kym.c wrote:
2011 Mazda 3 MPS same issue. It is unsafe to use the phone and driving me mad but we have been experiencing a bigger issue with our employees who were being provided with iPhones for work. Note past tense. If an employee links an Apple ID via iCloud and then leave the company on bad terms and this link has not been broken, it is impossible to reactivate the phone to a new employee. Another win for Samsung and Sony and the adroid movement. Apple were the movers and shakers and court Nokia and Blackberry napping but seems to me they are mistakenly believing it can not happen to them. I would say unless they pick up their game they will be a future sad story on the internet too.
It's not impossible. First off, if it's a work phone, then there's no need to put a personal Apple ID on the device. Your IT department could create and assign an Apple ID for use on each device, and then enable a restrictions passcode on the device and disallow changes to accounts. This means that your company controls the device, not the employee. It also means that the employee could not restore the device without first disabling Find My iPhone, which can only be done with the Apple ID & password used on the device. This would prevent any future incidents such as you describe. This is what my company does. We have yet to have such an issue as you, not since iOS 7 came out. Additionally, to ensure return of company equipment, the final paycheck is held (or a portion thereof) equal to the cost of replacing the device outright. Only on rare occasions have we had anyone refuse to return a device, and in those circumstances, we dock the final paycheck appropriately.
Any current devices of yours that are in Activation Lock, you can contact Apple, provide proof of purchase that it is a company owned device, and get the Activation Lock removed.
When the eventual legislation passes that will require all smartphones to have a similar protection system (which will likely work almost identical to Apple's system), what will you do then? Android phones will soon have the same type of system, required by law... so it's better to know how the system works instead of simply complaining that it 'doesn't work'.
It does work. You just have to educate yourself on how it works.