Tethyra

Q: An employee locked us out of an iPad using his Apple ID and refuses to remove it, which has made the iPad Air which is brand new useless to us. Does anyone know how this can be fixe?

How do I remove an employees personal Apple ID from an iPad Air when they have locked us out of using it?

Posted on Jul 20, 2015 12:54 PM

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Q: An employee locked us out of an iPad using his Apple ID and refuses to remove it, which has made the iPad Air which is brand new u ... more

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  • by imobl,

    imobl imobl Jul 20, 2015 2:38 PM in response to Tethyra
    Level 5 (6,900 points)
    iPhone
    Jul 20, 2015 2:38 PM in response to Tethyra

    Get proof of purchase for the iPad (something showing the business purchased that

    particular iPad as identified by serial number, etc) and take that proof along with the

    iPad to the nearest Apple store so they may assist you. Make an appointment before

    going to avoid delay.

     

    Make a Genius Bar Reservation

    http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/

     

    Have your Legal Department/Human Resources draw up an agreement for

    employees to sign that their last pay check will be withheld until they

    return all business owned items and remove AppleIDs, etc from those

    devices. Make sure that verifying for the devices to be cleared is part of

    the employee departure list.

  • by nsdjoey,Apple recommended

    nsdjoey nsdjoey Jul 20, 2015 3:41 PM in response to Tethyra
    Level 3 (955 points)
    Jul 20, 2015 3:41 PM in response to Tethyra

    Hi Tethyra,

     

    If your business/company purchased the device directly from Apple and if you have proof of purchase with your business name on the receipt, you can call Apple's Enterprise Support and have them remove activation lock.

     

    I manage a fleet of iPads for a large school district and we have had numerous students tie their Apple ID's to devices and enable Activation Lock. Fortunately, Apple now has the Device Enrollment Program (DEP) which we use to supervise our devices, and it allows us to use our MDM (we use Casper) to remove Activation Lock if a student enables it on their device. Here is one of Apple's articles on using MDM with Activation Lock:

     

    Use Mobile Device Management and Find My iPhone Activation Lock

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202804

     

    I recommend that you enroll your company in DEP and use an MDM to manage your iPads so that if this happens in the future you can remove Activation Lock yourself. You can do quite a bit of management OTA with an MDM which will save you time in the long run, especially if you have a large number of iPads.

     

    Hope this answers your question!

    ~Joe

  • by Tethyra,

    Tethyra Tethyra Jul 20, 2015 4:31 PM in response to nsdjoey
    Level 1 (2 points)
    Jul 20, 2015 4:31 PM in response to nsdjoey

    Before you got into the program were they able to remove the lock for you? The employee put it into lost activation lock and even with proof of purchase they told me through regular tech support that they cannot unlock it. SoI am very frustrated

  • by rccharles,

    rccharles rccharles Jul 21, 2015 9:17 AM in response to Tethyra
    Level 6 (8,471 points)
    Classic Mac OS
    Jul 21, 2015 9:17 AM in response to Tethyra

    Before you got into the program were they able to remove the lock for you? The employee put it into lost activation lock and even with proof of purchase they told me through regular tech support that they cannot unlock it. SoI am very frustrated


    I know only what I read here and on the 'net.  I suggest you follow advice in paragraph one.   Or, go to an apple store with proof of purchase. With the correct documentation, Apple can enable the device.

     

    Enterprise

     

     

    <Personal Information Edited by Host>

  • by nsdjoey,

    nsdjoey nsdjoey Jul 21, 2015 9:26 AM in response to Tethyra
    Level 3 (955 points)
    Jul 21, 2015 9:26 AM in response to Tethyra

    Hi Tethyra,

     

    Yes. In years past, we were able to get Activation Lock removed from iPads by going through Apple Enterprise Support. Since we (our school district) purchased all of our iPads directly from Apple, they have a record of what serial numbers were sent to us. We have receipts with our purchasing information and serial numbers for all of our iPads. The key is to prove that your company purchased the device(s).

     

    Good luck!

    ~Joe

  • by notcloudy,

    notcloudy notcloudy Jul 23, 2015 1:10 PM in response to Tethyra
    Level 4 (1,190 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 23, 2015 1:10 PM in response to Tethyra

    Tethyra wrote:

     

    How do I remove an employees personal Apple ID from an iPad Air when they have locked us out of using it?

    Is the employee still with you? Or was this a parting surprise after their last day?