Account recovery contact showing as “not available"

I had set up a recovery contact for my account several months ago and my contact had accepted. Today when I logged into my Mac, I got an alert asking me to set up my recovery contact again. When I went to add them back in, I noticed their identity was not listed as a suggestion from my family. I was able to navigate to the setting for account recovery and saw that my previously set up recovery contact was still listed there, but “Not Available” was listed under their name. This was the case on my phone as well. I checked the System Status page and it seems all services are available. I did a Google search that showed a Reddit thread showing someone else had the same problem yesterday, which was confirmed by a third person, but there was no resolution mentioned. What’s going on here? My account recovery person’s account is active, and I even had them add me as a recovery contact, which worked.

Posted on Oct 28, 2023 02:09 PM

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Posted on Jun 30, 2024 03:21 PM

This didn't work for me. I have 3 devices all showing something different for the contact. See Name appears twice as an iCloud Recovery … - Apple Community.


  • iPad: my wife as an active entry.
  • iPhone: my wife as an active entry and also as a grayed out "Request Sent" entry.
  • Mac: my wife as active entry, and also as a "Request Sent" entry (not grayed out), and as a "Not Available" entry.


On OSX, which is the only device showing the contact as "Not Available", attempting to remove results in "Unable to Remove Recovery Contact", "Couldn’t communicate with a helper application." The same thing happens with the contact that shows up as "Request Sent". On the iPhone, trying to remove the "Request Sent" entry just ends up not doing anything.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 30, 2024 03:21 PM in response to John E. Buck

This didn't work for me. I have 3 devices all showing something different for the contact. See Name appears twice as an iCloud Recovery … - Apple Community.


  • iPad: my wife as an active entry.
  • iPhone: my wife as an active entry and also as a grayed out "Request Sent" entry.
  • Mac: my wife as active entry, and also as a "Request Sent" entry (not grayed out), and as a "Not Available" entry.


On OSX, which is the only device showing the contact as "Not Available", attempting to remove results in "Unable to Remove Recovery Contact", "Couldn’t communicate with a helper application." The same thing happens with the contact that shows up as "Request Sent". On the iPhone, trying to remove the "Request Sent" entry just ends up not doing anything.

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Account recovery contact showing as “not available"

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