My son locked my mackbook

[KayEm6419]

Did your kid go to macOS Recovery? A firmware password can only be set there.

In post #1 OP wrote: My son is in highschool so I lent him the macbook. I dont have a clue what he did, but he somehow he locked it.

Now, with all respect, it's not difficult to imagine a teenager getting into a world of mischief online. Perhaps son & helpful friend locked the MBP on purpose to keep certain activities forever in the dark? Speculating here.

(BTW, "being in highschool" is not sufficient reason to lend son one's work computer!)

Was computer part of a severance package?

 

[Meuti]

If the old work email (in which the proof of purchase is stated) was/is imap4 you might still be able to access it over a web interface. If not, or you don't have the credentials, you're best chance is probably getting in touch with the old company.

 

[laptech]

Stolen or not, there is no 'it can be removed easily and free using info from the internet' option here. The OP only has two choices, take it to an Apple store for them to remove the firmware lock but the store will want proof that the macbook belongs to the OP or to take it to a Apple 3rd party repair shop who has the tool to remove the firmware lock but will probably find the same thing, the shop wanting proof that the macbook belongs to the OP because macbook locks are there for a reason and the shop will be suspicious as to why there is a lock on it. Repair shops have heard all the excuses as to why there is a lock on macbooks and they tend to know that they are dealing with a stolen macbook, hence why a large majority of them ask for proof of purchase before removing firmware locks.

Apple and repair shops have these polices in place for a reason because it is very easy for someone with a stolen laptop to say 'help me please, I've forgotten the lock code, can you remove it'.

 

[ctjack]

Now, with all respect, it's not difficult to imagine a teenager getting into a world of mischief online. Perhaps son & helpful friend locked the MBP on purpose to keep certain activities forever in the dark? Speculating here.

I bought it from the similar kid. I bought my used rmbp 13 2012 from a 13-14 years old teenager. That guy just locked EFI password out of curiosity, I never knew about that until i needed reinstall. When i asked him, he said he doesn't remember. Happened to be his mom's phone number.
I have also managed to set password at various places and have hard times to remember when i was a teen. But so far EFI is most scary, because you type it and it is hidden with stars and no hints whatsoever. Luckily unlimited attempts.

 

[laptech]

I bought it from the similar kid. I bought my used rmbp 13 2012 from a 13-14 years old teenager. That guy just locked EFI password out of curiosity, I never knew about that until i needed reinstall. When i asked him, he said he doesn't remember. Happened to be his mom's phone number.
I have also managed to set password at various places and have hard times to remember when i was a teen. But so far EFI is most scary, because you type it and it is hidden with stars and no hints whatsoever. Luckily unlimited attempts.

Rubbish, you cannot enable firmware password out of 'curiosity' because the process to enable it is very very specific. It requires someone who knows what they are doing, meaning it is something that is done deliberately rather than just out of 'curiosity'

 

[jdvoracek]

Four IF's: 1) the SSD is NOT encrypted; 2) a copy of the receipt you need really is on the SSD; 3) your 2017 MBP has a socketed SSD; and 4) you have $100 to gamble; then buy an OWC ENVOY PRO 1A and you can read that SSD which has the receipt on another Apple computer with a USB3 port.

(ed. - spelling)

 

[pshufd]

Call your company's IT department and sort this out. Less information you give them the better. This is why you don't use company tools for personal use.

Or bring it to a Genius Bar and see if they can fix it.

My prior workplace required encryption and you don't give out the encryption key. Basically you shouldn't allow access to anyone outside of another employee or IT. This should be drilled into employees in annual training sessions on computer security. Anything connected to the corporate network had to have corporate spyware installed as well and it could kick you off the network or lock your system for violations without explanation.

 

[Fomalhaut]

Rubbish, you cannot enable firmware password out of 'curiosity' because the process to enable it is very very specific. It requires someone who knows what they are doing, meaning it is something that is done deliberately rather than just out of 'curiosity'

There is a big difference between "out of curiosity" and "by accident". I agree it would be unlikely to set an EFI password by accident, however I can quite believe that a curious person with just enough IT knowledge to be dangerous could easily experiment with the recovery menu and firmware settings. There is plenty on the Internet to guide you.

I'm an IT professional and spend a lot of time trying various things on computers "out of curiosity". I'm old enough to have a sense of what might be "dangerous", but I've made a few mistakes in my time that have either locked something or required a complete re-install. I think it is entirely conceivable the the OPs son was experimenting and messed it up - or at least didn't appreciate the implications of what they were doing. This is normal behaviour for young people.

 

[laptech]

There is a big difference between "out of curiosity" and "by accident". I agree it would be unlikely to set an EFI password by accident, however I can quite believe that a curious person with just enough IT knowledge to be dangerous could easily experiment with the recovery menu and firmware settings. There is plenty on the Internet to guide you.

I'm an IT professional and spend a lot of time trying various things on computers "out of curiosity". I'm old enough to have a sense of what might be "dangerous", but I've made a few mistakes in my time that have either locked something or required a complete re-install. I think it is entirely conceivable the the OPs son was experimenting and messed it up - or at least didn't appreciate the implications of what they were doing. This is normal behaviour for young people.

