Every month, thousands of perfectly good iPhones are shredded instead of being put into the hands of people who could really use them. Why? Two words: Activation Lock. And Macs are its next victim.
“We receive four to six thousand locked iPhones per month,” laments Peter Schindler, founder and owner of The Wireless Alliance, a Colorado-based electronics recycler and refurbisher. Those iPhones, which could easily be refurbished and put back into circulation, “have to get parted out or scrapped,” all because of this anti-theft feature.
With the release of macOS Catalina earlier this fall, any Mac that’s equipped with Apple’s new T2 security chip now comes with Activation Lock—meaning we’re about to see a lot of otherwise usable Macs heading to shredders, too.
Activation Lock was designed to prevent anyone else from using your device if it’s ever lost or stolen, and it’s built into the “Find My” service on iPhones, iPads, and other Apple devices. When you’re getting rid of an old phone, you want to use Apple’s Reset feature to wipe the phone clean, which also removes it from Find My iPhone and gets rid of the Activation Lock. But if you forget, and sell your old iPhone to a friend before you properly wipe it, the phone will just keep asking them for your Apple ID before they can set it up as a new phone. In other words, they won’t be able to do much with it besides scrap it for parts.
That seems like a nice way to thwart tech thieves, but it also causes unnecessary chaos for recyclers and refurbishers who are wading through piles of locked devices they can’t reuse. This reduces the supply of refurbished devices, making them more expensive—oh, and it’s an environmental nightmare.
We Don’t Need No Education
You might be wondering why thousands of iCloud-locked iPhones end up at refurbishers in the first place. It all comes down to a lack of education, according to Schindler.
“People don’t realize that if you don’t properly reset your device, that phone is effectively bricked once you send it to me,” Schindler explains. “They’re just not thinking through the steps, or don’t connect the fact that [Find My iPhone] is a permanent, neverending lock on the phone. They think, ‘Oh, well, I turned the phone off, Find My iPhone must be turned off too.’ They don’t associate it with bricking the phone.”
I asked several of my iPhone-wielding friends if they knew about this, most had no idea—they only thought of Find My iPhone as a location-tracking feature.
“They associate it in their mind as just a retrieval tool,” Schindler says. “If it’s ever lost or stolen, they can look on a map and retrieve their lost or stolen iPhone.”
It’s easy to chalk this up to personal responsibility, and while it’s straightforward to wipe your phone properly (thus disabling Activation Lock), Apple doesn’t make it abundantly clear how to do it or that you need to do it in the first place. They describe it at the very bottom on a support web page, but that’s pretty much it.
There are a couple of ways you can disable Activation Lock. Simply turning off “Find My” will do the trick—open the settings app, tap on your name at the top, navigate to Find My > Find My iPhone and flip the toggle switch next to “Find My iPhone.”
Or, if you want to wipe your device, you can factory reset it by going into the settings and navigating to General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings. You’ll be required to enter your Apple ID password, and it will automatically turn off Find My iPhone before it resets, thus disabling Activation Lock.
But many people don’t do this when they donate their old devices to recyclers and refurbishers. Or, in some cases, they do wipe their phone, but they do it in a way that keeps Activation Lock enabled—for example, if you put your iPhone into Recovery or DFU Mode and restore it through iTunes (which may be required if the screen is broken or the phone won’t boot), it’ll still be locked to your account.
Mac Attack
Like iPhones, the “Find My” feature has been a staple on Macs for several years, but without the Activation Lock component. Instead, macOS implements an optional firmware password to prevent hardware changes, which would keep unauthorized users from easily wiping a Mac’s storage drive.
John Bumstead, a MacBook refurbisher and owner of RDKL, Inc., says this still poses problems, and around 20% of MacBooks he gets are now locked.
But this lock is bypassable, albeit using special tools and methods that Apple might consider violations of the DMCA. Some refurbishers that we spoke with—who wished to remain anonymous—mentioned using these methods to unlock legally-obtained Macs in order to resell them, which is the only option to keep perfectly working Macs out of the shredder.
The T2 security chip, however, erases any hope and makes it impossible to do anything on a Mac without the proper Apple ID credentials. Attempting any kind of hardware tinkering on a T2-enabled Mac activates a hardware lock, which can only be undone by connecting the device to Apple-authorized repair software. It’s great for device security, but terrible for repair and refurbishment.
