How to recover Apple ID, as asking for 28 recovery keys instead of 25

I would ask Apple what to do. Yours is not the first post I have seen mention this issue so if you find a solution, please let us know what it is. The people on this forum do not work for Apple.

Refer to this page for Apple Support features ➔ Contact - Official Apple Support

Select from the presented options until you find a solution for your issue, or see if there is a chat or phone call contact method offered lower on the page (you sometimes have to narrow down the options multiple times before this is shown). If you do not see your issue, keep experimenting with any series of selections until you reach one that offers a chat session or a telephone call and get the representative to redirect you.

This support article has various country telephone numbers for contacting Apple for support and service ➔ Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support

What exactly are you trying to do?

Recovery Keys for AppleID are still relatively new and have always been 28 characters.

If you need a File Vault Recovery Key to reset the local password on your Mac, you’ll need THAT key; not the key for your ApeID.

I know that these keys were 24-characters at one point; but other Macs might have created keys of other lengths)

In either case, IF you are being prompted to enter the key and don’t have it (or another trusted trusted device for the AppleID Recovery Key) your options are bleak; as there is no “workaround” for either.

Re: “… I HAVE ALL MY SIGN IN INFO …”

… Except for the recovery key.

Use of the entirely optional AppleID Recovery Key generally disables all other account recovery methods.

(The exception is IF you use Advanced Data Protection AND have a Recovery Contact setup)

Otherwise, if you lack 1) A trusted device signed-in to the AppleID AND, 2) The AppleID Recovery Key …

… you are likely permanently locked out of that AppleID.

Source: Set up a recovery key for your Apple ID - Apple Support

I wonder if the OP is still using Two-Step Verification? The OP is saying this is an "old" style key. Unfortunately the documentation does not mention the length of the key.

Two-step verification for Apple ID - Apple Support

However, if they are using two-step then I would expect the system to recognize this and prompt for the correct key length.

I did a bunch of web searching but actually cannot find anything mentioning 25 digit keys with Apple. I do find a bunch for Microsoft.

This is why I told the OP to call Apple.

I understood your problem the first time. I made a suggestion. Contact Apple. Nobody here works for Apple. We are people like you and unless Apple has a solution in a support article (I have never seen one) or somebody else has posted a solution (to be found by you with a forum search) then only Apple knows. It is their security system. I looked up a solution with a web search and found no other report of this issue. I do remember seeing one person mention a similar issue here but they did not post a solution. Your best way to find a solution to this is to ask Apple.

Please do not type in all UPPERCASE LETTERS. It is difficult to read and is considered to be shouting at somebody.

I certainly don’t recall anything positively one way or the other.

That said … and this is reaching WAY back into the mental cobwebs … I vaguely recall that 2SV gave the same sort of 6 numeric digit, TOTP-generated value like we use for 2FA today … only it was centrally-generated and delivered by SMS.