iPhone dead. Activation Lock: On but iCloud doesn't show Find My Phone

Question

iPhone dead. Activation Lock: On but iCloud doesn't show Find My Phone

My daughter's iphone died when water spilled on it. We have a Verizon warranty and got the replacement phone today, but were informed that we need to disable the activation lock before sending the dead phone back.

I checked and the activation lock is apparently on. However, when my daughter signs into iCloud, it only shows the three "office" apps and does not show anything about Find My Phone or disabling the Activation Lock. She swears she never set up Find My Phone. (We got the phone new from VZW.)

Why would the Activation Lock check show that it's on, but iCloud doesn't show it? Since the phone is DEAD we can't do anything there.

Suggestions?

iPhone 5s

Posted on Aug 18, 2016 5:51 PM

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Answer 1

000FFF

Level 3

523 points

Aug 18, 2016 5:57 PM in response to smdifrancesco152

How did you check to see that Activation Lock was on? Did your daughter use her own Apple ID for iCloud or would you have used your Apple ID?

Make sure you are signed into iCloud.com with the same Apple ID that is signed into iCloud on her old iPhone.

Follow the instructions for "If the device is erased" in this article: Turn off Find My iPhone Activation Lock - Apple Support

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Answer 2

Aug 18, 2016 6:05 PM in response to 000FFF

We used https://www.icloud.com/activationlock/ and entered the IMEI and it says "Activation Lock: On"

When we check https://www.icloud.com/find it doesn't show anything but the default "office" apps.

Going to call Apple support (God help me) and see if they can tell me whether the IMEI is associated with a different iCloud account - no idea how that would be though. My kids have iphones but my wife and I have Androids.

I'm stumped.

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Answer 3

000FFF

Level 3

523 points

Aug 18, 2016 6:19 PM in response to smdifrancesco152

Apple won't be able to tell you if it is locked with a different Apple ID due to their privacy policy. Are you familiar with how to take a screenshot of your computer screen? Sign into iCloud.com without the find at the end and post a screenshot of the apps you see on the screen in a reply here. It will help us see what you are seeing.

For Windows: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13776/windows-use-snipping-tool-to-capt ure-screenshots

For Mac: How to take a screenshot on your Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 4

Aug 18, 2016 8:27 PM in response to smdifrancesco152

What you are seeing when you log into iCloud.com is the "Web-only" version of iCloud. That means that iCloud was not fully enabled when it was set up:

Web-only access to iCloud - Apple Support

If you have another iOS device or a Mac that you can sign your daughter's iCloud ID into under either Settings>iCloud or System Preferences>iCloud, that will enable the full iCloud access.

You can try that, but if the device is dead, there is not a lot that you can do even if the Activation Lock is on. The way to get it off via the Find My iPhone app in iCloud.com would be to send the Erase command to the phone. It would ask for your Apple/iCloud password, and set up a "pending" erase command to be sent to the phone when it comes back online. But since the device is dead, it is not going to have a Wifi signal, so it won't execute the command.

It is quite possible that by initiating the command, it will automatically erase it if and when the Verizon people get it working again. That is about the best you can do under the circumstances.

Best of luck,

GB

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