While recyclers may not be dealing with as many locked Macs as locked iPhones (especially since Activation Lock on Macs is still very new, and there are specific software criteria that need to be met), it’s only a matter of time before thousands upon thousands of perfectly working Macs are scrapped or shredded, for lack of an unknown password.
“It sounds as if the T2 will truly be locking us out for good,” says Bumstead. “So the problem will probably be far worse.”
“Initially, [Activation Lock] wasn’t that bad of a problem,” Schindler notes. “We’d get a locked phone here and there. But now if you look at the chart year over year, it looks like a stock you dream of owning. If you started charting the number of locked Macs, in the future it’ll look like mine does for phones.”
Apple Could Fix This, If They Cared
This is an unequivocal mess of a situation for refurbishers, and Schindler was rightfully frustrated during our phone call: “It upsets me as a human being when I have to toss six thousand phones a month that could otherwise go into someone’s hands who’d actually appreciate and use that device for many more years.” His, and others’, frustration will only grow as expensive, full-fledged desktops and laptops suffer the same fate.
When asked what could be done, Schindler suggests Apple implement a bypass that would allow certified recyclers and refurbishers to unlock donated devices if they’re not reported lost or stolen. And Shindler says 99% of the locked devices his facility receives aren’t lost or stolen. “People don’t steal a phone to then go run and drop it off at their local recycling center,” he quips. And smartphone thefts have plummeted over the last several years, so stolen phones are becoming less of a problem in the first place.
“People don’t steal a phone to then go run and drop it off at their local recycling center”
Peter Schindler
In cases when a device is lost or stolen, Schindler says he’s more than happy to hand it off to law enforcement in order to find the owner, but that’s a rare occurrence. And reuniting the owner with their device is an even rarer occurrence. That’s a shame, because the intent of the lock is to protect owners from theft. Refurbishers would be happy to return stolen devices if they had the means to contact the original owner, or verify that it was stolen with the police or a mobile carrier.
If Apple doesn’t fix the problem, refurbishers may take action. With the help of various organizations, like the EFF, U.S. PIRG, and iFixit, Schindler is considering filing a DMCA exemption request if Apple won’t voluntarily come up with a solution. “They’re preventing us from re-using what is rightfully our property,” he says. “It’s not lost or stolen.”
But for the time being, education is the best solution we have, and that’s an area where Apple could do better. Owners getting rid of their older Apple devices need to make sure they’re factory resetting their iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Or at the very least, turning off Find My iPhone/iPad/Mac. Until then, recycling and refurbishing centers like Schindler’s will be forced to scrap thousands of perfectly working devices every single month.
Title photo by Helen M Bushe/Flickr.
crwdns2944067:065crwdne2944067:0
Apple got rid of reviews, would they care about this? I hope they do!
Sam Yao - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
Except the reviews never were removed from the App Store app you need to use to download the apps. And, they reappeared on the App Store web pages. So, it looks like the tech journalists jumped the gun on that one.
Jay Butler -
If you bought it from a friend, I’m ****sure***** if you took it back to them, they’d clear it for you.
if you bought it from a retailer, your invoice should have the serial number on it for a refund
If you bought it from someone on the street, Tough noogies
The reason the theft rate is low is because *most* crooks know about activation lock.
I’ll lay you odds most of the units at recycling are physically thrashed.
Add your email to the lock screen with an offer of a reward and even long lost ones come back.
Philip Day - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
absolutely this. the article is a false narrative
Ivan -
Activation locks happen at the time of configuration - If the device, in this example an iPhone, is DFU’d then the phone wasn’t properly wiped and your lock screen message will never get a chance to appear.
So you might purchase what you think is a legitimate, valid, functional device and the Apple ID lock is in place. Because someone screwed up along the chain.
I work in IT. It happens. It’s unfortunate. But now we require all employees to use their employee email address to set up their employer-owned phones. Why? So when you’re fired or you quit and we find a device that was never turned in but has the activation lock we can unlock it before sending it back to our provider.
But it took an act of HR to make that happen.
Now if we could get into the phone of our esteemed employee who died last year unexpectedly we’d all be better off. But, instead, he’s the reason for the new policy.
