iPhone still linked to old Apple ID

I work in the wholesale industry as a technician. We resell phones. We have come across alot of iphones with ios7 that are pretty much useless because of this problem. We don't know who the original owners are. I called apple and they told me that they could not help me. So we end up with paper weights. The phones we sell are checked for stolen and active. If the esn's are clean then the phone is ready to be sold and activated. I can already picture a landfill full of iphones because of this issue.

Obviously Apple will not help you. How do they know you are the legitimate owner of the phone(s)? They do not. An anti-theft was one of the biggest items on the wish lists. In fact Apple was under a lot of pressure to provide one, and now they have. Randomly removing it will obviously defeat the purpose.

The only thing I can suggest is that you try to contact the seller(s) of the phones.

I'm way ahead of you. I already tried to contact the owners of 3 of the 98 phones I have. I haven't been able to get a response. Who's to say that the emails linked to these phones are still active. I don't think this feature was thought through properly. In this case the manufacturer and the carrier are 2 different things. Not sure if you read in my last post that the phone's esn is checked for lost, stolen and active. If the phones are NOT lost, stolen or active then the phones should be ready to be resold and reactivate onto another person's account. If the phone is still linked to the previous owner and I am unable to contact them, then what? What would you call the phone in this case? We dont deal with lost, stolen and active phones. Apple makes a great product don't get me wrong. This is a huge snag in the Wireless Wholesale Industry. I'm just frustrated. What do I do with all these phones? Parts them out?

gwolff037 wrote:

I don't think this feature was thought through properly. In this case the manufacturer and the carrier are 2 different things. Not sure if you read in my last post that the phone's esn is checked for lost, stolen and active. If the phones are NOT lost, stolen or active then the phones should be ready to be resold and reactivate onto another person's account.

I did read your post but it seems you do not understand how iOS 7 works. It is the seller/previous owner responsibility to deactivate Find my iPhone BEFORE selling the device under iOS 7. The activation you now require has nothing to do with a carrier lock; it is locked via iOS. Apple has NO way of knowing whether they are NOT lost, stolen etc. It is not their job to do so. They are not law enforcement. Therefore they WILL NOT help you defeat the Find my Phone anti-theft feature. It does NOT matter that you have checked the phones esn or not. It is the reality you find yourself in, like it or not.

I know how the IOS7 works. I just needed reassurance. Thank you.

hi sharon

is there a way to reach you directly?

Hi liorme,

i'll be more then happy if you could contact me directly.

Thanks!

Nir.

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I have the same problem, I bought my iphone from apple online store, its 4s and its factory unlocked and I just upgrade to ios 7 few weeks ago and yesterday I reseted the iphone and erase all content and when i got the activation page its says that the apple ID is incorrect which something crazy cause my ID is the same ID I use on apple store and its working without any problems, I contacted apple customer services and they were unable to do anything and they scheduled an appointment for me with apple store in my city and I went there to the store and they are also unable to solve this problem and they told me that you have to use the same ID u used when activate this iphone first time.

they are really stuiped guys over there, imagine that the genious bar in apple store are unable to solve this issue

how stuiped they are

Hello JoBabybro

I want to know if you were be able to solve your iphone issue cause I have the same problem and dont know what to do

apple couldnt do anything

hello everybody m also facing the same problem m not able to use my iphone 4s from 6 oct . same problem asking apple id and password .. plz help me if some one know the solution plz suggest me..

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arshed wrote:

they are really stuiped guys over there, imagine that the genious bar in apple store are unable to solve this issue

how stuiped they are

You must have set the phone originally with a different ID.The geniuses are not telepaths. They cannot "come up" with information that you chose and set on your phone. (Your apple ID and password). You are responsible for remembering your passwords.

If you are having problems with your apple ID, try to reset the password. If not contat the Apple Security team.

Did you read this thread? There are no other solutions other than what has been posted here.

i dont know much about apple products but if the fault is with ios 7 then cant you convert to ios 6 on itunes and then unlock it and update it back to ios 7?

No. You cannot downgrade to iOS 6.

"You have a very expensive piece of paper weight."

People who work for or are deeply in love with apple will not admit the flaws with this ios.

So just dig deep in your pockets and buy another one.

I've done all the research i could. This is the only solution i've come up with.