Hey everyone, I’m running into a weird issue on my M4 MacBook Pro. In System Information > Hardware Overview, it says: Activation Lock Status: Disabled

But here’s the catch:

• Find My Mac is enabled

• Location Services are on

• I’m signed into iCloud with my Apple ID

• The Mac shows up in Find My on iCloud.com

• FileVault is on

• I even reinstalled macOS from Recovery and also tried signing out/in of iCloud, but nothing changes.

Everything seems to suggest Activation Lock is actually working — but System Information insists it’s “Disabled.” Has anyone else seen this? Is this a known macOS bug or some issue with My Apple ID?

Would love to know if anyone’s dealt with this or found a solution.

On a MacBook Pro 13 m1 2020. I saw this activation screen for the first time before getting to recovery mode after I reinstalled Big Sur in DFU. Simply put: it shouldn’t have it but it’s not unrealistic cause it was once an office machine. Fml

Only says activation, and doesn’t let me move forward with the process until I connect to the Wi-Fi. No mention of logs or keys but the Wi-Fi part is pretty sus

Ready to buy a used MacBook, said it was reset to welcome screen

From what I can tell, if the previous owner has the device added to Find My you get an activation lock. I bought this used (although it seems I might be the first owner).

Question 1 - Is this screen supposed to ask for a password? Cause it let's me just connect to the internet and hit next and it says activated without entering any password or anything.

Question 2 - I don't think I saw this screen when I did a clean install of this macbook when I bought it. I am now selling it, and I have removed it from 'find my'. When I boot up to reinstall macos, it brings up the Activate Mac screen, lets me connect to wifi and then proceeds to a fresh setup screen for Monterey. So is there something I'm not doing right?

Thanks!

I have a sinking feeling I am being very dumb about this. We all think that there should be a way to turn this on, but there are no posts or articles about this, only how to turn it off, what are we missing.

We are entirely new to ABM.

So I traded in a couple of iPhone Xs for iPhone 13 Pros recently. When we got the new devices, I turned off Find My iPhone and did a factory reset on both of the old phones. Sent them in and now Verizon is claiming that the activation lock is still enabled on both devices.

I checked iCloud both online and on our new phones and both had the old devices listed, but since Find My iPhone was disabled, all I could do was remove them from the accounts. So we did that and Verizon is continuing to send us a text every day saying that the activation lock is still enabled. But I literally do not have the ability to do anything else on my end. I’ve called Apple and they said they shouldn’t still be enabled. Verizon customer support is also no help.

Anyone go through anything similar with their trade in?

Found a watch at dave and busters and can’t get into it because of activation lock, but i also can’t find the email to get it back to them how can i access the watch or apple id to message the owner?

Based on research and testing here are insights to partly help understand Find My and Activation Lock! Testing was using my iPhone 13 Pro & iPhone SE 2020 & iPad Air, and family member’s iPhone 11 Pro & iPad), all running iOS 17.5.1.

TL;DR

• When locating a lost or stolen iPhone, using the Find My app on your or a family member's device often provides more current location data compared to using icloud.com/find.

• For best results, utilize both the Find My app and icloud.com/findmy as they can yield very different information in different scenarios.

• "Offline Find My" allows supported devices to report their location even when powered off, but there are specific requirements and limitations, including that it doesn’t work with icloud.com/find.

• Ensure to disable Settings -> Face ID & Passcode -> Allow Access When Locked -> Control Center to prevent potential disabling of Offline Find My.

Summary of How Find My Works

Find My operates through three distinct methods of device location:

1. Online Find My: Locates devices that are powered on, connected to a network (mobile data or Wi-Fi), and not blocked by network settings. It directly queries the device over the network for its location and is quite accurate.

2. Offline Find My: Supported devices can be located even when powered off, using Bluetooth broadcasts. Nearby Apple devices can pick up these broadcasts and relay the location data to Apple, in an encrypted manner ensuring privacy by design.

3. Near Range: Utilizes Apple's ultra-wideband chips for precise localization of nearby devices, particularly effective when both finder and lost devices have ultra-wideband capabilities; or to a limited degree, Bluetooth functionality.

Offline Find My: Requirements and Limitations

• Offline Find My prioritizes privacy, encrypting location data to prevent Apple from knowing the specific location or identity of found or finder devices involved. It also prevents Apple from tracking device movements over time. The implementation on this side of things is pretty clever.

• Only iPhone 11 models and newer support Offline Find My; SE models are not compatible.

• Find My and Find My network must be enabled before the device is lost.

• Disabling Bluetooth before turning off the phone (e.g., via airplane mode) disables Offline Find My.

• After being powered off, phones intermittently broadcast their location via Bluetooth for up to [I think] 24 hours; the 24 hours probably resets upon power cycling.

• Phones broadcast their location for up to [I think] 5 hours after going flat.

Find My Website (icloud.com/findmy)

• Utilizes only Online Find My; therefore, it cannot display locations provided by Offline Find My.

