Unlock an iCloud Enabled iPhone

[LineSkiCat14]

Need to unlock a plethora of iPhones for the company. These are locked by iCloud accounts of users who have left, but never bothered to remove the account.

I have a strong IT background, but this one really stumps me. Apple's method of contacting the user, having them go into iCloud and removing the device, doesn't work (we even tested the theory in house between a few techs).

Tried a a few Unlock Tools, but they are more or less just scams and clickbait. One wanted me to fill out a survery, and because I have NO other option, I went against my judgement and started answering questions and giving up old email addresses. a half hour later I had about $20,000 in gift cards and a new Toyota.. and still no damn Unlocking tool.

BTW, the Apple company that everyone loves to go down on, really botched this up. Not only is it a stupid feature (causes more harm than good), but their method of fixing it is broken.. and worst of all, they've had it like this since the iPhone 5 came out.

Any ideas?

 

[GLR5555]

Wish I could help. I'd just shitcan em and get Samsungs.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Easy fix: When you go to wipe your iPhone, have there be an option to REMOVE Find your iPhone/iCloud, enter in your credentials. If you don't have your account cred, it will still wipe the phone (as normal) but will NOT remove iCloud Account. That way when people sell their phones or give them back to the company, it forces them to actively remove this feature.

It could all be so easy, Apple.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Oh how I wish @GLR5555 .

For whatever reason the company still has a fear about Android. Like a smart and nefarious user couldn't just get mail via OWA or Touchdown.

 

[GLR5555]

A really smart and nefarious 14 year old can get basically anything they desire. It just happens that corporate emails fall way down on the list of things they consider valuable.

 

[funKYcat75]

Buy a Mac.

 

[funKYcat75]

Turn it off and back on.

 

[funKYcat75]

Is it plugged in?

 

[Dallas-Wild]

Simply throw on the ground very hard... It's worked for me before. Still had to buy a new phone though.

 

[cricket3]

Is your company guys who steal a bunch of iPhones and resale them?

Seems like if they're company phones they should be tied to company e-mails so accounts can be reset after the person leaves. Other than that I've got nothing.

 

[argubs2]

There are only two ways to do this.

1. Get the information from the previous user....which will probably be your best bet to salvage some of them.
2. Provide proof of purchase to Apple Store and they can zap them.

That's it. Ludicrous that they weren't required to unlock the phones prior to leaving the company.

IT guys should be publicly and brutally executed in the break room for their stupidity. No joke.

 

[AustinTXCat]

Need to unlock a plethora of iPhones for the company. These are locked by iCloud accounts of users who have left, but never bothered to remove the account.

I have a strong IT background, but this one really stumps me. Apple's method of contacting the user, having them go into iCloud and removing the device, doesn't work (we even tested the theory in house between a few techs).

Tried a a few Unlock Tools, but they are more or less just scams and clickbait. One wanted me to fill out a survery, and because I have NO other option, I went against my judgement and started answering questions and giving up old email addresses. a half hour later I had about $20,000 in gift cards and a new Toyota.. and still no damn Unlocking tool.

BTW, the Apple company that everyone loves to go down on, really botched this up. Not only is it a stupid feature (causes more harm than good), but their method of fixing it is broken.. and worst of all, they've had it like this since the iPhone 5 came out.

Any ideas?

We use third-party software (Iron Mountain) to manage our iPhones.

Here's an idea: Reactivate the email accounts/addresses of all the departed end-users and request password resets that way.

 

[argubs2]

Austin, you can't override the iCloud lock with that software, can you? Just curious.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Is your company guys who steal a bunch of iPhones and resale them?

Seems like if they're company phones they should be tied to company e-mails so accounts can be reset after the person leaves. Other than that I've got nothing.

It SHOULD be that easy, but we don't use MDM, and a lot of times, we let the users put their own crap on it. Our user base is the equivalent of today's millennials: They don't want to work for everything, and want everything spoon fed for them. The slightest inconvenience and the IT team has to go back to the drawing board.

Most of these phones have their own personal iCloud accounts on them.

 

[AustinTXCat]

Austin, you can't override the iCloud lock with that software, can you? Just curious.

I asked our iPhone analyst about this scenario. He indicated Apple is introducing a better system for enterprise-level management. Coincidentally, my own iPhone 4s began screwing up while reading this post.

iCloud is bound to the iTunes account. If the end-user's email account is available, then simply reactivate it, change the password and request a password reset on the phone.

 

[jwheat]

You can mail them to me here in Kentucky and I will take care of it all for you. May take me about a week depending on how many phones. Let me know what you want to do OP.