I'm an engineer, I have worked in the IT industry, the electronic repair industry and the electronic manufacturing industry and never ever have I worked on a fully working item, device or product so I can satisfy my 'curiosity'.

As for your defence of the OP's son, i completely disagree with you. The machine was fully working. Going into recovery mode is not the habit of a curious mind. If the machine was faulty to some degree then yes, being a curious mind as to how recovery mode works is plausible but to do so on a fully working machine, that's not curiosity, that's just plane malicious behaviour in my opinion.

 

[KayEm6419]

I went to a an apple store but they want proof of purchase which can only be found on an old work email, I need acess to the computer to locate the invoice.

For completeness, this is the statement that led me to assume the locked MBP was issued by previous employer.

 

[MBAir2010]

apple will never lose a dime over these situations,
the CEOs won't care if the laptop was locked out under any circumstances.

 

[Fomalhaut]

I'm an engineer, I have worked in the IT industry, the electronic repair industry and the electronic manufacturing industry and never ever have I worked on a fully working item, device or product so I can satisfy my 'curiosity'.

As for your defence of the OP's son, i completely disagree with you. The machine was fully working. Going into recovery mode is not the habit of a curious mind. If the machine was faulty to some degree then yes, being a curious mind as to how recovery mode works is plausible but to do so on a fully working machine, that's not curiosity, that's just plane malicious behaviour in my opinion.

Perhaps I should clarify - "curiosity" is, IMO, a crucial part of learning and education, and my own experience was that I experimented with computers and electronics from a young age because I wanted to know how stuff works and would take it apart (software included) - and sometimes break stuff in the process. If you never risk touching stuff (that you can afford to break), then you are missing out on learning opportunities.

I am not talking about screwing around with someone else's production system or hardware. Sure, we try to do things non-destructively, or at least to minimise their impact, which is why we have development sandboxes or VMs that are "disposable" and can easily be re-created.

As for the OP's son, it sounds like you have either never been a teenager, or haven't had children recently. Why would the son be "malicious" if he screwed up his father's computer? He may, like many teenagers, have thought he knew what he was doing or was just careless, and either didn't realise what he had done or was embarrassed to own-up to the error. We don't know, so it's a bit of stretch to assume there was bad intent. Maybe there was? Perhaps his dad had grounded him or it was revenge? We don't know... Young people do all sorts of crazy stuff thinking they're on top of it. Otherwise we wouldn't have tragedies like car accidents and drug-overdoses, or doing dangerous stuff on TikTok videos.

 

[Fomalhaut]

For completeness, this is the statement that led me to assume the locked MBP was issued by previous employer.

This is how I understand it. It's pretty usual to have machine management software installed by employers at the firmware level, so maybe it was not the son that created the firmware lock, but the employer. The OP's son may have tried to some some kind of recovery operation (after boot Cmd-R) which then prompted for the firmware password?

I think the OP needs to contact their former employer to see if they can help. Whether they can or not depends on the conditions of departure. Was the MacBook "officially" included in the separation or was it simply not returned? This doesn't imply theft - I've had jobs where they weren't bothered your old laptop because they were at end of life and going to be e-wasted anyway. The difficult thing will be seeing if either they have some master password, or whether the MDM can be disabled, which could conceivably require a visit to the company. It's gets tricky if the original IT people have since left.

 

[Arctic Moose]

I'm an engineer, I have worked in the IT industry, the electronic repair industry and the electronic manufacturing industry

These statements are true for me as well.

and never ever have I worked on a fully working item, device or product so I can satisfy my 'curiosity'.

I have done this more times than I can remember.

When I installed BeOS on my fully operational 9600 I broke it. Then I broke it again (after fixing it) when I installed LinuxPPC.

Now, 25 years later, I broke my fully functional IKEA Floalt because I was curious if I could lower the minimum light intensity. Not because I needed to, just because I was curious.

 

[Lloigorr]

that is how Ford ended up creating the first car

except Karl Benz created the first car in 1885 ?

 

[Fomalhaut]

These statements are true for me as well.



I have done this more times than I can remember.

When I installed BeOS on my fully operational 9600 I broke it. Then I broke it again (after fixing it) when I installed LinuxPPC.

Now, 25 years later, I broke my fully functional IKEA Floalt because I was curious if I could lower the minimum light intensity. Not because I needed to, just because I was curious.

I used to work for Amazon, and one of their leadership principles is "learn and be curious"

 

[Sid_Chat]

Contact your IT department for the invoice. If you get the invoice, press ⇪⌃⌥⌘S on the locked MBP to get a code to give Apple Support.

(Information from https://reverse.put.as/2016/06/25/apple-efi-firmware-passwords-and-the-scbo-myth/)

 

[Fishrrman]

OP seems to have disappeared...

 

[JPack]

He already got his answer a long time ago.

Just need to buy a solderless EFI chip for $80 to $100. Alternatively, an above average repair shop with an EFI programmer can do the job for $50. Plenty of these on eBay.

No invoice needed.

Didn’t bother to read these off topic comments.

 

[KaliYoni]

OP seems to have disappeared...

As usual, in these types of threads.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