Apple Has an Activation Lock Removal Process -- Will it Work on 10-Year-Old iPhone 5s?

I was excited to learn that Apple has an official Activation Lock removal process! Could I have been wrong about Activation Lock all along? I'll try the process on 21 old iPhones.

Apple Unlocking Link:


Reddit Link:

[hansofmadata]

The guys saying it worked for them in the Reddit thread are probably the same people who sell the lots of activation locked iPhones on eBay 😂

[tbdtobedetermined]

good video! another note: if you're on the "Activation Lock" Screen, you can also obtain the serial number from the device by putting the device asleep and hitting the ( i ) icon on the lock screen

[alejandroalzatesanchez]

"This is apple bussiness how i can help you?"
"Hello i'm a refurbisher i want to unlock a bulk of devices"
**wheezes** "Refurbishing what the heck are you talking about?!"
**They put him on hold**

[grandcalifornia]

The audacity of Apple to say they care about reducing waste when they literally are number 1 contributor of it.

[archtitan]

I've only gotten this system to work once, with my mom's cousins' iPad Pro 1st Gen. She had passed away so there was no way to remove it from iCloud so I pretended like I bought the iPad on eBay and Apple surprisingly unlocked it. Every other device I've tried hasn't worked though.

[alwaysappleftd]

I really loved the video! I honestly hate Activation Lock as well. I used to have more success with the Apple unlocking method but ever since November they keep denying me. I also smiled when you said “When the response back is quicker, it means it was a bot and not a human” because I used to get quick responses when it worked, and it took quite a few days when it failed.

[celebrityrog]

I've always chatted online or iMessage or in person with Apple Support, never on the phone, so it's nice to finally know what it sounds like talking to them on the phone. They have the same accent as the Charlie Brown teacher.

[Anonymous]

I used to work for Apple Retail. In the early days of Activation Lock, if a customer came in with a locked phone I could unlock it on my Apple checkout device. All I needed was a manager to log in and the device was unlocked. That process later became more complicated and required an invoice and then not long after that the process disappeared altogether.

[AUATUWVSH]

the reason for the lock is not for data security, it is for the security of your money in their pocket, money from resold devices isnt going into apple's pockets

[SteveMaves]

Thanks for going to the extra effort to figure this out in detail! This was a really informative video.

[marcuskotsu]

What really gets to me about this is -- why not provide some way of contacting the previous owner? I get not wanting to expose their email address or phone number, but why not add a button to the activation lock screen sending a notice to the previous owner notifying them that someone is trying to activate an old device? If they're using the same account on a new device, it could just show up as a notification -- or within remote management console, if that's what is going on.

There's clearly real value in the Activation Lock feature in case your device is lost or stolen, but if you sold your device without realizing this is still activated, or that it even exists at all, there's got to be *some* way of getting in contact with you, no?

[barbadolid]

Big news: nothing new under the sun. Thanks for going the extra mile and trying, big company bureaucracy isn't pleasant to deal with

[hello.i-am-jimmy]

6:13 Famous words 💀
"Hopefully your human, and you can get through the captcha here, sometimes I have problems with that"

[cassiuscartland]

I think how they should do it is: if the phone has been reset, it has 10 days to be reported Lost or Stolen before it automatically removes Activation Lock. It would mean there is still that layer of security but there arent loads of devices ending up in landfill

[dvsmlww]

Some of Apple's MDM helper actually priced base on numbers of devices or users, such as Apple's Business Essentials, which means more devices/users = more money from the institution / company paid to an MDM helper in this case Apple by month / year. As the time goes by, old devices are replaced and dumped but didn't roll out of MDM, they're still charged per month / year, so the cost of managing will actually adds up, usually like these little things are not cared by giant companies simply because it makes more money, maybe not a lot, but more for sure.

[monstersquishy]

i can totally relate to this. i work for a e-waste recycler slash reseller and we have had to scrap tons of apple products do to the activation lock. It sucks because its always on the newer models of things, the ones people want more but we cant sell them because we cant restore them back to a usable state. Its not a problem with apples older stuff, but apple doesn't support them any more and nobody wants them because they are too old.

[M.V.P]

Great video, I'm not in the refurb business but I did accumulate 3 Apple devices throughout the years. 1 iPad found in the trash and 2 Locked MacBook's purchased from eBay. These locks should automatically expire after a certain amount of time. Such a waste!!! They're just going to end up in a dump somewhere. They're just banking on people buying new devices PURE GREED!!!

[timewideinternational]

Man apple can drive you nuts, i have tried 35 times just to get an activation lock removed all attempts have been denied 😂😂

[jarboer]

Cool video, I have a few iCloud locked devices which would be nice to unlock. One was when I was working at a repair place and the customer was upgrading, she forgot her password so I changed it. The new iPad accepted it but the old one didn't even after being reset, I asked my boss if it was ok if I kept it since the customer didn't want it and they said I could. I still never got activation lock removed but I was able to bypass it and use it. I would be nice to have it fully unlocked, maybe I'll get it one day.

Also, personally I found the use of AI photos offputting, often it felt like it didn't add much but distract me because I knew they were AI. Just doing a voice over showing the actual sites and docs would be better imo.

[anthonybush]

I have a 2019 MacBook Pro I need to try this on. Bought it as is iCloud locked at a pawn shop about a year ago