 

[argubs2]

That makes sense Austin.

LineSki, I know you've mentioned you work in IT...I truly hope you weren't behind the iPhone deployment process for your company.

If so, prepare thine bung for entry.

 

[AustinTXCat]

That makes sense Austin.

LineSki, I know you've mentioned you work in IT...I truly hope you weren't behind the iPhone deployment process for your company.

If so, prepare thine bung for entry.

Honestly, wipe the phones and then attempt signing in. If an iCloud account is requested, according to my colleague, one must go through Apple.

LineSki: Beginning now, require new end-users provide their organizational email address when initially configuring these accounts.

 

[argubs2]

For real tho....contact the old users. Any reasonable person would understand and comply, but I know you mentioned these are mostly Millennial mouth breathers so you might have to get creative.

Make it seem like they left their personal information on the phone and the only way to remove it is to have them provide the account password....which they can easily change after the fact.

This is about their privacy / safety. If the company phone user agreement (assuming your company even has one, lmao) doesn't have a section with return policy, add it immediately and send them an email with it. You also most certainly can NEVER allow an employee to use a personal email address.....ever ah-gaaiiin.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Hell no. This place is a GD IT nightmare. There's no process or procedure. Normally, an IT department calls the shots on this sort of thing, on security measures, how things are done. Instead it's CXX management down to middle managers who tell us what to do. I'm set up to fail at least once a month.

The newest thing is that we want to outfit new conference rooms with WIRELESS video streaming/conferencing to mounted TVs. To start, that's just a horrible idea on so many levels. Extra software, higher price, more troubleshooting. But the kicker? They want NO cables to the TV.. no HDMI.. no VGA.. everyone has a client on their machines and beams what they want to the TV. Yeah, because that's not going to be a cluster-eff every day. AV should be simple. and There's nothing more simple than using cables. Lastly, and this one floors me, they don't want to pay for an electric company to term the cables properly. Just run the TV Power cord into the wall! So if that cable gets jacked, instead of just replacing the external cable, you gotta rewire the whole thing. So what should be a 5 min fix, is now a week long project. All because the IT department has no say and they don't like the look of cables.

Rambling now, getting back on topic.

 

[Tinker Dan]

Is it plugged in?

Have you ran all the updates????

 

[cricket3]

I'd inform whoever was in charge of letting people use personal e-mails on work phones they f***ed up. If an iPhone has a personal e-mail tied to it then it's a personal phone, no matter who paid for it.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

For real tho....contact the old users. Any reasonable person would understand and comply, but I know you mentioned these are mostly Millennial mouth breathers so you might have to get creative.

Make it seem like they left their personal information on the phone and the only way to remove it is to have them provide the account password....which they can easily change after the fact.

This is about their privacy / safety. If the company phone user agreement (assuming your company even has one, lmao) doesn't have a section with return policy, add it immediately and send them an email with it. You also most certainly can NEVER allow an employee to use a personal email address.....ever ah-gaaiiin.

Not only the millennial problem.. but disgruntled employees. Good luck getting an employee to comply after they got viciously fired.

But I get what your saying. I can finagle them to help out and assist.We're good to the workers and my guys have always been great with customer support.

But therein lies, yet another problem. Apple's method of having the user log into iCloud on a PC, and removing the device, is shotty at best. I had two users attempt to no avail. Assumed they were messing it up so we tested it and it didn't work.

So even IF I get the user to comply, the method of removing the iCloud account doesn't appear to work.

May be time for MDM. We have licenses for JAMF Casper and Cisco Meraki.

 

[argubs2]

You've tried removing the iCloud account on the phone and then flashing it, right?

 

[LineSkiCat14]

That's my issue, can't get the iCloud account off. Even after a wipe from the phone or EVEN sending it into recovery mode via iTunes..

Can't even get past the 2nd or 3rd setup screens from Out-Of-Box mode.. the 4th one is iCloud. That's where it stays.

 

[argubs2]

To be clear, I meant trying that on one of them that you have the login information for. You should be able to "Sign Out" of iCloud in Settings, I believe it used to be "Delete". If that's what you meant, my bad.

From there you should be able to add another iCloud / iTunes account and use that...or attempt to reset the phone after the iCloud account has been turned off. It might need to happen in conjunction with the user removing the device from iTunes on a PC, I'm not sure.

If it's that difficult even with the password, that's hilarious.