Ryan Coleman -
As someone who has to deal with Activation Lock on a daily basis, I agree completely that this article is quite misleading. Carriers and resellers accepting returned devices all have policies forcing the customer to disable FMiP before sending it in.
To the guy that says he works in IT (Ryan Coleman), I highly doubt that you actually work in IT at all. If you did, you would know that having the employees use only their work ID won't get you any traction when they quit and don't turn off FMiP. It wouldn't matter what email address they used even if you had access to the email inbox because you can't send a password reset to the email when the account is using 2FA, which all new AppleIDs (created on the device) use and have for a while now.
Additionally, the Activation Lock can be disabled by anyone that can prove they own the device with a proof of purchase(even on your departed colleague’s old device). Lastly, from an institutional standpoint, the best way to avoid this type of issue is by implementing MDM.
Jeff -
Your entire comment is based around completely missing the point. All the situations you posted are true. What if I am a repair shop and a device was abandoned. After a certain period of time, it is legally my device. Apple should legally be required to remove the Apple ID lock as long as I can prove it is now legally mine.
Its the exact same situation as with cars and mechanics. If you abandon your car for a certain period of time, it legally belongs to the shop. There is not some lock that prevents the shop from reselling their property and there shouldn’t be the same for phones.
Cameron Bailey -
Dear Craig,
Activation lock is currently bypassable thanks to the wonderful team behind checkra1n.
Cheers.
David Loper - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
No, it's not.
bearzac -
Activation lock is controlled by Apple’s servers, once activated, only Apple can remove the activation. As to using checkra1n, yes you can use an activation locked Apple device as a glorified iPod - not much else, after bypassing the setup app. No iCloud services and no cellular services - both directly tied into Apple’s servers during activation. So a bootrom exploit changes nothing - it’s still a paperweight good for parts only. And with new parts being cheaper than gambling if an activation locked device will yield functional parts, it becomes a money loosing gamble.
Stephen Hladysh -
This article is partially wrong, checkm8 is a hardware bootrom exploit that can be used to bypass iCloud lock and it does effect the T2
DragonTechRoyale4k - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
Checkm8 is not persistent. It cannot rewrite the bootrom. It can only exploit it when the device is booted in DFU mode (i.e., tethered). It does not affect the secure enclave.
Jay Butler -
Checkm8 doesn't bypass the protections offered by the Secure Enclave and Touch ID.
Dan -
Why can’t Apple message the owner and let them know a phone has attempted to be activated. They could give the lock holder an option to request its return or to unlock it. I have an Apple watch that was likely lost a couple of years ago and later found. I would return it if I had someway of contacting owner. Police don’t want it, they will just put it in lost and found. After a period of time, it gets sold. The next legal owner can’t activate it.
mark - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
@mark - If you had brought or mailed the watch to an Apple store, could they have returned it to the owner? It sounds like the answer is that they could do that; I’m wondering if they actually do that though.
Ken - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
Love Apple’s approach with this. This article helped me better understand Apple’s privacy features. I’m very satisfied with Apple’s unstoppable approach to privacy.
George O'Donnel - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
me too. I would really be upset if apple decides to implement a workaround. If they do, the can remove this whole feature.
Michiel van Baak -
And why is that you think? Exactly, because everyone by now knows about this activation lock, and dont bother to steal the phones anymore.
If apple creates a way around this, it’s not only the authorized repair shops that are going to use it. Only very naive people will think the bad guys will not be able to abuse it.
To solve this ‘problem’ is very easy. Every place where you can bring your iDevice for repair or recycling, simply train the employees to ask/verify/deactivate the feature while the person bringing it in is still in front of them.
Michiel van Baak - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
Good news actually! I don’t want poor people to be able to buy macbooks. When a new macbook is out I simply trash it.
Elroad Samir - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
I never ever read such a disastrous article.
If you bought a locked iPhone, send it back and make the previous owner unlock it - where is the problem? It is your business, so make it work yourself and do not ask manufacturers, to remove SECURITY !
The theft rate goes down, BECAUSE of such security tools like activation lock. Thought about this ?
What if you buy a car and don’t get the keys? Do you make the car _manufacturer_ responsible for not having access to the car and demand that they produce cars without keys or demand that all car owners do not lock their cars anymore ?
