ios7 activation lock,previous owner,apple id,

I didn't say there is no solution. I just don't know one. You said you do, so I provided my opinion on your solution(s).

They didn't seem good to me, but if you confident - you can feedback Apple, website is provided in previous post.

If someone sold you a car and didn't give you the keys would the car manufacturer be at fault?

if the only keymaker of that car is the manufacturer and if i apply for a new key for them and they even dont help me this is not their foult but to give a new key is their responsiblity.

What if someone sold you a stolen car that is locked by previous owner? You are saying it is not stolen, right? You can prove it to everyone, by showing legal proof of purchase. Legal proof would be receipt. Do you have one? Is that legal? If it is legit - just call Apple. If you got none - and it is locked by the owner - guess what...

Okey so,

What if you really paid and got the car and and you lost the key. And the key has immobiliser which can only provided by the company. What should do? Trash the car???

You only think from one side. You act like everybody is theif. Thats why apple should a secure way for real issues which we can face. They are big developers and could find a better way.

What do u say exactly? Shouldnt help apple to the real bad situations.

Alemci wrote:

Okey so,

What if you really paid and got the car and and you lost the key. And the key has immobiliser which can only provided by the company. What should do? Trash the car???

Nope, no need to trash - just contact dealer and show legit proof of purchase. Not receipt from ebay or story about creaigslist, that I can cook in five minutes.

THe thing that ****** me most about this thread is that most people speak ignorantly because they are not feeling the pains others are going through with this situation... So please, if you dont seem to have a solution, dont be a wise guy by making silly comments.. Just go your way and let people who are facing it look for a solution

To add to this dilemma,

I run a mobile phone service centre, since the introduction of the activation lock we have had numerous customers come in with this problem.

They bought the phone second hand or it was passed down from a family member when they upgraded. Now after upgrading they cannot use the phone. If they try to find out the iTunes ID and password it was registered against, either the previous owner is no longer contactable or they have forgotten the details previously used (registered with new ID and password on their new device).

They may have had the phone for years and only just figured out how to upgrade, a lot of users just use it as a phone and don't want all the frills. Also the original sellers did not know this would be the case maybe years later.

I would imagine that legally apple are accountable, they have restricted use on a device that is no longer their property without the consent of the owner.

If they were concerned about stolen phones being used they should register with Checkmend. This is a register of all phones stolen (if reported) and then flag them for restriction.

But then apple probably think they are too big a company now to worry about things like this

Ianmelia wrote:

I would imagine that legally apple are accountable, they have restricted use on a device that is no longer their property without the consent of the owner.

I would highly doubt that. But if you wish to pay the lawyers fees to pursue it, that's your business.

Why do you doubt it, it is a totally legitimate claim. As an example

You buy a new house,

3 years later the builder comes along to say there are now improved locks and fits them for you within some type of warranty.

THEN he refuses to hand over the keys until you prove that you are the owner. You can't do it because your house is actually still owned by Fannie freakin Mae until the mortgage is satisfied.

A very liberal comparison I agree but true none the less.

As for paying the lawyers, who could possibly afford to?

Getting back to helping people with a second-hand locked ios device.. Google is directing thousands of people to this thread.

I was in a very similar situation after buying a 4S off eBay. It was linked to someone else's iCloud account and Find my iPhone was on. The seller didn't mention this in the discription, and wouldn't respond to messages. I was very upset to have paid $150 for a brick.

But I got it unlocked. The only way to unlock the phone is through the previous owner. Don't try the DFU route. If you already tried to restore the phone, or it came to you wiped you may simply have to wait for the jailbreak unless you find a way to get their email address.

If (like me) you got a phone with Find my iPhone active, but you can access the settings, then you have a better chance. Find the previous owner's email address (Settings - iCloud) and send them an eloquent, respectful email. You probably only have one chance to get it right. Include your full name, ask them if it was stolen from them, and if not ask them if they would mind taking a minute to erase the phone and remove it from their iCloud account. Explain that they don't need to give you their password, and include the instructions (below). I realize this won't work for some, but there isn't a software solution to this problem (yet). So focus on the people solution.

