Macs infected by a new “iCloud Terms & Conditions” bug that shows repeated messages

A new iCloud bug causes the system to show repeated “iCloud Terms & Conditions” agreement messages. Both, M1 and Intel-based Macs are affected by the new bug and for now, there seems to be no fix to stop the “iCloud Terms & Conditions” agreement messages from reoccurring again and again.

Earlier this month, users running their Macs on the latest macOS 12.3 beta update complained that a bug is causing the Finder to show repeated “The file can’t be found” alerts messages when accessing files in Finder. Although the Finder bug is not harmful, it is annoying like the new iCloud bug.

The new “iCloud Terms & Conditions” bug appears if users have Apple accounts signed on a Mac

Back in May 2020, users running macOS Catalina also complained of an “iCloud Terms & Conditions” bug which prevented the users from accepting the terms and conditions and their pop-up kept on re-appearing. Although the new bug does not hinder normal usage, it shows the agreement messages again and again even after users have accepted the terms.

According to José Adorno from 9to5Mac, the bug is not only affecting Macs on public and beta versions of macOS but also appears on Apple TV. The “iCloud Terms & Conditions” bug does not impact iPhones and iPads.

I cannot get my M1 Max MBP to accept the new iCloud terms for about a week now. I can follow the prompts and accept them, and I still get prompts and notifications to accept. (My other devices on the same account are fine?) pic.twitter.com/pVCJujYU9W

— Colin Cornaby (@colincornaby) January 30, 2022

Having said that, the developer @Colin Cornaby, who first reported the issue, later shared a fix for the “iCloud Terms & Conditions” bug. He says, after a frustrating probing experience he found that he has two Apple IDs signed in to iCloud, and the “iCloud Terms & Conditions” message is appearing repeatedly because he needs to accept the terms for his second Apple ID.

I have two Apple IDs signed into iCloud (one is developer ID.) It was my secondary one that actually needed to accept the new terms and conditions. But iCloud preferences had me re-accept on my primary.

So instead of going into the iCloud preference pane (where it kept taking me), I went into accounts, went to my secondary Apple ID, and accepted terms there.

This is definitely a buggy experience from the Apple side, but I was able to get it resolved after a bit of sleuthing and frustration.

Recently, Apple seeded Apple has released macOS Monterey 12.2.1 to all users which included fixes for battery drain bug on Intel Macs, and a security patch for WebKit.