good to amazingly excellent, the AppleCare team is inflexible about fixing what is clearly a mistake in the AppleCare One onboarding process, so don’t expect useful support. You know things are bad when they ask if you read the fine print (I replied that I only read the BIG PRINT on my small screen, which over and over boldly told me that I should add her phone to the plan, and even now is touting AppleCare One overall) and claim inflation is the reason for the price difference (it can’t be because we were on a monthly plan for her phone, so it was “current”), among other stalling tactics hoping I’d just hang up, pay the difference and go away.
I just had the battery in my phone replaced under AppleCare last week, and hers is due soon, so we are pretty happy having AppleCare for the time being. We don’t buy phones very often, so we re-upped for a year of each (slighly discounted from a monthly subscription). As I told her today at the end of all the unpleasantness with AppleCare support, “I don’t deeply mind the result — financially we ended up being out about $16, which I’ll swallow reluctantly. It was the process that hurt.”
Overall — if you have devices both registered to AND logged into the same Apple Account, AND if you want AppleCare+ with Loss and Theft for them, AND if the total cost of separate AppleCare+ policies is more than AppleCare One (be sure to compare monthly totals and annual plans), then AppleCare One is worth considering.
If ANY of those are not true, then beware. (Even if they are true, beware.). Apple is definitely not flexible on this and is showing no intent to accommodate and fix even its own mistakes.
(Wow, what a mess)
Sounds like what happened to my mom a couple of years ago with Xfinity/Comcast for her cable TV and internet. The “helpful” folks at the Xfinity Store tried to fix her problem by temporarily turning off her service. But then it turned out she was grandfathered in to an old plan that isn’t offered any more and the new plan was $30/month more expensive. There was no option on the computer to choose anything else. She was stuck. She couldn’t even switch to a different provider since she was in an apartment complex where Xfinity is pre-wired to all the units!
She has just moved and I am literally planning on going to Xfinity tomorrow to turn off her old service and I just know they are going to figure out some way to screw it up.
One other issue seems to be that if you have multiple people using a Mac with different Apple Accounts and they log in regularly, it’s probably not a good idea at this point (if ever) to add a Mac to AppleCare One, since each time a new Apple Account logs in to that machine Apple will probably start a 24 hour timer requiring the account registered with AppleCare One to logout and log back in to the machine.
Hopefully Apple fixes this for people in this situation. Perhaps one solution would be if Apple adds a family plan option(s) to AppleCare One that lets a family protect all of their devices, with something like adding $7.50 per person to the $20 price?
There are other issues with AppleCareOne. About every 2 days I receive 2 emails saying my MB Pro coverage will be discontinued. I haven’t signed out or signed in. I’ve called Apple Support and they are investigating but can’t determine why it happens. At first the said the emails were phishing - but they weren’t.
At the same time the emails come in, I get notification (System Settings/GeneralAppleCare & Warranty) that “Device will be removed.”
Apple support has elevated the issue but it has not been resolved.
The emails I keep getting - two at a time - say:
"Sign in to keep coverage
A new Apple Account has signed in to your MacBook Pro. To avoid losing AppleCare One coverage, you must sign in to the MacBook Pro with the Apple Account associated with your AppleCare One plan.
You have 24 hours from when this email was sent to sign in, or your MacBook Pro will be removed from your AppleCare One plan.”
No one has signed in to my MacBook Pro - including myself - with any account.
The notification in System Settings goes away after awhile but comes back when I get the emails again.
Weird.
Still working with Apple Support.
I have 3 devices covered on my account and my wife has 3 on her own account (maintained on her own MB Pro.) We don’t swop signing into accounts.
David
If she was leasing any equipment, hand-deliver it to their office and get a receipt. They have a reputation for conveniently losing returned equipment, forcing a long drawn-out fight to get them to not bill you hundreds of dollars for worthless 10-year-old equipment.
Not the only company to do this…
Funny, off-topic, but last year I had to return a few Spectrum TV boxes when we finally cut the cord and switched to streaming, and made a reservation at the local store at 1 pm to do exactly what you suggested. I walked in at 1 to see a bunch of people sitting around waiting and stood in line behind the person being helped when somebody waiting said “Hey Mac, what are you doing?”. When I said I had a 1 pm reservation and was waiting to be helped, the Spectrum employee said, “Oh, we don’t follow the reservations. It’s first-come first-served here.”
