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iCloud greyed out on iPhone and iPad

My iCloud is Greyed Out in Settings, how do I fix it?

By 30 comments Last updated November 29, 2019

Recently, did you update your iOS or change your Apple ID and password only to discover that iOS greyed out your iCloud Settings? Visiting your Settings App on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch and when you tap your Apple ID, iCloud, or iTunes & App Store settings, they show up as greyed out, so you can not change them. If so, you are not alone!

Several users have reported that iCloud option in Settings on iPhone/iPad/iPod is greyed out or otherwise inaccessible and does not work.

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Check Apple System Status Apple System Status on an iPhone with lots of problems

A possible cause is Apple’s own servers.  So before troubleshooting, check whether iCloud is working normally (or experiencing issues) on the Apple System Support page.

To see specific issues, tap the Plus Sign (+) and scan those issues for anything listing iCloud as experiencing problems. Apple System Status iCloud Issues

Why is my iCloud greyed out? Troubleshooting guide

Update your iOS

Make sure that you are currently running the latest version of iOS on your device.

  • Go to Settings > General > Software Update to check How to Update iOS
  • Or plug your device into a computer with iTunes and select Check for Update

Check for any installed security certificates or profiles

If you use a VPN or your employer or school manages your device, it’s likely there is a device management profile or security certificate stored on your device. Apple calls this a supervised device.

When your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch is supervised, the organization which owns your device can choose to install a configuration profile that controls what features your device has access to.

Configuration profiles files contain settings that allow an employer to restrict or limit and manage employees’ devices, including things like network settings, email and exchange accounts, passcode options, restrict access to device features, and other things.

How to check if your iPhone, iPad, or iPod is supervised

  1. Open Settings
  2. Look for a message at the top of your screen, letting you know this device is supervised and managed
  3. For iOS 9 and below, find the supervision message in Settings > General > About
  4. Tap Settings > General > Profiles (may also be called Device Management, Profile Management, or Profile & Device Management)Profiles and Device Management on iPhone
  5. If a profile is installed, tap on it to see its details and what restrictions are set

Even some apps install configuration profiles to monitor data–Apple removed most of these apps from the App Store but they might still be on your device.

Delete apps that install configuration profiles

  • Press and hold on the app until it jiggles
  • Then tap the X in the upper-left corner to delete it
  • If you see the message, “deleting this app will also delete its data,” tap Delete Delete Stock Apps iOS 10 to speed performance

Delete configuration profiles

  • Go to Settings > General > Profiles (may also be called Device Management, Profile Management, or Profile & Device Management)
  • Tap the profile name
  • Chooose Remove Profile or Delete Profile How To remove a profile from an iPhone or iPad
  • If asked, enter your device passcode, then tap Delete
  • Restart your device

Turn Cellular Data on

  • Go to Settings > Cellular (or Mobile) > Cellular Data
  • Verify that Cellular Data is enabled iPhone turn cellular data on
  • Next, scroll down the list of apps
  • Check that the Settings app is also toggled on toggle on cellular data for the Settings app on iPhone

Try Airplane Mode

  • Toggle Airplane Mode on, wait a few moments and toggle it back off
  • The easiest way to toggle Airplane Mode is via Control Center 

Look at iCloud Backup settings

  • Go to Settings > Apple ID Profile > iCloud > iCloud BackupHow to Downgrade iOS10 to iOS9 on iPhone
  • If the status says, “Restoring apps from Backup” try to cancel or wait for all your apps to restore (this may take some time.)
  • Once it completes, your iCloud should work normally and no longer show up as greyed out

Check for restrictions

  • It may be that Restrictions were turned on during an iOS update. To fix this, turn off Restrictions
  • For iOS 12 and above, go to Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions. Temporarily toggle all restrictions off and then check if iCloud is available Where are Restrictions in iOS 12? We Found It and More!
  • For iOS 11 and below go to Settings > General > Restrictions, temporarily turn off all restrictions, and then check to see if iCloud is now working Cannot connect to iTunes store / App Store
  • Also, check Settings > General > Restrictions > Accounts (near the bottom) and set this to Allow Changes Can't Delete Safari History on iPhone, Fix

