Q: How can I bypass the previous owners password on my iPad?

wccorbett wrote:

 

Gall from Maine,

 

I see the importance of the security protocol.  However, if the iPad is properly registered, it will be locked when purchased on craigslist and unable to be accessed. I don't know what you mean by "properly registered". If a person is selling their device they they would follow the steps in this support article to prepare it for sale so that it could then be used by the person they sell it to: What to do before selling or giving away your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

 

 

Therefore, if it is registered to someones account, it was already unlocked at the time of sale.  Apple states only proof of purchase and not proof of ownership.  This automatically destroys the used sale value for anyone wishing to purchase an apple product that was owned previously.  See above.

 

Also, this policy destroys the chance of ever being able to unlock the iPad if you won it in a raffle, given it for christmas or purchase it with cash and do not save the receipt (as I have). See above.

 

I'm curious how you define legitimate sale. A legitimate sale is the sale of a product that is not stolen.

 

When an individual buys a product, they buy a "bundle of sticks" known as rights that go with it. Not if they are stolen. If they are stolen and you are duped into purchasing them, then you are the possessor of stolen goods. You have no rights to them at all.

 

Imagine one stick is the right to use, another is the right to exclude, the third is the right to destroy and the fourth is the right to transfer.  When an individual chooses to transfer a product, they can pick how much it is worth, how much to sell it for and to who to sell it to.  Just because an individual chooses to sell off of amazon or eBay their used products doesn't mean it is illegitimate.  That is correct. And a person who is directly selling you their product, then even if they have forgotten to do all of the steps listed in the article above, there is a remedy that they can follow: Turn off Find My iPhone Activation Lock - Apple Support

 

Also, this "proof of purchase" only protects the original owner.  Does craigslist sometimes sell stolen goods? yes but I offer to you that the same thing can and does happen on eBay and amazon. Exactly - what is your point?

 

The reason that apple has the iCloud lock is to stop theft.  There is no reason that if they see it registered to an account that transferred names - What do you mean by "an account that transferred names"? The only "account" that the device is "registered" to is your Apple ID account, and it is only associated with that Apple ID because you added it to your Support Profile. If you don't add it to your Support Profile, it is not linked to your Apple ID at all - that they should require proof of purchase to unlock.  They admitted that they could see that I've owned the iPad for 4 years.  Registered it and everything. As stated previously - there is no "registration" trail for iDevices. You purchase it and put it on your Support Profile. Great. You sell it to someone and forget to remove the Activation Lock. They contact you and you remove it. It gets stolen from them. The low life who stole it sells it on Craigslist to some unsuspecting person. What is now supposed to happen in your theory? There is no database, no official chain of custody registration, no way to track a device to anyone past the first owner. This is not rocket science. If a device is legitimately sold from person to person, then the seller has the ability to make that device available for use by the buyer. Each subsequent buyer has a device that they can fully use, and can also sell if they choose.

GB

This is a discussion thread.  You choose to be here Csound.  Please see below and take yourself off this thread. 

wccorbett wrote:

 

Who can I go to though?  I tried apple support, I tried the genius bar.  Both see that the account used to be under my name before it was closed and transferred to my new account.  Both have said I cannot do anything without a proof of purchase.  I'm fine if you wish to require proof of purchase for those who purchase it locked from someone but this situation is different.  There was no transfer of ownership between the cordent1 account and the new account.  The only change was the account name and email. The issue is not IF it was properly registered.  It is properly registered to my old account.  It would and still doesn't recognize that it doesn't exist anymore.  I think its a hardware problem that causes it to not be able to connect to apple but they refuse to look at it.

OK, you are now talking about an entirely different situation. Are you indicating that you have a device locked to your own iCloud account? What do you mean the account was "closed" and "transferred" to your new account? Are you saying you set up a brand new Apple ID? If so, then the old Apple ID is still out there and can be accessed unless you asked Apple to delete the account (which they only do in extenuating circumstances). So, if you are saying that you just decided to set up a new Apple ID, then you only need to change the password to the old ID in order to remove it from your device: Apple - My Apple ID.

Your long discussions about Craigslist, eBay, and Amazon, would not even be relevant if what you are now saying the issue is.

So, let's start over. Tell us exactly what your issue is, the order of events, and what you have done up to this point.

You have totally confused the topic of this thread with an entirely different problem, which makes it impossible to help you in this situation....

GB

Gall from Maine,

When an individual buys a product, they buy a "bundle of sticks" known as rights that go with it. Not if they are stolen. If they are stolen and you are duped into purchasing them, then you are the possessor of stolen goods. You have no rights to them at all.