45 minute wait behind all of the people already there, but I also never got billed for outstanding equipment.
A follow-up: John Sircusa posted the following on Mastodon (bold by me):
I’m confused: when I first heard of this issue, I thought it was Apple Accounts (i.e. Apple IDs). But Sircusa’s post talks about user accounts on MacOS, which are totally different. Since hardware can be associated with an Apple ID, having a laptop registered with a spouse’s Apple ID not being allowed on your AppleCare One plan makes sense. But I don’t get why having multiple user accounts on a Mac would make any difference.
Can someone clarify if this issue is related to Apple IDs or it really is about user accounts?
Even that makes little sense. An extended warranty is on the hardware, not some user experience.
It should cover any equipment purchased by and owned by the holder of the extended warranty plan, without regard to who is using the equipment.
If Apple isn’t doing it this way, then I call shenanigans.
In John Siracusa’s case, they are not. He has user accounts on his Mac Studio for all of his family members, and they all have separate Apple Accounts associated with the Mac user accounts. My Macs are the same - I have user accounts for my wife and I (plus a separate admin account, in case my account has a problem), and my wife and I each have our own Apple Accounts.
But the way I am reading this, I think even separate user accounts on the Mac cause this problem.
I’d say it’s more incompetence. Yes, a warranty is on hardware, but Apple limits AppleCare One to a single Apple Account. It sounds like a use case - what could be a common, though not majority, use case - that Apple didn’t consider testing.
Apparently people are having this issue on Apple TV as well, since tvOS now supports multiple Apple Accounts.
Ah, I wondered if it was something like that!
I have multiple user accounts, but they are all me, and all associated with the same Apple ID.
I can testify to this… I had attributed the removal of my AppleTV from AppleCare One to having separate iTunes and iCloud accounts. in any case AppleCare+ costs 1$ a month for the AppleTV, a device highly unlikely to ever fail. Not much savings to be had.
As I understand it after talking with Apple Support, the Apple ID you are signed in with on the computer makes a difference. User accounts don’t. If more than one person uses the device and signs into their Apple account on the computer when using it - it will be a problem.
I’m the only one signing in on my computer. Haven’t signed in with a different user account.
I’m still getting emails saying the computer will be removed.
Apple Support is trying to help but they don’t have an answer yet.
David
I changed my AppleCare+ warranties to the recently added AppleCare One and will save a few dollars a month. Even though I live in Japan and bought my devices in Japan it was ok since I use a U.S. account and current warranties were in that account.
Previous device AppleCare+ subscriptions:
iPhone $9.99/month
iPad Pro $5.99/month
MBP $99/year = $8.33/month
Total $24.31/month
Changed to AppleCare One for $19.99 and saved $4.32/month.
And got automatic refunds for the remaining previous warranty subscription periods.
I did too.
BTW, when AppleCare One was announced, I tried to activate it. I never could get it to work. It always said I didn’t have any eligible devices. That was weird because many of my devices seemed to be eligible according to Apple’s documentation (for instance, my Vision Pro which is obviously not that old). Even my new iPhone 17 Max wasn’t eligible, I guess because I bought it through the Apple Upgrade Program which includes AppleCare.
However, I think the problem was that none of those devices had AppleCare active. I had never added it. So even though they are within the age limit of an AppleCare One device, since none had AppleCare active or were within the purchase window of AppleCare, I was not able to ever activate AppleCare One. Very weird!
Well, here’s an update: I recently (over the holidays) bought a new iPad M5. While I was setting it up I noticed something about AppleCare One in Settings. I had stopped bothering trying to get it to work, but it seemed like the M5 iPad was eligible. The bizarre thing was that once I added that new device to AppleCare One I was then able to add several other devices (including Vision Pro). The total cost is $20/month – not cheap, but worth it for the Vision Pro alone which is expensive to repair (and the warranty also covers the new iPad and my MacBook Pro 16"). I could add other devices (like Macs or Apple Watches) for just a few dollars each if I want (though some of my equipment is too old to qualify).
The bottom line: if you’re having trouble getting AppleCare One to work, it might be because you need a new device that is eligible for AppleCare to be added.