ios7 activation lock,previous owner,apple id,

I did that and the previous owner did respond but he did not got to iCloud.com and remove the phone from his Apple account (some iPhone users are just not computer literate) and he does not respond to further emails ..even from Apple. So you see this is a situation where Apple needs to step in and do something. Obviously, the iPhone is not stolen and has been sold to me and the only thing preventing me from using my iPhone is Apple's stupid activation lock.

So yes!.... activation lock as it stands now is stupid! It cant differentiate a legitimate iPhone owner from a crook and so it is stupid.

But in that case you can just go to a locksmith and get a new set of keys made for the car or go to the dealer and get some new keys issued to you based on the Vin number. The manufacture of the car can help you. Thats NOT like now with Apple refusing to help. So you dont know what you are talking about.

Hi Michael Black.

Thank's for the info.

I have a question - I purchased an iphone 4S from a friend in the UK. Short story is that I have the phone and we have received an email to say that it is unlocked by Orange. However, it is still linked to his itunes account. As I have the phone and live in another country, how can we unlock it. Can he do from his end or is the only way around this for me to log into his account with his itunes details and password? HELP!!!

Thanks

The easiest way is to get his password and log into his Apple account and turn off Find my iPhone in the iCloud settings yourself. If you cant do that then he has to log into iCloud.com click on Find my iPhone and then click on the device and Erase iPhone. That will remove the iPhone from his account.

Apple should automatically Erase the iPhone if a new buyer reports it to them and the linked owner does not respond to their Apple account emails about the device within 10 business days. That would solve this problem for once and for all.

Charlottemouse2002 wrote:

Hi Michael Black.

Thank's for the info.

I have a question - I purchased an iphone 4S from a friend in the UK. Short story is that I have the phone and we have received an email to say that it is unlocked by Orange. However, it is still linked to his itunes account. As I have the phone and live in another country, how can we unlock it. Can he do from his end or is the only way around this for me to log into his account with his itunes details and password? HELP!!!

Thanks

If your friend is willing to give you their password, you can disable it right on the phone itself (under the iCloud account settings, turn off "find my iPhone" using their password when prompted). They can change their password right afterwards if they wish to keep it secured. Or they can do it themselves by logging into www.icloud.com and removing the device from their list of associated devices.

See Apple's directions to disable Activation Lock at http://support.apple.com/kb/ts4515

As to unlocking it from Orange, did they restore it as new in iTunes before you got it? The procedure to unlock an iPhone is to request the unlock from the carrier. Once the carrier has processed it on to Apple, they normally let you know (usually an email) that the unlock is provisioned, and you then restore the iPhone as new in iTunes to apply the unlock.

hopefully the apple to recognize this fact

now i have 2 friends iphones just a piece of metal because of that linked id even 1 of them is not valid anymore and the iphone still linked to it i called apple they said sorry we can't do , i really need a selution they could make sure that the phone is not stolen what if it was my father and he is dead what if the first owner i bought it from him is dead what if he lost his memory what if , what if , what if , the phone was working till the restore thing now its a piece of junk

I dont understand why Apple does not do anything about this problem users are having. It is a simple thing for Apple to know if an iPhone is stolen or not. It just seems to me like they are throwing out the baby with the bath water. Apple's policy the way it is has turned into a complete environmental waste . On that point alone i think that Apple should do something about it.

Does anyone have Tim Cook's email address? I would like to write him a letter and propose my solution to this problem. Give the person who the iPhone is linked to 2-4 weeks to respond to a change of ownership verification email(s) from Apple. If they do not respond in that time to Apple's emails then Apple should remove the iPhone from that Apple account. Apple sends me emails whenever i buy somethingat the App or iTunes store. If something changes in my Apple account they will send me an email with an option to do something about it if i disagree. Why not can Apple take the same approach when someone sells their iOS7 device?

Apple can also ask for a proof of sale such as email correspondance to prove that the iPhone was sold to the person trying to remove the link. I have emails to me from the email address that the Apple account is linked to and we are discussing how to remove the iPhone from his account. That should be proof that my claim is legitimate.

This is turning into a black eye in Apples iOS7 strategy. Apple do something about it!!

Apple, please never ever unlock device if it was stolen from me or lost by me. No matter what BS emails or "proof" thief or one who purchased from thief give you. Please do not let environmental concerns to change your mind. Please remember then for every 10 people here asking to disable activation lock there is a ten hundred asking to return stolen phone.