Gail, I purchased this iPad unlocked.  I think you are misunderstanding the situation (copied below.)  The argument is not a stolen iPad.  The only reason I brought up craigslist is because you seem to have a strong stance against it.  The argument is not that they cannot prepare it to be accessed, the argument is that if, for whatever reason, their account does what mine did, they are utterly and entirely screwed. 

Also, this "proof of purchase" only protects the original owner.  Does craigslist sometimes sell stolen goods? yes but I offer to you that the same thing can and does happen on eBay and amazon. Exactly - what is your point? 

Point: that there is no reason to distinguish between craigslist and amazon when stating "legitimate sale"  You can't simply say that every iPad is stolen if it is not owned by the original owner. 

The reason that apple has the iCloud lock is to stop theft.  There is no reason that if they see it registered to an account that transferred names - What do you mean by "an account that transferred names"? The only "account" that the device is "registered" to is your Apple ID account, and it is only associated with that Apple ID because you added it to your Support Profile. If you don't add it to your Support Profile, it is not linked to your Apple ID at all -  (See Below) that they should require proof of purchase to unlock.  They admitted that they could see that I've owned the iPad for 4 years.  Registered it and everything. As stated previously - there is no "registration" trail for iDevices. You purchase it and put it on your Support Profile. Great. You sell it to someone and forget to remove the Activation Lock. They contact you and you remove it. It gets stolen from them. The low life who stole it sells it on Craigslist to some unsuspecting person. What is now supposed to happen in your theory? There is no database, no official chain of custody registration, no way to track a device to anyone past the first owner. This is not rocket science. If a device is legitimately sold from person to person, then the seller has the ability to make that device available for use by the buyer. Each subsequent buyer has a device that they can fully use, and can also sell if they choose. 

In your hypo, does the person who purchased it from me register it to their apple account?  Did they take the proper steps to make sure they added an activation lock and registered with find my iPad?  If so then the person who sells it, on lets say amazon, to an unsuspecting person will find a locked iPad and be unable to access it. 

Gail, apply what you would see is fair to this situation:

I have an iPad from over 4 years ago.  I've used it for that period.  I've purchased games, eBay sales and used it regularly for classes.  It was registered to my apple account and iCloud.  A few months ago it stopped accepting my iCloud log in information and was having a hard time staying connected to the iCloud.  I called apple and asked them about it and they asked if my name was Sven.  I said no and asked if the account information changed recently.  They added that it had.  An individual in Germany took over my account and put in an address, a name and changed the security questions.  Since apple can see previous information in the account, I was able to authenticate my identity. 

Apple said it was not a big deal.  First, we would change the password to my old account (cordent1) and log out all of my products from it and then transfer the account to a new email, account name and basically start fresh.  My iPhone switched fine and both of my computers switched fine; however, my iPad would not accept the new password.  No matter how many times we attempted to change it and enter it in on cordent1 it would not accept it. 

Apple said I should try factory resetting it and if that didn't work I would have to take it to the genius bar.  That was fine for me to do.  I set up an appointment after the reset and the phone operator told me that we might as well finish the account switch.  We switched the account name and information to a new account and deleted the old account.  (This becomes important in a few minutes.) 

I went in for my apple appointment and asked for my account info.  I gave them it and they said that it didn't match the account information on the iPad so they could not do anything without a proof of purchase from when I acquired the iPad.  I called support again and told them the narrative above and they transferred me "up" three times.  The 4th individual was some sort of supervisor.  I explained the situation for a 4th time and he said something along the lines of: "I can see that your old username is the apple ID on this account.  I can see the notes from the transfer.  I'm not sure why it isn't connecting...this will be difficult without a proof of purchase...see usually you can just take it in with a receipt and the genius bar will reset it for you...but you don't have the receipt..."

After being on the phone for 2 hours I was growing tired of this.  I asked him some questions

1. So cordent1 is a dead account right?

yes

2. You can see that I was the owner right?

yes

3. So this iPad registered to cordent1 needs proof of ownership, isn't that enough?

no

4. So what you are saying is that without proof of purchase, I will never be able to use this iPad again?

um...well...security measures were put into place and-

5.Will I ever be able to use this iPad again?  Shoot me straight.

no, not without proof of purchase. 