• If it can’t find the current online location of the device, it generally displays the last reported location when the device was online.

• It can’t use Offline Find My because the privacy by design implementation makes it impossible.

Find My App on a Signed-In Device

• Utilizes both Online and Offline Find My.

• If the lost device isn’t found online, the finder device can query for Offline Find My locations occurring in the last 24 hours. As a powered-off device only broadcasts its location for 24 hours, somewhere between 24 and 48 hours after power-off, offline find my will not be able to provide a location. I haven’t verified this with a test, but its what I suspect after putting together various pieces of documentation.

• Online Find My displays charge status when tapping on the device in the list, whereas Offline Find My does not, so that's a hint on how you are getting the location.

• Surprisingly, testing suggests that powered-off devices don’t just broadcast their location. They also listen (on Bluetooth) for Find My requests when using the Find My app on a nearby device (to get a result they have to be on the same account I suspect).

Find My App on a Family Member’s Device with Family Sharing

• Offline Find My works as per the above, I assume via sharing of the secret keys necessary for Offline Find My via iCloud keychain data.

Status Messages and Other Notes

• “Erase Pending”: Remotely erasing a device via Find My remains pending until the device connects to a network (mobile or wifi) that allows Find My traffic

• “No Location Found” and “Online” in icloud.com/findmy: One cause is the device is network connected but Privacy -> Location Services -> System Services -> Find My is disabled. Simultaneously, the Find My app didn’t show this error and just reported the most recent location in testing.

• “Location Services Off” and “Online” in icloud.com/findmy: Self-explanatory; again the Find My App did not provide this information. There was also an iOS popup dialog that said successfully turning on Lost Mode may re-enable Location Services.

• “Not Sharing Location” and “Online” in Find My app on a family member’s device**:** this appeared at the exact same time as the above! So yeah its a bit of a mess.

• In testing, a device powered off 20 hours ago without Offline Find My support simultaneously displayed different status messages across various Find My platforms - “No location found” on a family member’s find my app vs “Home 19 hours ago” on my own find my app and find my website

• In testing, a device showed as “Home 21 hours ago” on a family member’s Find My app within minutes of disabling Settings->Apple ID->Find my->Share My Location, even though before disabling it the family member device was pretty much up to date on location…

• If a device is no longer listed in Find My, it means Find My was removed for the device and it is no longer Activation Locked to the account. If performed on the device itself, it requires network connectivity to iCloud and the iCloud password (SDP adds additional restrictions).

• SDP is documented as affecting some of the location info on icloud.com/findmy under some circumstances, but it is very unclear and I didn't test it.

Device Erasure and Activation Lock Notes

• A trigger to receive the “Activation lock is requesting your password on Xxx’s iPhone” email is when a device has been remotely erased, then has been turned on and connected to a network and someone has started setting up the phone and got to the screen that says “iPhone is Locked to Owner …. To unlock this iPhone, enter the Apple ID and password that were used during set-up”.

• Devices not listed under Settings -> Apple ID -> Your Devices but present in Find My are still activation locked, providing security for your iCloud account while disabling re-use of the device. To be clear, removing a device from your iCloud via the “Remove from account” option in that menu is not the same as removing it from Find My. That action stops it from synchronising any new iCloud data or otherwise interfering with your iCloud account (particularly security settings).

• Successfully doing a remote erase does not remove the device from the list of devices in Find My. Choosing “Remove Device” in Find My, however, will remove activation lock and the device can be re-used. So don’t do that unless you want whoever has the phone to be able to use it.

We have laptops with users logged in with their apple ids and enabling activation lock, i know activation lock key is generated in jamf that i can release the lock on wiping or through recovery mode but none of the method is workinf for me. I dont see an option to activate with MDM on activtaion screen. Any suggestions what may be missing here? Thanks in advance

• FindMy still says pending so I thought that meant it was never turned on (1st pic)

• Then I got this email which I didn’t notice at the time (2nd and 3rd pics)

What does that mean, does someone have access to the phone or does it mean they tried and needed the password.

Any help appreciated thanks.

(I think phone had a passcode but it’s so long ago can’t so for sure)

Hi everyone! Hoping someone can help me figure this out.

Apple emailed me confirming that my iPhone 14 Pro Max (1 TB, purchased from AT&T) no longer has Activation Lock enabled, but when I power it on, it still says:

“iPhone Locked to Owner. The location of this iPhone can be seen by its owner ‘f•••@aol.com.’” I’m posting part of my email to show I’m old (aol) and maybe in need of extra help 😅🤣😳.

The phone is already erased and shows the “Hello” setup screen. I’ve already: — Removed it from my iCloud account on iCloud.com/find — Restarted several times — Waited hours for Apple’s servers to sync

It’s still showing the “Locked to Owner” screen. I’m just trying to get it fully released from my account so I can sell it — the screen has a “blitzing” / flickering issue, so it’s not my main phone anymore.

Has anyone seen this happen after Apple confirms Activation Lock removal? What to do?

