Picking up magnets yesterday, they were telling people that both your AP and Photo ID were needed. They may have considerations for people without ID but that is what was stated.
Also, most cashiers wanted to see ID and AP when asking about a discount. Just best idea to always have both with you in the parks.
As for renewing your AP, last time I did mine after getting the voucher online, I need to go to guest services to activate it (DVC Sorcerer). This time, we went to renew in person because of the hassles I had last time when you go 6 months between renewal and activation. I've also had a lot of issues with park passes on the wrong AP and them needing to fix them to get them on the renewed one but a lot of that is probably due to the switchover from gold to sorcerer.