What about informing YOUR customers to unlock the iPhone before they send it to YOU? It’s not that hard to do !
Please adopt to improved security and do not demand lowering security because you are not able do catch up with modern life.
Steffen - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
Very well said.
Lucky Madalane -
The difference is, if I get a car without a key; I can still get a key and make that car work again.
Currently there is NO option for activation locked devices, this is great for anti theft but it truly is a pittance for the environment and for the secondhand market.
My suggestion? Apple IDs usually are only going to have one phone on them (with the exception of people who carry two phones). When someone replaces their old phone, part of the setup process of the new phone should include the removal of the account on the old phone. This will never happen though because as it has been said, Apple stands to earn a profit if the old phone never sees the market. They have no incentive to make it any easier for these phones to be unlocked. Same thing will happen for these new Macs, it’s sad because if you look on your local craigslist, it’s not uncommon to see machines all the way back to 2008. That will change with T2, people forget passwords and secret questions/answers all the time.
Drake -
Sorry but this article is a massive clickbait (and I know, I also clicked). I vastly prefer to have the downsides of having Activation Lock (that a friend of mine of whom I bought his iPhone and who accidentally forgot to deactivate Activation Lock) over providing an advantage for refurbishers. I mean, what level of service do they provide if they don’t check on the status of Activation Lock beforehand on the iPhone that is ‘sold’ to them? They can ask their ‘seller’ to disable the Activation Lock on the spot or if the iPhone is sent to them, blatantly refuse the iPhone.
And to ask Apple to develop a way to circumvent Activation Lock to please refurbishers is probably an even worse idea. Imagine Apple to do this. How long would it take for someone with malicious intent to exploit such a ‘feature’? No please, Activation Lock works just fine as it is developed.
Richard Flapper - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
Seems to me a lot of people who commented did not actually understand the issue and are attacking the article.
Or understand how Apple could improve the situation and still prevent theft as the article and some of the commentators mentioned.
autoh mae - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
Many of us understand. We just don’t agree. Not even slightly.
John clark -
I inherited an old iPhone. Wanted to use it for GPS navigation.
No way to unlock it/
Neil - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
FYI - How to wipe your MacBook, iMac, Mac Pro, or Mac mini
Dan - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
Apple will never cooperate with the used phone market. Their only concern is selling new phones. Does anyone really believe activation lock was designed for the users benefit? If tens of thousands of locked phones are sent to landfill each month Apple will consider that a win for new sales.
bearzac - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
Apple needs to place a large ‘education’ sticker on every new idevice reminding the purchaser to unlink their icloud account when selling or disposing of the item. The only exceptions would be devices that fail before this can be done. It would greatly reduce the number of locked devices entering the recycling pool. Problem solved.
hansmarshalleck - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
How many people would remember that anything that is on a stick removed immediately after the iPhone is purchased. Gazelle and other companies that buy phones remind all of their customers to disable ‘find my iPhone’ prior to sending it to them. I have sold three phones to three different sites and each one reminded me more than once to disable ‘find my iPhone’. Maybe The Wireless Alliance, if it receives thousands of locked phones, has to rethink how they inform their customers about doing this.
Jay Butler -
What a load of crap. The activation lock cut down on stolen phones. Period. It must remain no matter who’s “friend” gave them a phone.
Even a failed device can be reactivated if the owner removes it from their iCloud account. Maybe Apple should poll people that have phones on their account that haven’t been used recently. “We see your old phone XXX hasn’t been used recently, was it Lost/Stolen or sold/recycled?”
Brian - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
Yes, that would be a great idea!
But honestly, is not in Apple's interest to do that.
Donald Eastwood -
Philip Day:
As someone who has had at the least hundreds of locked machines come through my hands with impeccable title and documentation, I disagree.
Friend often lose or misplace logins for machines they discard, and corporations are even worse when they sell their surplus.
Theft rates are high because there is still value in the parts, and once stolen, the iPhone still may appear to work enough to resell.
Units at recycling are often in new condition and unused, if the origin is corporations or governmental. You clearly have NEVER been inside a high-end recycler in Silicon Valley or you would be quite conscious of the incredible amount of computer hardware that is recycled practically intact. If an item has been depreciated by accounting to zero, a corporation owning it often just wants to get rid of it efficiently and without data risk. And there are many other scenarios where recycled electronics are in excellent condition.
