Why did iPad 'Activation Lock' suddenly appear?

Question

Level 1

14 points

Why did iPad 'Activation Lock' suddenly appear?

I have an original retina iPad (running iOS 9.x.x) and have made no updates or changes to it for months, if not years. I was just streaming content from Netflix and suddenly the screen went black, the apple logo appeared, and then the screen turned white and has presented me with an 'Activation Lock' requiring me to enter my apple ID and password.

I've been using this iPad for years without this ever happening before, so I want to make sure that this is legitimate and that I am not giving away my account details.

Can anybody from Apple confirm if it's OK to continue please? If so, why did this happen now?

Thanks.

Posted on May 9, 2018 3:44 AM

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Answer 1

MoonJ.

Community Specialist

May 10, 2018 5:18 AM in response to Mat Stuart

Hey Mat Stuart,

It always good to be cautious when you're suddenly faced with an Activation Lock screen that asks for your details. I'll be happy to help out.

Take a look here at the screenshots to see if this is the screen that you're seeing. If it is, then it should be safe to proceed: Find My iPhone Activation Lock

If you're still unsure if this is truly Activation Lock, then you can remove Activation Lock from a device using a browser on a computer and navigating to iCloud.com/find . Then follow these steps: Turn off Find My iPhone Activation Lock . At that point, Activation Lock should be remove from the iPad.

Let us know how that works out for you. Cheers!

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Answer 2

Mat Stuart Author

Level 1

14 points

May 10, 2018 5:25 AM in response to MoonJ.

Thanks MoonJ. The screen shots looked the same other than mine wouldn't rotate to landscape... hopefully that's not an indicator of a hack!

I chose to enter the account info via the iPad based on the screen shot because for some reason the find fucntion couldn't see my iPad even though it is linked to the wifi. For some reason it was listed as offline, so I couldn't remove the activation lock by using another device!

I guess I'll find out if I have been hacked soon enough!

Thanks again.

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Why did iPad 'Activation Lock' suddenly appear?

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