Ok fromsouth so someone stole your phone or you lost it. Now you want to get another iPhone cause you are never getting the lost or stolen one back. What can you do? You cant buy a second hand iPhone, you burned that bridge already cause the activation lock policy has trashed the second hand market for iPhones. You are stuck having to spend the money to buy a whole new iPhone or get an Android phone. Those who want to sell their used iPhones to get the latest one can forget about it since buyers are now wary of getting a brick and dont trust seller of iPhones anymore. Apple now forces everybody in the market for an iPhone to get new ones.

I agree fully. What few people know is that any phone that is stolen is placed on a register. The police have access to this register, so do the public for a fee.

The IMEI is also barred across all networks so the phone was already useless before apple put the activation lock in the IOS.

What Apple have done (very cleverly) is kill the used phone market so if you lose or have your phone stolen you will stay away from buying a second hand one even if you buy it legitimately.

I know all this from 30 years in the mobile phone industry. (And before any says phones haven't been around that long)... Yes they have.

trajan1 wrote:

Those who want to sell their used iPhones to get the latest one can forget about it since buyers are now wary of getting a brick and dont trust seller of iPhones anymore. Apple now forces everybody in the market for an iPhone to get new ones.

Good, as long as they do not use stolen/lost from/by me phone.

To me, even thou everyone might get a legimate purchase doesn't all by means by that iPhone was originally theres in the first place, Now, people are probably reselling the iPhone for the same amount of price or more of how they got it by getting ripped off of what is happening to you guys and have problems bc of the security lock.

If I ever lost mine, I don't want Apple to unlcok mine at all. And it probably get sold by Ebay and by someone anyone buys my device and so the person like you guys gets upset contacting the seller to unlock the device which that person you bought it from wasn't theh original owner which they say like they don't remeber the password or they change email address, that's a buch of BULL-NESS!!

Thats is such an easy lie to tell you that most people pprobably will say and they keep the money you spent to them. In a way, your getting a rip-off.

Take it from your personal point of view and see why and how if you ever lost your device and wishing that they can't use the device if they can just lock it and not erase it by just reduing the software like ya can do with a computer by *****ing a hard drive up.

I lost my ipod Touch 4G in freshmen year and I didn't get it back almost a week later bc somone that wasn't really my friend but wanted to stay annymous and tracked my device and we got the principle to help and suspended that kid for a day or two, I knew who had it by lookn at the photos plus the friends that were on it, wasnt that hard and wasn't my friend who had my device in the first place.

So yes, I'm glad they have this activation lock, to bad from old devices.

and iPhone 4 from ios 7 is to easy bc of the A6 proccessor, reinstall the old IOS back on it and have it & use it without getting into the activation lock. so iPhone 4/4s owners need to be carful if they ever kept a SHSH blob online to make the device go back one or whenever ios that thta owner originaly did to that device, its so easy, thank god the A5 doesn't.

Specially for people that jailbroken there phones in the past.

You are so willing to throw out the baby with the bathwater without even trying to address a solution to the problem. Thats corrupted thinking. You should be trying to help people with a legitimate problem but you are content to let them bleed to death. Its like if you see some homeless person bleeding on the street asking for help you just walk right by them, thinking they must be an alcoholic or drug abuser and the reason for their predicament.

The solution is for Apple to give customers a certain time frame to respond to a lost, stolen or sold iOS device. If you sold the device then you have the option to NOT respond to Apple in time because you are no longer the legitimate owner of said device. If the iOS device was lost or stolen then you surely will respond to Apple if you want the device back. If Apple sent you an email about your iPod touch 4G that was lost and you wanted it back then you surely would respond back to Apple within 4 weeks time.

The alternative status quo is a black eye for iOS7 with unhappy potential Apple customers who are literally forced people to buy new Apple devices everytime.

Last time I cryied for help on these forums, I got nothing for SHAT from level7-9 that Apple can't get your device back, if restored to default with "find my iphone" turned off, its your lost.

Other than i had no help at all and i was very young at the time too.

Ever heard of black market for these devices for ios 5-6? they could have been stolen and resold multiple times to other people by the time we manage to hit ios 7 and by then, it be like which harry potter be the real one to defeat him/ to unlocking the dam phone, yes, the email address be fine and all but you don't know if they no longer have that email addres or no longer in use.

BUT BUT BUT.... If that were the case for a certain time limit of having the phone for a long amout of time, then the phone be deactivated and still gets resold by people & possible relocking the device once again and sell it on Ebay and screwing the person on the other side for a long time not able to use the dang phone.

Personaly, just paying for a $99 iPhone or a $200iPhone is fine, at least you wont be screwed like you are now.