Is eBay or Craigslist “buying it on the street”? Why “tough noogies” ?
Henry Suwinsky - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
The biggest reason IMHO why you want to get the device unlocked is because you want to sell the donated recycled phone for a larger profit than troubles and less profits of sitting them out. Most recycling companies aren’t in it for charity or the environment.
Ed the pilot - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
Ha! most of my locks are from customers who forgot a password, cant sign out of find my device, they cant get the answers exactly right to the questions (spaces & such) Dallas Cowboys or DallasCowboys, have an incomplete profile no DOB, and their device is rendered useless. Apple moving to two factor fixed this painful problem but I get 2-3 a week that Apple cant even reset the passwords. 2 choices straight to recycler, or the customer has an icloud message to clear 10 times a day for a pass they cant enter. And I have one customer who has done it for over year. This is not my first rodeo I know when their profile is incomplete for their apple id, and they dont remember a credit card number from 5 years ago, applecare wont work around a password reset. Abandoning the apple id would be fine and creating a new one and take 2 minutes but forget it you can never sign out of icloud. Reset the phone put it in activation lock. Dig for two weeks to find the original receipt take Xanax and head to the Apple Store!
bryansailors - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
I’m glad Apple has activation lock. If it wasn’t there, there would be more muggings and thefts. Does iFixIt condone more violence against people in the name of less recycling?
There are fewer iPhone thefts precisely -because- of activation lock.
jbyronr - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
My in-laws gave me an iphone which they bought new from the Verizon store. It has activation lock on it, and once I removed their SIM, activation lock fired. For whatever reason, the initial email address used to setup activation lock was not theirs, or was lost. They are reasonably computer knowledgeable too.
Supposedly you can go to the verizon store to get the original receipt to verify with apple for them to de-register it. However my inlaws are getting older and while they can do anything from a desktop computer at home, going to the Mall is a chore. Verizon won’t validate the older purchase on the phone. So this iphone is effectively bricked.
Gil - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
I have 25 used iPad Pros that came out of a string of restaurants here. Each and every one is operational except it still has the restaurant profile embedded in the iPads. And I do not have the restaurant username and password to remove this profile. These tablets should be recycled and donated to a school or something. But they are useless and I guess I am going to have to trash them. Unless somebody has a solution for me. In which case I am all ears. Email me sbtdesigns2014@gmail.com.
StevenShepard - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
So, to paraphrase the article, the average user is too stupid to follow simple instructions..
tewatson - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
This article is so ridiculously one-sided. First the entire tone and language of it are hostile and biased against the theft protection features, using phrases like “its next victim”, “all because of this anti-theft feature”, “causes unnecessary chaos “.
How about the other side of the story, what the anti-theft has done for phone, and will do for laptops in the future?
I’m as concerned as anyone about poorly disposed electronics, but it’s laughable to suggest that “Apple implement a bypass …”. For real??! Right, because there’s no chance at all that something like that wouldn’t *instantly* get into the wrong hands and be abused like crazy.
The ironic thing is, the author actually says “And smartphone thefts have plummeted over the last several years, so stolen phones are becoming less of a problem in the first place. “ Any chance this is related to the very feature that this article is vilifying?
Michael - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
Isn’t this exactly what the cops have been whining for ? If Apple makes it possible then it’s only a matter of time before they are commanded to unlock a phone for law enforcement.
John Osgood - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
This article is slightly misleading. Just by completing a “reset" doesn't remove the device from your iCloud account. Yes, removing Find my Phone will achieve that before a factory reset, but removing the Find my Phone is not considered part of the reset process so in terms of education, users need to be aware that a separate process is required BEFORE the reset process.
User typically think that to reset the device to factory defaults removes everything, including iCloud (Find my Phone), but they need educated to a level which means resetting your phone involves a different, separate process as well!
Donald Eastwood - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
I’m disappointed that iFixit ran this article at all. They should be ashamed of themselves. Theft of apple devices used to be a problem, a problem that went away because of activation lock. If you’re selling or turning a device in, you need to unlock it. Anywhere I’ve sold or turned devices in has checked before accepting them. Letting recyclers bypass it sounds like a sure fire way for the bad guys to start mugging people on the subway again to steal their phone so they can get a recycler to “unlock” it.
storminmike - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
I’m in exactly this situation. I’ve been given an iPad to restore, which belonged to my client’s father who passed away. Because of the activation lock, this is probably going to have to go to spares or landfill. The only other option is going to Apple with a copy of the death certificate and hope they will agree to unlock it, which will be distressing at best and no guarantee of success.
