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Bought Apple Watch, still linked to previous owners phone
- Thread starter ThatiPhoneKid
- Start date
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Erased the watch, set up with my iPhone and seems to be completely unlinked from the previous owners phone now. I’m happy
Can I just clarify this for my benefit:
1. When you unpair a watch from the Watch app on the phone, you have to supply the Apple ID password to proceed, which signs out of the Apple ID, and the watch can then be sold without an activation lock. I have sold or given to family four watches like this.
2. If you reset the watch from Settings on the watch without unpairing it, I am assuming this does not require the Apple ID so does not remove the Activation lock. But a watch which has been reset like this could still be signed out of the ID remotely by the former owner signing in on his phone or computer, and removing it from the account.
Is this a correct summary?
1. When you unpair a watch from the Watch app on the phone, you have to supply the Apple ID password to proceed, which signs out of the Apple ID, and the watch can then be sold without an activation lock. I have sold or given to family four watches like this.
2. If you reset the watch from Settings on the watch without unpairing it, I am assuming this does not require the Apple ID so does not remove the Activation lock. But a watch which has been reset like this could still be signed out of the ID remotely by the former owner signing in on his phone or computer, and removing it from the account.
Is this a correct summary?
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This really should have been the first thing you tried.
Happy for you, but blows my understanding (post#28) out of the water, and means there is no activation lock protection on watches like there is on phone.
The OP needs to make sure that ALL the features on the watch work because i read what Mike Boreham wrote and it got me thinking so i google searched on pairing watch to iphone and in EVERY guide it states that once the watch is detected by the iphone, you have to click 'agree' to the T&C's and the phone then takes you automatically to apple ID sign in.
Now this is where everything gets confusing. None of the sites i looked at stated why apple ID sign in was required. They all just tell the owner to sign in with their apple ID then the next step is to create a passcode for the watch.
I have read that signing in with apple id is to allow ALL the features on a 'cellular' enable watch to function. I have also read about 'Activation Lock' of the watch but none of the guides state when or where during the 'pairing' does it ask you to setup the activation lock.
So one thing is clear, signing in with your apple id to complete the pairing of watch to iphone is required. EVERY guide I've read indicates this as part of the pairing process. Some guides did mention that after the apple sign in stage, activation lock may appear on the watch, but the guides were not very clear on this.
I think the OP needs to make 100% sure everything works (all watch features), and not just assume everything works because it has appeared to 'pair' with his iphone.
Now this is where everything gets confusing. None of the sites i looked at stated why apple ID sign in was required. They all just tell the owner to sign in with their apple ID then the next step is to create a passcode for the watch.
I have read that signing in with apple id is to allow ALL the features on a 'cellular' enable watch to function. I have also read about 'Activation Lock' of the watch but none of the guides state when or where during the 'pairing' does it ask you to setup the activation lock.
So one thing is clear, signing in with your apple id to complete the pairing of watch to iphone is required. EVERY guide I've read indicates this as part of the pairing process. Some guides did mention that after the apple sign in stage, activation lock may appear on the watch, but the guides were not very clear on this.
I think the OP needs to make 100% sure everything works (all watch features), and not just assume everything works because it has appeared to 'pair' with his iphone.
I bought a series 4 from somebody and when I received it, I could pair to my iPhone, but not sign into my iCloud account to fully use the watch. The previous owner first had to remove the watch from his devices list, not just disable find my AW or sign out. Luckily I had his contact info, so it was solved within 10 minutes.
Best is before you purchase it from a private party to ask if they followed the steps as stated on Apple's website.
Best is before you purchase it from a private party to ask if they followed the steps as stated on Apple's website.
JFC... Why did you not do this before making this thread??
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This is 100% correct. Maybe the seller did that on the iCloud.com side of things.
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That seems the most likely explanation, the other one being that the watch was still on watchOS1 as Activation lock was not introduced until watchOS2. (but don't know if series 1 watches ever ran on watchOS1)
The OP really really should not have been able to overcome the Activation Lock by erasing the watch.
Something is not as it appears to be in this story.
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I’m guessing OP has a stolen watch and wanted to fish for options to make it usable, and seeing there are none, he pretended it was resolved to remove suspicion. Thereby causing more suspicion.
Behaviorally that doesn’t line up, especially with today’s pronounced victim culture. If anything, most would want to get the instant internet sympathy of being the poor victim. Where OP has stayed silent after making a fairly wild and unbelievable claim of bypassing an activation lock with a reset.
Sure you can open a case with eBay and do it that way that’s what I meant in my post, had a few issues with items I’ve bought in the past and eBay always stepped in, they will advise to post it back then the seller will issue a refund, eBay will actually look after the buyer more then the seller these days!
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Good outcome