I recently forgot my iCloud password and didn't fully understand what DFU mode was, so I put my phone into DFU and now am stuck with activation lock on my iPhone (my iCloud itself is also currently locked if that makes any difference). I'm the owner of the iCloud itself and the phone, and would be able to show proof of billing. I looked up if activation lock could be removed in person before to which I found people talking about how it could be, but my dad called Apple the other day and they said the only thing that I can do is wait to reset my password. At this point I no longer care about the apple ID itself (I already sent all of my camera roll to my computer which for some reason uses a different iCloud) and my only worry is being able to use the phone at all. So, could Apple remove my activation lock with proof of billing in person, and if they can am I also able to then log in with a different iCloud on my phone?

Hello. I recently started enrolling company devices to MDM, using the enrollment app. I am fairly new to this. My question is, what do I do with already existing company MacBooks. Every time an employee leaves, the macbook is given to me and is already activation locked. Is there a way to avoid this?

As you have probably noticed, there has been an influx of posts regarding Apple's Activation unlock form. This is not the main goal of r/setupapp. The main goal still is Setup.app removal, and it always will be. For everything setup.app related - Appletech752.com is still your go-to. As well as iCu - The ultimate tool for Windows

You can use this megathread to share your successful / rejected requests or ask questions regarding it (Don't share info such as IMEI numbers, request ID's or such). This will only be a temporary thing, to not clog up the subreddit with screenshots.

If you're unfamiliar with what's going on, here's a breakdown.

What is this all about?

Apple has its own activation lock removal service. You can use it to submit your devices proof of purchase in order to get Find My turned OFF. It works on passcode lock, disabled and Hello screen devices. It is a full unlock, not a bypass.

It only works on devices with iCloud status of CLEAN, it cannot be marked LOST. Blacklist status doesn't seem to affect approval rates.

2. How do you get the device unlocked?

https://al-support.apple.com/#/getsupport - "Get Started" on the bottom of the page. You fill out the form with the device information such as: Purchase date, Purchase country, Purchase store and Purchase receipt. This is how it's supposed to be done, but as many have noted, they managed to get their devices unlocked without providing valid information, and instead, they used stuff like eBay receipts.

You may ask how? I'm going to provide a sample size of 52 devices that got unlocked / rejected this way.

- It appears it has to do with: Device age, when the device was last used, and when the iCloud account was accessed.

From the 52 devices tested (a couple of mine and from a few work colleagues that own repair shops):

12/52 got UNLOCKED - while the rest got rejected.

Now let's dive a little bit deeper.

- 12 devices that got unlocked this way, got unlocked within 1 HOUR. All of the rejected devices were rejected within 1-5 days.

- All 52 devices had an iCloud status of CLEAN.

- Newest model unlocked was an iPhone XS, most unlocked were iPhone 6, 7 and 8's.

- Newest model rejected was an iPhone 13, all rejected were 11, 12 and 13.

- All unlocked devices were unused for at least 1 year. While every rejected device was used within the last year.

- Receipts varied from eBay, local marketplace, REAL Apple invoices etc, nothing was faked.

So, what have we learned from this?

Looks like the main reason devices get unlocked is: Device age, and not where the device was purchased.

All devices unlocked seem to have been auto-unlocked, meaning they were checked by Apple's system, while all rejected devices were on human-review.

If you haven't receive an email saying the unlock was successful within an hour of sending it in, it probably wont go through.

This does look like it's intentional, since it's an automated system that allows the older devices to be unlocked. Maybe they just don't keep all the devices in their database, at least those that are Clean and not Sold by Apple.

If you have your own experience that is different to this, let us know.

//DON'T ASK USERS TO DM, or to "Sell" tools, services or "help". Keep everything transparent in the comments to avoid getting scammed.

I'm trading in my flip 3 for the 5 and I don't understand this question:

"If applicable, has the activation lock on the device been disabled (Selecting No and/or failure to disable the lock will result in a trade-in value of $0)?"

What am I supposed to disable? Is it trying to confirm that the phone is not locked in to a carrier (which it is not)?

Thanks in advance

I am picking up a used mac mini tomorrow. I want to ensure it's running and not attached to someones apple account before i purchase it. I don't own a mac currently, so I don't really know what it is supposed to look like when it turns on. What should I look for to know that the mac has been properly removed from the owners accounts and that it is safe to purchase?

I have a Mac that was enrolled in Jamf using User-Initiated Enrollment (UIE). The user had signed in with their personal iCloud account and enabled Find My, which turned on Activation Lock.

After wiping the machine and booting into Recovery Mode, I got the Activation Lock screen. I went to Recovery Assistant > Activate with MDM Key… and entered the Activation Lock Bypass Code from the user’s inventory page in Jamf (under the Management tab).

However, I keep getting this message: “The operation couldn’t be completed. Your Apple ID or password is incorrect.”

In theory, this should work right? Or is it failing because the machine was enrolled via UIE and not supervised via Automated Device Enrollment (DEP)?