At my work, they recently cleared out the lost and found and were going to trash stuff. I ended up with a clean practically new iPad. The previous owner was not contactable for over a year. He left his Apple details on and his passcode was 12345 (I kid you not). I want to unlock it from his Apple account so that I can hard reset it. What can I do here?
*Edit: So, after exploring it a bit more, I found a password list in the Passwords. Literally, the first password I put in was the correct one. Lol. It has been freed.
You can’t. That’s how activation lock works. You need to bring the owner to the Apple Store some random letter won’t suffice. It’s bricked.
Get an official looking letter for acknowledging you as the owner, explaining the situation.
Take it to a phone repair store for them to wipe it.
They have software that they can use to clear it.
Right on the first part, but the iPad is likely activation locked. The previous owner will have to remove it from their devices first.
Apple customer service will likely need to be involved.
Apple won’t do shit to help. We have a bunch that are locked with iCloud accounts tied to former employees company emails which we have full control over…but when you try to reset the password they try to send a text to the phone that set them up (which we have no access to). We tried to get help from Apple and they won’t unlock any device that we don’t have proof of purchasing directly from Apple, and since they were bought at random retailers they just tell us to buy more new iPads.
Yup. Our receipt didn’t have the SN on it so they told us to write it on the receipt and scan/send. Of course, they rejected it a dozen times.
Apple’s CS is designed to make you just give up. But, unluckily for them, I have infinite patience. Fun fact, Microsoft’s support line stops playing music after 3 hours of waiting.
Ah, that is probably what is happening on my daughters old iPad. I couldn’t figure out how to wipe it and because she didn’t use it for over a year and she forgot the passport. I’ll try to remove it from her account. Or it probably is on her moms account or something.
