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Activation Lock Screen Help

Purchased a used ipad from a gentleman in March 2017 who said he no longer needed it for his business. We understood it was wiped clean. This was almost three years ago. Today my husband attempted to log in to the iPad and we are stuck with Activation Lock screen. We have no way around it since we don't know who the guy was and this goes back several years. Now we're locked out. Any suggestions?

iPad mini, iOS 9

Posted on Jun 15, 2020 8:15 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 16, 2020 8:51 AM

Here are the Apple support pages that outline the Activation Lock - and the only mechanisms by which it can be turned off:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201365

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201441


As you will discover, unless you are the owner of the AppleID that was last used to activate the device, or unless you can secure the cooperation of the previous owner, you’ll not be able to defeat or bypass the Activation Lock. Without documentary evidence that you are the original owner (such as sales receipt showing the serial number), Apple won’t assist - and nobody here will be able to help you.


Sorry - but you’re short of options.


As is, the iPad is useless to you. Please recycle the iPad responsibly via your local Apple Store.

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 16, 2020 8:51 AM in response to LemJam99

Here are the Apple support pages that outline the Activation Lock - and the only mechanisms by which it can be turned off:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201365

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201441


As you will discover, unless you are the owner of the AppleID that was last used to activate the device, or unless you can secure the cooperation of the previous owner, you’ll not be able to defeat or bypass the Activation Lock. Without documentary evidence that you are the original owner (such as sales receipt showing the serial number), Apple won’t assist - and nobody here will be able to help you.


Sorry - but you’re short of options.


As is, the iPad is useless to you. Please recycle the iPad responsibly via your local Apple Store.

Jun 15, 2020 8:17 PM in response to LemJam99

To clarify - we had originally registered this to my husband when he got it and we have never had problems. We're really confused. I guess he still has it registered to his phone. It says the owner has used the "Find My iPhone" to link it to their apple id. ? My husband doesn't even have an iPhone so it wasn't anything he did.

Activation Lock Screen Help

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