“New iCloud terms and conditions” - need to update on iPad

Blue_Doggy

My iPad has been telling me for a while that I need to accept new iCloud terms & conditions, but whenever I’ve tried to access them I cannot. I click “continue” in the pop-up box in “Settings” to enter my iPad passcode, I get a message saying “this action cannot be completed at this time”.
 

I now cannot access anything via iCloud. 
 

It’s a 5th generation iPad, with iPadOS 16.7.10 (20H350).
 

Please someone advise how I can get to the ts and cs to complete this?
 

Thanks in advance.

Peter999_2

Hi.   Have you tried signing onto iCloud with a PC browser instead and accept the terms and conditions on there maybe?

PHK

IPad OS 16.7.11 released in March specifically fixes security issues and inability to enter passcode.  It would be worth upgrading before trying anything else. 

Blue_Doggy

Peter999_2 said:

Hi.   Have you tried signing onto iCloud with a PC browser instead and accept the terms and conditions on there maybe?

No, I haven’t tried that. I’m not sure I understand what you mean, and how I would do that. I only have my iPad here, running Safari. If I would need a Windows PC, I could try to use one in the public library if I knew what I was doing. Thanks for the suggestion.

Frozen_up_north

The updated T&Cs are probably related to Apple adhering to the Government requirement to cease end to end encryption, so they can read/view whatever you upload.

I no longer use iCloud to backup documents and photos, Proton Drive is E to E encrypted and is based in Switzerland. It works fine with my iPhone, so I guess it will from an iPad.

Blue_Doggy

PHK said:

IPad OS 16.7.11 released in March specifically fixes security issues and inability to enter passcode.  It would be worth upgrading before trying anything else. 

Thank you for the notification of this: the upgrade hadn’t been flagged on the iPad, but I found it lurking and shall install it.

Blue_Doggy

Frozen_up_north said:

The updated T&Cs are probably related to Apple adhering to the Government requirement to cease end to end encryption, so they can read/view whatever you upload.

I no longer use iCloud to backup documents and photos, Proton Drive is E to E encrypted and is based in Switzerland. It works fine with my iPhone, so I guess it will from an iPad.

I don’t make a lot of use of iCloud myself, but family members have used it for sharing family photos. It also seems to affect some of the iPad functions (“Tips” for example).
 

Proton Drive is clearly something to be investigated. Thank you.

Blue_Doggy

PHK said:

IPad OS 16.7.11 released in March specifically fixes security issues and inability to enter passcode.  It would be worth upgrading before trying anything else. 

I’ve now installed the new release, and iPad is all uptodate. I’ve closed it down and left it off for over an hour, then started it up again. No other problems, but I still cannot update/read/accept the iCloud ts & cs. There’s no explanation, no info, no link to follow.

Tassie_Devil

Blue_Doggy said:

Peter999_2 said:

Hi.   Have you tried signing onto iCloud with a PC browser instead and accept the terms and conditions on there maybe?

No, I haven’t tried that. I’m not sure I understand what you mean, and how I would do that. I only have my iPad here, running Safari. If I would need a Windows PC, I could try to use one in the public library if I knew what I was doing. Thanks for the suggestion.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/icloud/mm281e3e7d/icloud

Frozen_up_north

Also see:
https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/05/apple_reportedly_ipt_complaint/

Blue_Doggy

@Tassie_Devil @Frozen_up_north thank you for the links. Very helpful. I’ve never logged onto iCloud, so that’s something new for me on a rainy afternoon!
 

I did a bit of digging myself and found that this has been a long-standing problem. I also found someone had copied & pasted the ts & cs into their blog (it’s the usual computer-firm legalese, small font and greyscale. How they expect any poor punter to plough through that stuff is beyond me.