If turning off Restrictions didn’t work, try turning Screen Time (for iOS 12 and above) off temporarily

  • Go to Settings > Screen Time and scroll all the way down to locate Turn Off Screen Time turn off screen time
  • Tap that an enter your screen time passcode to disable this feature
  • If you can’t remember your screen time passcode, check out this article for tips on resetting Screen Time’s passcode

Reset your network’s settings

  • Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings How To Fix Messages and iMessage Problems in iOS 11
  • This action also resets WiFi networks and passwords, cellular settings, and VPN and APN settings that you used before

Reset All Settings

  • Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings

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    Use Reset All Settings to bypass this error
  • This resets to default everything in Settings, including notifications, alerts, brightness, and clock settings like wake up alarms. Resetting all settings also reverts all your personalized and customized features like wallpapers and accessibility features back to factory defaults. So you need to reconfigure these settings once your iPhone or iDevice restarts.

Log Out of Your Apple ID (if possible)

  • Sometimes, you need to kick start your device by logging out of your Apple ID and then logging back in. Go to Settings > Apple ID Profile and scroll all the way down to Sign Out iMessage Displays The Wrong Phone Number, fix
  • You need to temporarily turn off Find My iPhone (iPad or iPod) to sign out of your Apple ID

We hope that these tips helped you get iCloud working again. Let us know in the comments if you found something else that worked!

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Show 30 Comments

  1. Mohammad says

    I had the exact same problem and i fixed it after a really long time!
    Solution: cellular data was turned off for “setting” section while I was using cellular data to check my icloud setting.
    So i turned it on and problem solved!

    Reply

  2. P. Morris says

    Turning off privacy restrictions in screen time restored my iCloud, Apple ID, and iTunes info. Thanks so much for the help, this was driving me nuts!!

    P. Morris

    Reply

  3. Jane Luffman says

    I keep removing Profiles and it returns quickly. Resetting/ wiping the phone to new dies not keep it off for long. I am so jacked. What to do?

    Reply

    • Elizabeth Jones says

      Hi Jane,

      Are you restoring from a backup? If so, it’s likely the profile is in that backup and returns when you restore the device.

      It’s also possible that one of your apps has a profile installed on your device, so when you restore (or re-install) that app, the profile is added again.

      The first step to figuring out what’s going on is looking at the details of the installed profile. G

      Go to Settings > General > Profile and tap each profile to see its issuing authority.

      If you notice that a profile is related to an app, delete that app first and then delete the profile. After deleting those, backup your device so that your latest backup does not include the profile and app, then erase the phone and restore from backup (if desired.)

      Reply

  4. Abraham says

    Recently my backup was grayed out as well.

    Remembered that my email is linked to my employer and that recently they had me download security certificate in order to access my corporate email.

    I went to settings and under profiles I saw the certificate that I downloaded from my employer and just clicked on the delete button and whaa la!

    Back up was no longer grayed out and started working.

    You can also see certificates under setting and at top click about and you shuould be able to see certificates downloaded but doesn’t allow you to delete here so you have to go to profiles instead as mentioned above.

    Also I checked with apples geek squad and they said that normally this gets grayed out when someone downloads anything with some type of security that controls or limits what gets downloaded into the system.

    So if this happened to you don’t freak up just check your certificates and try to think back to anything that you downloaded and more than likely this is the culprit.

    Thanks again.

    Reply

  5. Mazza says

    I have just bought a new iphone XR.

    My old iphone 7 had this greyed out ID problem but resolved when I toggled off restrictions.

    However, the new on which I restored from a back up of the iphone 7 on my computer has the greyed out Apple ID,icloud, itunes etc in setting.