One thing this article has done is remind everyone to make a digital will. Put all of your account and password information, including access to any password manager programs, and make arrangements for it to be passed to your executors on your death. This would help provide access to your Apple devices to save them from landfill.
Mark Phillips - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
A few years ago I was burglarized and the burglar stole one of my old iphones.
When I asked the police what to do, they suggested me not to try to erase my phone remotely, because it would be a way to know where the phone is, in case of reconnection to the network ...
Later the police told me that very specialized networks are going to be very good how to bypass all Apple's securities and easily recycle stollen phones ...
So, end of the day, we have to know what we want ... Either we let the traffickers making money with our belongings, or we try to protect legitimate users from theft.
On the other hand, if the phone is broken or does not turn on anymore, how do you reset the phone to the factory state???
Jean Noel - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
Activation lock might cut down on theft of iPhones. But that’s not why I sleep easier knowing it’s there. If I lose (through theft or negligence) my iPhone, I know that the incredible amount of personal data on it is not available to whomever picks it up - period.
The people who might end up with my iPhone without my consent are not the people who have access to the specialized hardware needed to access the data on my iPhone. Nor am I such a special person that they would go through the trouble of finding someone to get that access. But if workarounds were readily available, they could put to use the information they would find: Financial, Medical, etc.
Jim - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
What about this article?
Use these steps to remove your personal information from a device, even if you don't have it anymore.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201351
Of course that requires being able to contact the previous owner so that person can follow those instructions.
I do see a problem with letting even authorized service providers clear the Apple ID from a device as that could be abused. Hmm… But it's not good having devices go to waste either. At least they can be handed over to Apple and should then be recycled properly.
Martin Bergstrom - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
I think most consumers would rather have better anti-theft measures on their device as opposed to making life easier for some refurbisher. Plus more bricked Macs and iPhones just means more OEM parts available for repair techs and refurbishers alike.
iHelpU.Tech - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
It’s a capitalist wet dream: Every car (device) made will never have a 2nd owner. It will be melted down to make a new car (or discarded like the homeless) & the secondary market will disappear. Congratulations, Apple, mofessional engineers & policy wonks!!!! You have disrupted the secondary market & destroyed arable land by expanding landfills exponentially. Maybe some future generation will frack the landfills for resources.
lumloy371 - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
Working in Law Enforcement, there was a noticeable reduction in robberies / crime against persons involving iPhone devices when the higher security was instituted.
At several of our local Apple retail stores Apple has police officers (they are paying for them) posted to discourage thieves from coming in and grabbing iPhones and running. The thieves are pretty dumb not to realize they can’t get anywhere with a phone running a demo program. (but then again, these thieves are probably not the brightest bulb on the tree)
The same locking scheme Apple put in to make the device stay in demo mode years ago when Apple devices were put on display, had a big difference in prevention of “smash and grab” thefts of Apple display units.
The monkey is not on the users back. When theft/robberies of Apple devices stop, then maybe the extra security can subside.
Ed the pilot - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
The security in the phone is there to protect users information, and to discourage users from being the next victims of the average thief/robbery perp.
If landfills are the concern, spend the extra money to retrieve the materials from the phone. Surely, money is not the problem when the environment is concerned!
Ed the pilot - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
Wait, are you telling us that is wrong preventing stolen products to hit the black market?
aguaviva3 - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
The article is written it appears recyclers refurbishers/used device dealers are complaining about the activation lock. Many carriers in Europe, (i.e. Vodaphone, Orange, O2, T-Mobile etc) will “blacklist” the phone if stolen if the phone is stolen and the owner or police report the device as stolen. It can’t be activated period, by any carrier. That’s why I suspect you’ll see phones sold on eBay periodically which state they can’t be used in Europe. It would be nice since most all carriers have gone to GSM (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and many smaller carriers) that there is a central carrier database which would blacklist any stolen phone whether locked or unlocked as an additional measure to prevent theft.