So right now as I see it I am being treated as a thief by a company that I have fully endorsed for the last 6 years.  If this is to stop thieves, then why does it only require proof of purchase and not proof of ownership on the account?  Please, (I see it coming so I might as well ask for it) let me know that I should have "saved my receipt" or that I should have "not let my account get hacked."  But at the end of the day, apple had more than enough information on the account history and the support history to see that I was the owner of that iPad.  For that reason, I refuse to buy another apple product until they make this one right.  As for my iPad, it sits on a shelf like a book, waiting for redemption.

Call AppleCare and ask to be transferred to Customer Service.

Well, this is an entirely different situation than bypassing the previous owner. And the terminology you have been using is confusing. The iPad is locked to an Apple ID that you used to have that has since been deleted by Apple as a result of that Apple ID being hacked. That Apple went ahead and removed the Apple account without making sure that all of your devices were removed from it is unconscionable.

It is confusing why, when the password would not work directly on the iPad, that you were not instructed to go to iCloud.com, and Erase the device from Find My iPhone. Was that approach never addressed?

Have you asked Apple if the original ID could be reinstated temporarily so that you can complete the process which should have been completed before the account was deleted?

Does the device appear under Find My iPhone under your new ID by any chance?

If the answer is no to all of the above, then I would suggest that you use the Contact Us link below to escalate this to Apple's legal department. If you do that, you need to use the terminology that they will clearly understand as I have outlined above. Otherwise, you will end up going in a lot of circles as we have in this thread.

The discussion and responses that I provided regarding the purchase of a device from a 3rd party still stand. If the person selling the device is the owner, then they can remove the Activation Lock from the device. They should do it before the sell it, but they can do it after it is in the hands of the buyer. If the person selling the device does not know the Apple ID and password that the device is Activation Locked to, then you would have to ask why they don't. If they are a legitimate seller, they would know it or would have access to it. Your situation is extremely unique, and simply does not apply to the explanations that I previously provided.

BTW - the distinction between Craigslist and eBay or Amazon is intentional. You have no recourse if you are ripped off by someone selling you something on Craigslist. You do have with eBay and Amazon. They stand behind their sellers, and will do everything they can to make good on a situation that does not meet their standards. These options do not exist on Craigslist....

Best of luck,

GB

i am having the same problem with my ipod 5th gen that has ios 9.2.1 and i have no idea what the password to the icloud was so i tried to many passwords an now my icloud is disabled. i also have no clue to what email i used or even what the log in information is for that so called email

goto:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201487

R

This may or may not help you and others had I Pad that my son set up for me while I was in hospital 3 years ago at the same time he set up my wife's I Pad, he could not remember the i Cloud Id or the password that was required after software update 9.3, Had a 1 and half hour conversion with Apple support in the end he said if you cannot remember the I D and password go to the store where you purchased the device and ask for a duplicate receipt, make sure it has the serial number or EMi number on receipt and the get back to Apple support and they will unlock it.

To cut this short I did not have to do this my wife had not updated her I Pad so had a good clue has to what my I D was used to set it up, I needed the password, download I Tunes on to my computer that had not been registered with I Cloud, after logging into i tunes with my Apple I D found my purchased albums and songs clicked on one to re-load it to my computer a box appeared saying I had to register first, clicked register then I clicked forgotten password, reset the password and used that on the I Pad work for me.

The I D that some of you had forgotten can be retrieved this way because I Cloud knows you have purchased songs from I Tunes and they are in your I Cloud account with you clicking to reload it to a new device it sends you to your account to register the new device clicking "forgotten password" will then let you see your account settings.

My iphone is currently in  activation mode on the screen it says "This iphone is currently linked to an apple id (m.....@gmail.com) sign in with the apple id that was used to set up this iphone.

when i sign in with the apple id that i setup with ,   I get these message  "the account cannot be used to unlock this iphone.

When i check my icloud account on the setting under my devices, my device "iphone 5" is listed to confirm that it is linked to my icloud account., but am unable to activate it. what could be the problem here? these has happed when i have upgrade to ios 9.3.1.

i have try to downgrade but same problem am unable to activate the iphone?

does it mean when you can see your device "on icloud- under my devices," that confirms that it is the account the iphone  is linked to? but why am i unable to activate my iphone?

Please assist

What do you mean when you indicate that you "tried to downgrade"? How did you try to do that?

GB

I Installed the older version 9.2.1.

Again, how did you do that? If your device has been jailbroken, or you illegally downloaded an IPSW unsigned by Apple, there is no telling what might happen as a result.

Best of luck,

GB

FHI: Apple stopped signing iOS 9.2.1 on 5 April

Thanks Chris! Sounds like the OP may have reinstalled it in that timeframe

GB