what does icloud locked mean?

The disadvantage is that without the AppleID and passcode used to originally

setup the iPhone, you will not be able to activate it. You will not be able to complete

the setup process. You will have an unuseable iPhone.

You cannot use it fully because you do not have the needed credentials.

For more information, you may wish to read here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5818?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4515

sdc100 wrote:

In fact, I'm pretty sure the law doesn't require any found items to be turned over to the police. A item found on the street does not constitute a "stolen item," even if the owner lost it unwillingly.

This is not exactly correct, at least in the UK and very likely also in the USA. If you find an object of value, you are obliged to make a 'reasonable effort' to locate the owner: turning it in to the police contitutes a 'reasonable effort'. If it's not claimed after a period you may then be able to assume its ownership, but you are definitely not allowed to just pick it up and keep it.

Thanks; that clarifies the issue.

Does Apple offer any "Find my iPhone Owner" service to allow identifying and/or contacting the person who set the Activation Lock? In the case of loss or theft, this would be useful to owners and law enforcement, respectively. In my case, I have a seller who alleges the phone isn't stolen, but can't himself unlock it for an as-yet unknown reason. The only reasons I can imagine are 1) the phone is stolen or was lost and subsequently found by the current "owner", 2) the activation ID/password has been forgotten, 3) the original owner is dead or incapacitated, and the present "owner" (heir, caregiver, etc.) doesn't know the ID/password. For 1), the true owner would probably love to know where his phone is, for 2) there MUST be some way for the true owner to recover his credentials, and for 3) there should be a way for the current possessor to access the phone, perhaps with the authority of a court order or other legal document.

Could you be more specific -- by "anything at all" do you mean that literally? I've used unactivated (but not "locked") iPhones in the past, and everything worked -- Web use, iOS updates, camera, Apps, Store, etc. -- I just couldn't make phone calls. In particular, I want to use an iPhone 5 purely as a camera, so don't need to activate it. But one person in AppleCare said I wouldn't be able to view the pictures taken. What's the REAL story?

True, but an innocent and likely scenario of a person walking down the street or thru a parking lot and finding a phone that has been ran over multiple times, what options does he have? Throw the badly damaged iPhone 7 in the garbage or pick it up and sell it for a few bucks? Or let's just say I find a phone, can't find the owner. I have a badly damaged phone. What options do I have?

I have heard that an Original owner with proof of purchase can get it reset, but an original owner can also retrieve their credentials without Apples assistance.

Apple does not and will not undo the activation lock under any normal process nor do they offer a find the owner service.

It is a theft deterrent and the ability to bypass that security would render it not effective.

You can give your feedback to apple at http://apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

The parts aren't worth anything if the phone has suffered water damage, so unless you lie about it's history no one will buy it.

You can unlock it by logging in to https://apple.com/find and removing it from your account. But that will not erase the information on the phone if it is non-responsive.

Apple2Day wrote:

I had lost my phone and got a phone, to use temporarily, from a family member.

1) I got a phone and is now selling the temporary phone. The person is asking if it is icloud locked. After reading this post, it would appear that it is not as it does not show in my iCloud account. Is that correct?

2) They are also asking for the IMEI but I no longer have the SIM card so I can't get that info or is there another way? Although I did see somewhere where they said that this information should not be given out.

Thanks in advance.

You can check the Activation Lock status here: https://www.icloud.com/activationlock/

You can get the IMEI by going to Settings/General/About on the phone. The IMEI is not on the SIM. Other ways to find it: iPhone: Locating the serial number, IMEI, ICCID or MEID

If you are selling the phone it's probably OK to give out the IMEI, as the buyer will want to check if it is blacklisted. There is some risk, but not a major one.

If the iPhone has been protected by Activation Lock, you will not be able to

do anything - play music, use camera, backup existing data - without the AppleID

and passcode originally used to put Activation Lock in place. This is is a

security feature of iOS 7. Previous versions of iOS could be restored without

the required information; iOS 7 cannot. There is no workaround for Activation Lock.

DON'T BUY IT!!

Every iOS device has an unique id which associates the proper owner. It is built into the chip and impossible to fake. If you buy an iCloud locked iPhone or iPad off eBay, you are in possession of a stolen good and could be arrested! Definitely not worth the agony to try to save a few bucks

I laugh at the thieves who steal products from Apple store. The only way they can get rid of the hot potato is to fool people to buy it on eBay

"If you buy an iCloud locked iPhone or iPad off eBay, you are in possession of a stolen good..."

Not necessarily. You're just in possession of a device for which you know of no one who can or will tell you how to unlock it. I can think of several situations where this could happen, the most obvious might be purchasing the device at an estate sale. Or one spouse in a nasty divorce might be awarded the device, but the other spouse is the one who knows the password, and refuses to disclose it. Or the device is seized as evidence in a felony case and the owner refuses to tell the court the password. Lots of reasons to have a process in place to unlock the phone with appropriate protections.

To some degree, you might have the point. However, if a spouse refuses to disclose his/her credentials, The other spouse has no right or whatsoever to sell it on eBay. One way or the other, do not buy anything from anyone other then the proper owner. Would you rather spend thousands of dollars in legal fees so that you can save a few dollars today?

There are non-theft related ways that a device becomes iCloud locked. I once bought a used iPad, only to find when I bought it that it was registered to another person's apple ID. Luckily, that apple ID was a full email address, which I used to contact the previous owner. They were surprised it had not been wiped, and explained they had traded it in to a vendor who upgraded them to a brand new (ipad Air) device, and gave them a discount for the trade. They were actually kind enough to give me their apple ID password, however it DIDN'T WORK! The previos owner apologized and said that her daugher had set it up when she bought it new in 2012, and now could not remember her password. They said they still had the original sales reciept, which they offered to send me if that might help, but I decided I wasn't messing with that any more, and returned it to the vendor. What he did with it... I'm pretty sure he just sold it on eBay as an "iCloud-Locked" device.

Everyone automatically assumes an iCloud locked device is stolen (as seen in the comments above). While that's probably true too frequently, there are likely far more exceptions to that than apple would care to admit. That being said, as an owner of an 1 iPhone, 1 iPad, and 3 iPod touches (for my sons), I am VERY glad to have the iCloud theft-deterrent.

If it is purchased from Apple or an authorized reseller it will not be iCloud locked. If you buy it from eBay, Amazon, or an unauthorized reseller you are taking your chances. You can check it here: https://www.icloud.com/activationlock/

pctechtv wrote:

Great info, I goggled the question what is iCloud Lock and got this. My question is if a phone is brand new in a sealed box (never used) could it still be iCloud locked?

Boxes can be resealed. So a sealed box is no guarantee that the product inside is new (this applies to all products, not just iPhones).