Ed the pilot -
With the excuse of sustainability, you suggest apple compromises the whole anti-theft model because you don’t want to ensure that your personell chain upstream properly ensure equipment erasing from end users… LOL
Then refurbisheers would have another extra income, which would be erasing stolen iphones…
Hugo Catarino - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
There should be a way a looked phone could send a message to the locker asking to unlock. A developer/certified webpage for example, were you could put a reg number of a phone and its previous user got a message next time they woke up their new apple device asking them to one click unlock the phone. Easy way to solve the problem without hassle.
Eduard Pertinez - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
Overprotection means vulnerability. Example lived by me today: I go to an Apple certified service with my MBP13” 2018. They say that due to the protection, I have to give them the pwd or create an admin account. I create an admin account for them (privacy already zero). I arrive back to the office, get an email from them: due to the fact that your bios (efi) has a protection, please send us the password. Aaaaa…thru email? Come on guys, you must be joking. I called the guy and spelled him the pwd. The most I could do for my privacy, although my imagination about privacy and protection looks a bit different… Please correct me if I’m wrong.
danms84 - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
Generally the way to do this is to give them the passwords when you bring it in. And change them when you get it back. Or more commonly for techs to change it to something else before repair.
John clark -
Most people clearly didn't read the article and have somehow interpreted the article as iFixit proposing getting Apple to remove the activation lock feature.
Everyone, please read the article again so you understand the problem and the proposed solution.
Ash Redpath - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
What if you removed the T2 “Security” chip from the mac?
Alexandra Stewart - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
Apple’s been slowly destroying the environment for years. Now with their amazing Airpods and the revolutionary T2, they can finally accelerate the pace to an unprecedented level!!
John Grzeskowiak - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
So, I bought a new iPhone six…
a week after buying it, Apple actually locked it so I cannot unlock it, the store refused to take it back, citing it wasn’t defective, and Apple left it locked so I cannot unlock it, or the account…
so I actually have the two year insurance warranty, and my receipt, and I have no legal recourse to get it fixed, or replaced…
The Apple, is Rotten.
Roger Norman Jr - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
telling the registered user that the device is expected to be wiped but locked and asking permission to bypass is a good compromise IMO
Carlos Hilarion - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
Just to add my current scenario
I have a chain of pawn shops as customers in pa
i went through the Genius Bar, Apple business
only to be told that we should have been aware of over 8000$ worth of their inventory of this lock. When even I as a tech had no idea the feature was implemented.
this is just plain bad business and Apple not caring about their corporate professional customers. I don’t know what to do and my biggest customer is furious at me:..
anyone who can help please email at BroganTechRepair610@outlook.com
ive contacted my local representative for right to repair…
Joseph Brogan - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
As soon as a bypass is implemented it will be abused. Find My locking is one of the reasons so few Apple devices are stolen. It’s PC LoJack for Apple.
As bad ias it is for uninformed tech refurbishers it’s a major selling point for the users.
very few are stuck buying used without knowing about it and even less make the same mistake twice. A legal business would have customer information.
for donated phones it’s a sad part of life but a quick look on ebay will show phones and iMacs still sell very well even when locked or bricked. The parts are worth a fair bit.
I can’t fathom a locked device being stuck at a tech shop. You need the actual Apple ID and password to make any changes to the machines in the first place. If you have the Apple ID and password just turn Find My off. If they left a device behind and changed their Login info just part it out. You didn’t pay for it anyway.
if you bought an Apple device at a street cart you have only yourself to blame.
John clark - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
I 100% support Apple adding this feature. While I understand the irritation for people who can refurbish Apple products, and make them useful again, it’s the customer’s fault that they did not follow proper procedures before reselling or giving away their Apple device. Since Apple created activation lock, I have resold several iPhones. All of them were wiped properly and removed from my iCloud account. What’s irritating to me is that so many people are too stupid to understand the tech products that they have purchased. What’s more, they have absolutely no curiosity or desire to learn. All they want to do is do the small list of things that they know. Beyond that they don’t care… unless they're about to lose all of their photos and texts because they were too stupid to learn how to use iCloud properly, including the backup feature for iOS, or they were too damned cheap to pay for extra storage, and then they ignored all of the alerts about needing more for backups.
Howie Isaacks - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0