 

[AustinTXCat]

LineSki,

1. Contact AppleCare at 866-753-7753 or email [email protected].

2. Provide Proof of Purchase. PoP must contain IMEI or serial number. Your vendor (Verizon, Sprint, ATT, T-Mobile, etc) may help.

3. Provide your contact info (name, phone#, email, time zone.

4. AppleCare will unlock the device within 48 hours.

Please update your reg procedures ASAP.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

To be clear, I meant trying that on one of them that you have the login information for. You should be able to "Sign Out" of iCloud in Settings, I believe it used to be "Delete". If that's what you meant, my bad.

From there you should be able to add another iCloud / iTunes account and use that...or attempt to reset the phone after the iCloud account has been turned off. It might need to happen in conjunction with the user removing the device from iTunes on a PC, I'm not sure.

If it's that difficult even with the password, that's hilarious.

Yes, So if you do have the email address/PW and the locked phone, you can bypass that screen, and then remove it all together from the settings (iPhones make you go through the OOB mode, and don't let you touch settings until that's done). So it's not a big deal if you have the account information. What I have been doing is working with HR to make SURE they have the user remove this before giving the phone back, and if they really need assistance, to give me a call.

My one confusion is, I always thought iTunes and iCloud weren't tied together at all. I know you can have separate emails/logins for each.

Ideally, you guys are right, it should be business accounts that are being used for iCloud and/or iTunes. The problem is 1. You really can't force it without MDM, you just have to walk them through it. But nothing is stopping them from changing it. and 2. Our user base is such a bunch of "kathys" that they would never go for this.

Unfortunately, there is almost nothing I can do to change this, at least anytime soon.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

All iPhones come with 1-year of Applecare, correct? I know we don't buy anything additionally. AppleCare, when it comes to hardware and warranty, is hot garbage. Dell will fix anything and everything the very next day (onsite tech) and I really don't have to prove ****. I can say a bunch of lies and they send me what I need. Painless.

 

[argubs2]

AppleCare gets you the "privilege" of having phone tech support beyond 90 days and an additional year of warranty.

And when I say phone tech support, I mean a number you can call to talk to a barely high school educated tardbag who will walk you through five minutes of ******** troubleshooting and then setup an Apple Store appointment for you.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Those GD dirt merchants. The last thing they want is for me to go to the AppleStore. I'm no computer savant, but I know more than any 3 of those GeniusBar workers combined. I'd love to kill some sales for them.

 

[AustinTXCat]

@argubs2 : 6 years ago, I rode the city bus to work with AppleCare reps. They seemed like a close-knit crowd. Apple had a call center located here in ATX. Unsure if it is still operating. At my current job, we have lots of iPhones at work on this contract, and both AT&T or Verizon are the carrier. Needless to say, we've experienced much fun with AppleCare support.

 

[Kooky Kats]

I'd randomly call Dehli, India and just start talking to anyone about your situation... Sooner or later, you'll be referred to the right person for the answer.

Albeit you have to deal with the stereotypical annoying Apu accent. Enjoy.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Have that in droves here Kooky. You know what it's like to be the support guy for all the Apu's and Patel's? Not sure if there's a worse hell.

Well, "Do the needful" guys.

 

[Alaskan420]

You can mail them to me here in Kentucky and I will take care of it all for you. May take me about a week depending on how many phones. Let me know what you want to do OP.

 

[Alaskan420]

I need iCloud remove on a few devices from Alaska which we don't have much resources as USA states

 

[Tannerdad]

You can't unless you get the info from the user as mentioned above. I have the same issue. I have scrapped dozens for the same reeason.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Well, I forget exactly how I did it.. you can contact their support/service team I believe, if you have proof of purchase. It's a 4-6 week process to unlock. But if you have the pertinent information (like it's your phone and not stolen).. you can do it.

That said, the process is pretty arduous and doesn't help in the short-term.

Either way, make sure iCloud is removed, whether you buy a phone online, you want to sell your phone, or you work in IT and need to repurpose them.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Not sure what Alaska has to do with it, in a sense of being more or less difficult?

If you have a few phones, and no POP, you're best bet is to sell them as parts and hope to get some money back.

 

[UKGrad93]

I had to unlock an iPhone 5 just before Christmas. Complete pain in the ***.

• I had to contact Apple.
• Then did a conference call with Apple, the former phone user, & myself.
• Former user answered security questions so the password could be reset.
• Apple pinged the phone/ with a code to confirm that I had it.
• 24 hrs later, I had an email link to reset the password.

There may be another way around this, but bottom line for me was getting cooperation from the former owner.