I do IT training as a side-hobby. I train others to get the Microsoft MD-100 and MD-101 exams passed for the Microsoft 365 Certified: Modern Desktop Administrator Associate certification on the Windows side of the house and the Apple macOS Support Essentials Exams for the Apple Certified Support Professional certification on the Mac side of the house.
Toward the latter, I've purchased a handful of 2020 Intel MacBook Airs (the M1s are driving the cost down and, despite the weak performance of these particular Intel Airs, they are perfectly adequate for covering everything in Apple macOS Support Essentials) on eBay.
I've acquired three Airs so far. On two out of the three, I've had the following issue:
On a clean OS install, I'm able to sign in with my Apple ID and, it seems, able to enable Find My Mac. However, if I go to System Information, it says that Activation Lock is Disabled. Upon subsequent wipes and reloads of the OS (via Internet Recovery), I'm able to wipe the drive and reload macOS (and this works with both Big Sur and Catalina and this is with Full Security enabled and external drive booting disabled) and then turn Find My Mac back on. Yet, Activation Lock still reports as being disabled.
So, figuring that Activation Lock is governed by the T2 Chip, I hook these Airs with Activation Lock oddities to another known good Mac of mine, put their T2 chips into DFU mode, load up Apple Configurator 2, and then do a full restore. Once I boot to Internet Recovery, I am locked out with the Apple ID of the previous owner in place.
Luckily, in both cases, the owners were cooperative and helped to remove the Mac from their respective Apple IDs. In both cases, I was able to get past Activation Lock eventually. However, with one of them (and I'll test to see if it is the case on the other one), I sent the Air to a student for tutoring and, to educate on the perils and benefits of Activation Lock, I intentionally left my Apple ID attached to that Mac. When my student received it, she was never presented with the Activation Lock prompt for my Apple ID; she was just able to roll right on. I had her do a DFU wipe of the T2 chip to see if it might re-jigger my Apple ID via Activation Lock to come in. We haven't yet tested (as this was last night and it got pretty late for the both of us). But it would seem as though something weird is up if I have to DFU wipe the T2 chip for Activation Lock to...y'know...work.
Has anyone else ever had this issue with T2 or M1 Macs and handing them off to someone else on either on a temporary or permanent basis? It's highly peculiar. I have three Intel Airs, and one M1 Air, and so far, it's only on two of the Intel Airs. Incidentally, the affected Airs are Space Gray, while the unaffected ones are Silver; though I'd imagine that doesn't make a bit of difference.
Toward the latter, I've purchased a handful of 2020 Intel MacBook Airs (the M1s are driving the cost down and, despite the weak performance of these particular Intel Airs, they are perfectly adequate for covering everything in Apple macOS Support Essentials) on eBay.
I've acquired three Airs so far. On two out of the three, I've had the following issue:
On a clean OS install, I'm able to sign in with my Apple ID and, it seems, able to enable Find My Mac. However, if I go to System Information, it says that Activation Lock is Disabled. Upon subsequent wipes and reloads of the OS (via Internet Recovery), I'm able to wipe the drive and reload macOS (and this works with both Big Sur and Catalina and this is with Full Security enabled and external drive booting disabled) and then turn Find My Mac back on. Yet, Activation Lock still reports as being disabled.
So, figuring that Activation Lock is governed by the T2 Chip, I hook these Airs with Activation Lock oddities to another known good Mac of mine, put their T2 chips into DFU mode, load up Apple Configurator 2, and then do a full restore. Once I boot to Internet Recovery, I am locked out with the Apple ID of the previous owner in place.
Luckily, in both cases, the owners were cooperative and helped to remove the Mac from their respective Apple IDs. In both cases, I was able to get past Activation Lock eventually. However, with one of them (and I'll test to see if it is the case on the other one), I sent the Air to a student for tutoring and, to educate on the perils and benefits of Activation Lock, I intentionally left my Apple ID attached to that Mac. When my student received it, she was never presented with the Activation Lock prompt for my Apple ID; she was just able to roll right on. I had her do a DFU wipe of the T2 chip to see if it might re-jigger my Apple ID via Activation Lock to come in. We haven't yet tested (as this was last night and it got pretty late for the both of us). But it would seem as though something weird is up if I have to DFU wipe the T2 chip for Activation Lock to...y'know...work.
Has anyone else ever had this issue with T2 or M1 Macs and handing them off to someone else on either on a temporary or permanent basis? It's highly peculiar. I have three Intel Airs, and one M1 Air, and so far, it's only on two of the Intel Airs. Incidentally, the affected Airs are Space Gray, while the unaffected ones are Silver; though I'd imagine that doesn't make a bit of difference.