restarted device locked by an unknown apple ID. please help

Yeh, I took the iPad with proof of purchase to the Apple store. .. Had to insist with the manager that he get very interested in the situation and told him to check with a Google search. To his credit he did pass the info on and since then a Senior manager from the iOS team had been in touch with me. They seem to be taking it seriously and have been back to me via email asking for more details which I've supplied of course. It looks like they'll get it resolved but they need to work out what actually went wrong. I think they'll discover a much bigger issue in th end.

I'll keep you all posted

Well, now it is March 2016 and I have the very same problem. I recently downloaded the newest 9 update and now cannot log in.

Only with 3.....@qq.com and Apple tells me they can do nothing. I have the POP and have been trying to contact them once again but not getting any answers. Even talked to a supervisor who was very rude and pretty much told me I had a stolen ipad. My ipad was bought brand new and from a store, it was for Xmas. He says he will get back to me, not holding my breath. I have a three year warranty with this ipad from the place I bought it, they said they will exchange it if Apple cannot fix it. At this point I just want to exchange it for a brand new one.

Did you purchase this iPad used from a private seller? If so, and you just restored it and got this message, then the previous owner failed to remove the device from his/her iCloud account before selling it. You will need to contact the seller and ask him/her to do that now:

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

If you cannot reach the seller or he/she refuses, then there's nothing you can do. That iPad is now unusable. If you purchased through a site that offers any sort of buyer protection, as eBay does, file a claim with them.

Regards.

Hi odeto72 and everyone else.

UPDATE:-

Well, after being contacted by a Senior Advisor from the iOS team and a few phone calls and emails back and forth over the last few days answering all types of questions and sending photos of the iPad itself (very pleasant lady from the iOS Team), the iOS Engineering dept did end up "unlocking" my iPad ... GREAT NEWS and thanks Apple for this. All is now working under MY Apple ID. It is very curious that during this process, I notice that Apple has released iOS 8.1.3. One of the bugfixes was for ...

"Fixes an issue that prevented some users from entering their Apple ID password for Messages and FaceTime".

Funny, that is the problem that started me on this whole journey ... I'd love to get to the bottom and know what exactly happened, but I may never end up knowing.

I suppose the lessons here are these...

• Always keep your Proof of Purchase handy or filed somewhere. If I didn't have that PoP, I never would have got the issue resolved as there would have been no way for them to verify that I am the owner.
• Always buy from a reputable dealer (which I did thankfully). The chances are if I bought it from some shonky dealer, the device may have been a knockoff or a refurbished unit.
• Be persistant but polite with the people at the Apple Store. If I listened to the first staffer, I would still have a brick. Ask politely to speak with the manager and insist they get interested in the issue if you are SURE you are RIGHT!!

So in the end I'm very happy with the outcome and thankful that Apple has "made it right".

They can't lock it unless you set up iCloud and Find My iPad on the iPad. If you did, then it would appear that your Apple ID used to set that up has been compromised. You may be able to recover it by resetting the password here:

https://iforgot.apple.com

If you are unable to do so there, call Apple Support and ask to speak with someone in Account Security.

Regard.

The only way someone could have locked your iPad in this way is if they had physical access to it so as to set up Find My iPad to their own Apple ID, or by compromising the Apple ID you used to set up Find My iPad, accessing it and changing the name on the account. Or you jailbroke the iPad, in which case all sorts of security problems could have arisen.

Call Apple Support and discuss the problem with them. Without the Apple ID and password used to lock the device, there's nothing you can do on your own.

Regards.

I bought my 83 year old mother an iPad 1.5 years ago and it has never left her house. It was purchased brand new from Harvey Norman, a large retail chain in Australia. It was NOT purchased online, was purchased in-store. Only she has ever used it (and myself to set it up for her).

Recently she had a problem with iMessage so I did a backup, updated the iOS and did a factory reset.

On restarting the unit, the Activation Screen says the unit is now locked to 5*****@qq.com. This is an email address I have NEVER used, it certainly was
not an email address I used to setup the iPad originally and now the iPad is a brick. Apple online customer service was of no help other than "you must
enter the Apple ID that is linked to the hardware ... or contact the owner of the current Apple ID to have it released." As this is impossible to do because the whole ID is not shown (masked by asterisks) it is encumbant of Apple to resolve the issue.

My belief is either one of 2 things...

1. this qq.com is a Chinese company (truth) and they manufacture knock off Apple products using the same Serial Number Scheme, so when they register an Apple product on iTunes, their account takes over the "ownership" of the device.

2. it's maybe possible that an app that was downloaded from the AppStore was acting like a Trojan to deliver serial number info to qq.com and was used to hijack the device.

Either way, Apple's product/database has been compromised and Apple need to get onto this ASAP.

It is interesting to see that so many people have had the same issue with the same domain name as the Apple ID (ie ******.qq.com) and APPLE IS DOING NOTHING ABOUT IT.

Did you get any feedback from Apple? I agree with you that Apple knows about this the problem and it is ignoring it. Obviously, somebody was able to hack these Apple devices and make these changes, which made Apple's efforts for linking each device to its owner's ID ineffective. Apple should not be insistent on keeping such flawed system without any flexibility.

Congrats that Apple unlocked your device, but there are older discussions since August 2014 and Apple is doing nothing about it. Apple will only help you if you have your PoP. They gave me the same speech about research and investigation with iCloud support and also had a personal Apple support person to assist. No one could help. No response to the investigation. Nothing after 4 emails, 4 lengthy phone calls, and 2 trips to the local Apple store. I even want to give my iPad back to the local Apple store, but they didn't want it.

I asked to find the owner, Apple couldn't. Prove to me that my iPad is stolen. So place like Walmart and Target is not reputable. Yes this is a security, but Apple won't admit that something hacked into their devices and using their own security against the consumer. Come on Apple you know this is B of C.

Fix it

Have the same problem after upgrading to iOS 9.3.1 last night. I actuallys et it up correctly the first time, then it went to the Home Screen. All was well, so i turned it off and went to sleep.

Earlier this morning, the setup screen showed up again, and the device has now been locked by an x*****@me.com (not any of the qq.com the other users here have had). Has anyone found a fix to this?

Did you purchase this iPad directly from an Apple Store or authorized Apple reseller or was it second-hand? Your device is in Activation Lock and you will need the person with that email to remove it. Apple cannot help you with this.

This was ordered from an authorised Apple reseller, brand new, in the box. I have no idea who the person with the email is.

The device was bought years ago. If it helps, the device is an iPad 3 recently updated to 9.3.1. Not sure if that has anything to do with the problem.

That's unlikely. The item was bought years ago while I was still in China. I'm now living in the Philippines and don't have the PoP.

The real problem here is not that it's incredibly hard to fix -- it's more that it even happened in the first place. As I said, the iPad was bought brand-new. It has not been opened by anyone else prior to that. It was signed in using my Apple ID and my Apple ID only. How is it possible that the email used to set up the iPad was not mine when I personally set it up using my own Apple ID?

if it was purchased years ago in China it was probably not from an authorized reseller and was a grey market device. It was originally activated with that account. The only other possibility would be if you had not activated find my iPad and you let someone else activate it.