    I tried all the suggestions above, except for signing out of my apple ID because I couldn’t.

    I did a second restore from backup, forced restart, reset all settings, off restrictions, off screen time. Still greyed out. Any thing else I can do?

    Reply

    • SK says

      Hi Mazza,

      Sorry about all these problems with setting up your iPhone XR!

      Check if you have any profiles installed–go to Settings > General > Profiles and delete any there. Then restart and try signing into iCloud again.

      If you still have the old iPhone 7 and you haven’t deleted anything yet, try backing it up again–making sure Restrictions is off. Then restore from that recent backup. If possible use, iTunes over iCloud to back up and restore your iPhone 7’s data to the new iPhone.

      If nothing helps, contact Apple Support or set-up an appointment with an Apple Genius at your local Apple Store.

      Reply

  8. Linda says

    After For iOS 12 and above, go to Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions. Temporarily toggle all restrictions off and then check if iCloud is available. iCloud is available.

    However, it is only available when the restrictions are off.

    Is this bug going to be fixed? This situation only applies on my iPhone 6s

    Reply

    • SK says

      Hi Linda,

      After turning off restrictions, close all open apps by double pressing the Home Button and then swiping up the app previews off the top of your screen–do this until all you see is your Home Screen and no more app previews.

      Once you close all open apps, restart your iPhone by powering off, waiting 30 seconds, and powering back up.

      Check that iCloud is available and if so, turn restrictions back on and see if iCloud remains available.

      Finally, if these steps did not work for you, the next time an iOS update becomes available, update your iPhone using iTunes instead of Settings > General > Software Update (called Over-The-Air.)

      iTunes installs a full version of iOS on your device, while Over-The-Air installs just the bits of code that changed (called a Delta Update.)

      If the problem persists even after an iTunes update, let us know.

      Reply

  9. Lisa says

    All great suggestions I’ll try.

    However, I would remove log out of your Apple ID.

    If the iCloud setting or profile is grayed out, you can’t access it, and that is where you log out.

    Reply

  11. Leo says

    Hi,

    I tried all the fixes mentioned here, but my Ipad Air still has the Icloud Backup button greyed out,
    any other sugestions

    Reply

    • SK says

      Hi Inita,

      Let’s try a forced restart:

        On an iPhone 6S or below plus all iPads & iPod Touches, press Home and Power at the same time until you see the Apple logo

        For iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus: Press and hold both the Side and Volume Down buttons for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo

        On an iPhone X Series model or iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus: Press and quickly release the Volume Up button. Then press and quickly release the Volume Down button. Finally, press and hold the Side button until you see the Apple logo

      If that didn’t help, check again that you do not have any restrictions enabled. If you do, temporarily turn off ALL restrictions.

      Then completely sign out of your apple id on every service, including iCloud, iMessage, FaceTime, App Store, iTunes, Apple Books, iCloud Photo Library. Once signed out, power off your device, wait 2 minutes or so, and power back on. Then sign back into everything with your Apple ID. See if iCloud now is working and no longer greyed out.

      Reply

  13. Wilson says

    I just got a new iphone and new number and wanted to turn on my icloud in my new phone but i am facing the same issue where icloud is greyed out. Restriction already try on and off.

    Reply

  14. Jafsal Jamal says

    Not yet solve
    Tried many times turning restructions off and on.
    No changes yet
    Still icloud signi out remains the same greyed

    Reply

  16. Marena says

    Thank you so much!! You really saved my life! I was panicking and everything! I was searching on Apple’s Website, Yahoo, you name it! Thank you so much!

    Reply

  19. Phyllis says

    Sign in box under iCloud is greyed out. How do I sign back in. I do not have restriction on and never have. I followed direction of Apple to sign out of iCloud and then sign back in when I asked how to get rid of the pop up to sign in to iCloud. I followed direction and now can’t sign back in.

    Reply