I ditched Apple all at once. Morally it was the right thing to do, but personaly I am suffering the consequences.
You see, Apple has some very useful features, that are designed to lock you, in an evil way. For years I have had a Macbook, an iPad and an iPhone. I used their password manager to store my keys so that I could register in one device and easily login on the others.
They do have a password manager for Windows, but you need to use a 2 factor authentication method from an Apple device to login. You can use an iCloud app on your Windows and you get the 2 factor authentication method from your own Windows, so that seems like an issue that is solvable, but it is not.
Knewing that, I thought I could simply abandon it all at once. I logged into iCloud and the Apple password manager on my Windows computer and I was slowly transfering my hundreds of login methods to Bitwarden, just in case, so that I wouldn't have to rely on Apple's password manager.
Well, turns out I should have given full priority to transitioning from Apple to Bitwarden and should have done it all at once. Today I was logged out of my iCloud on my Windows computer, and that was my last logged in Apple session.
To log back in I need to fill in a 2 factor authentication code, sent to an Apple device of mine, which I have none. Well, "luckily" to login on iCloud they allow the code to be sent to my phone number. I received the code on my phone and logged in on iCloud from my Windows computer.
But to access the password manager I need to enable it from the iCloud configs, and to enable it I need to enter another 2 factor authentication code and that one code DOES NOT ALLOW ME TO GET IT FROM MY PHONE NUMBER!
I am not getting 2 factor codes on my Windows computer anymore. I could log in on iCloud by getting a code on my mobile phone, but to enable the password manager I need to get a code specifically on an Apple device, my Windows counted as an Apple device when the password manager was enable, but since it was misteriously disabled I am not getting the code on my Windows anymore like I used to, and I can't get it on my phone, like the one to login to iCloud.
Apple has taken my passwords hostage.
I knew the password manager would be trouble eventually, but I didn't expect it to be this quick and this dramatic, and to be fair I didn't take it seriously, I thought "haha, how paranoid I am, thinking I am gonna be locked out, where is the tinfoil hat at?".
The lesson here is, if you use an Apple device, keep a backup of everything outside of Apple. Don't trust their iCloud to store your files, don't trust their password manager to store your credentials, copy everything outside of Apple as soon as you can.
I knew all of that, but I thought it would not happen to me.
If eventually you want to, or you need to, stop using Apple (losing devices, changing platforms, etc) you will thank yourself for having your data outside their walled garden.
I luckily did copy my main credentials to Bitwarden when I had the opportunity. Today I wanted to login and copy the remaining ones just in case, but now I can't. Apple is not to be trusted with any data.
Because I have my most important credentials already on Bitwarden this is more of an inconvenience than an issue, unless I discover I had an important credential I forgot to copy. I can be patient and hope that one day Apple will change it's way and simply allow me to log back in and use their password manager and 2 factor authentication without having any Apple device whatsoever.
When that time comes, the time when Apple is not a jail anymore and not evil anymore and does not push their products down my throat, then, ironically maybe I will go back to using their devices, because then they will "deserve" my trust, but then for using their devices I won't need their "pardon" and graces...