Three days after I emailed the previous owner my new phone was remotely wiped and unlocked.

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2702

Ianmelia wrote:

Why do you doubt it, it is a totally legitimate claim. As an example

You buy a new house,

3 years later the builder comes along to say there are now improved locks and fits them for you within some type of warranty.

THEN he refuses to hand over the keys until you prove that you are the owner. You can't do it because your house is actually still owned by Fannie freakin Mae until the mortgage is satisfied.

A very liberal comparison I agree but true none the less.

As for paying the lawyers, who could possibly afford to?

Actually, I find that whole analogy absurd. A more realistic situation would be you bought a car or home in a purely private party sale, and then the previous owner disappeared with the keys. And in that case as in this, your beef is purely with the previous owner, and any legal action would need to be taken in civil court against them. Not the company that built the house, nor the company that warrantied it, nor anyone else.

Apple is not keeping anyone from using a device, the previous owner is. Apple provided a solution to loss/theft that is entirely in the control of every owner (which btw is exactly what many posters here have asked to have for years).

Not to get into argument and I am only posting my views.

With your analogy, if you bought a house or car and the previous owner disappeared with the keys, you at least have the option to change the locks.

If you bought a second hand iphone 2 years ago and only just upgraded to ios 7 finding out it was now activation locked what options do you have.

1. Hope you still have the receipt and sellers details and they are prepared to help.

2. Throw it in the bin.

I understand that security against theft is necessary but this went too far.

In the UK. I have a service contract with a company using 60 or so iphones. Every 2 years I upgrade their handsets and take the old ones back. These I sell on legitimately. If someone now comes back with a handset that has been activation locked, first I have to go back to the company, they have to find out which employee had that particular handset and ask them if they remember the password. If all this fails as it obviously going to then I will have to refund my customer.

Nothing was illegal so what is my next move. Samsung, Apple just lost 60 customers.....

Same here.. just bought an used iphone 5. and I can't enter it. the first thing I did was, I went to the apple live support chat. where they said they would call me tomorrow at 9:45 in the morning.. so.. next day I waited, 5 minutes, 10, 30 and than 1 hour. But nothing happened. So I just went back to the live support and ask them what happened.. They said: Yea the call failed bla bla.. and gave me a number that i have to call. So I'm calling this number and a support guy picks up, I explain my problem all over again that I bought a used phone etc. First he said like the woman in live support chat yea, find the old owner. Then I said that i can't reach him per email. So he just hypocritically laught at me and said that there is no other solution for this problem.. I was waiting all the time just to hear: "It's very secure, we can't do anything." 2 times.

It's really nice too buy such an expensive phone and then it's useless. And no my phone isn't stolen, the IMEI is clean. I can use it now as necklace or what? I think it's really not fair to do that to your costumers and ignore the whole story, while shower in a bath full of our money.

tilens wrote:

Same here.. just bought an used iphone 5. and I can't enter it. the first thing I did was, I went to the apple live support chat. where they said they would call me tomorrow at 9:45 in the morning.. so.. next day I waited, 5 minutes, 10, 30 and than 1 hour. But nothing happened. So I just went back to the live support and ask them what happened.. They said: Yea the call failed bla bla.. and gave me a number that i have to call. So I'm calling this number and a support guy picks up, I explain my problem all over again that I bought a used phone etc. First he said like the woman in live support chat yea, find the old owner. Then I said that i can't reach him per email. So he just hypocritically laught at me and said that there is no other solution for this problem.. I was waiting all the time just to hear: "It's very secure, we can't do anything." 2 times.

It's really nice too buy such an expensive phone and then it's useless. And no my phone isn't stolen, the IMEI is clean. I can use it now as necklace or what? I think it's really not fair to do that to your costumers and ignore the whole story, while shower in a bath full of our money.

Sorry, and if I were you I would try to return it. Phones like that use to be sold on eBay for over $500 and now do not go for over 200 and used for parts only. Not worth the risk to steal anymore. My opinion - excellent move on Apple's part. And they also won by getting more people to buy directly from Apple. As far as your comment about not being fear, you should have made that call to support before and not after you got it. Do research before you buy anything, that you can't just risk losing money.