Thanks to Apple Paranoia, for the last two years I have been unable to simply connect my phone to my computer to transfer photos (or anything else) to my computer. It now considers the 10.13.6 MacOS on my computer to be "untrustworthy." I refuse to upgrade because if I do I will lose dozens of critical 32 bit applications I rely on. My plan is to buy a whole new computer next year and migrate my work to it as I have time.
The workaround, until I can afford a new computer, has been to use iCloud. I never wanted to have to use iCloud. I've seen people struggling with it for a decade and I never wanted to be part of that. I just want to keep my own files in my own computer ecosystem.
Tonight I was caught for 30 minutes in a verification trap. Though I've now used iCloud dozens of times, and logged in from the exact same Chrome browser every time, every now and then it demands I "authenticate" by my phone.
Well this time I typed in the number exactly correct 6 times before it let me in. It's somewhat tricky as sometimes a message appears on the phone with no data ("someone is trying to log in...") and other times it comes right out with the number I am supposed to type in. But I am absolutely sure that I typed in the numbers shown correctly every time.
I think what I did the last time, which worked, was to type in the number on my computer screen, and then (just then) press the OK button on my phone. Then, maybe, it works. If I press the OK button on my phone first, it then refuses to accept the number on the computer and asks me to enter the number again (which has vanished, because I pressed OK).
Searching online, it appears that hundreds of people have had this exact same problem. Apple online has no answers, they ask you to contact support.
Sometimes, it seemed to let me in but only to demand that I use "find my devices" for some reason, and not letting me do anything else.
