Recovered iPhone requires iCloud login FAIL

[sundog925]

This whole thread seems fishy.
You set up your iPhone 5 years ago?? and haven't bought a SINGLE app in 5 years? Or updating or made changes to the phone? SERIOUSLY?

The phone freakin asks for a password every 2 minutes, NO WAY you can just "forget it". Even in 5 years.

My new password has been drilled into me within a week.

You stole the phone. Go return it or post the EMAIL for all of us to see.

 

[dave420]

This whole thread seems fishy.
You set up your iPhone 5 years ago?? and haven't bought a SINGLE app in 5 years? Or updating or made changes to the phone? SERIOUSLY?

The phone freakin asks for a password every 2 minutes, NO WAY you can just "forget it". Even in 5 years.

My new password has been drilled into me within a week.

You stole the phone. Go return it or post the EMAIL for all of us to see.

You don't seem like you will listen to much reason, but it is possible to have separate app store passwords and iCloud passwords. It is also possible to restore an old backup from a computer to a phone running iOS 7 and not know that backup has an iClous password saved. This system is relatively new, so we can give people time to adjust before jumping on them for stealing devices.
Plus it's not like we can help him break into a stolen device anyway, so the only advice is really to take it to an Apple store. No need to prove anything to us related to the device being legitimately owned.

 

[Daveoc64]

apple has the records of everyone who buys their products, all the devices on the apple ID, etc

They cannot possibly have that information.

They may know who has purchased a product directly from them, or which Apple ID(s) a device has been associated with, but they cannot identify the legal owner of a device.

As soon as it's in the user's hands, anything could happen. It could be sold, traded, lost, stolen, replaced under an insurance policy etc.

Apple's policy here is simple - they won't help people bypass activation lock. Regaining access to the Apple ID is the only solution, although Apple's policies do not make that easy for legitimate customers.

 

[FrizzleFryBen]

You don't seem like you will listen to much reason, but it is possible to have separate app store passwords and iCloud passwords. It is also possible to restore an old backup from a computer to a phone running iOS 7 and not know that backup has an iClous password saved. This system is relatively new, so we can give people time to adjust before jumping on them for stealing devices.
Plus it's not like we can help him break into a stolen device anyway, so the only advice is really to take it to an Apple store. No need to prove anything to us related to the device being legitimately owned.

Thank you. These insinuations of a stolen device are not helpful and are knee jerk reactions from people who didn't read the thread.

This is exactly the problem. I setup my phone with a work email that no longer exists however all my apps on my phone were purchased from a personal account. I have restored my phone multiple times as well as for new phones over the years (never asked for a password, nor did it ask when I updated to iOS7). This has never been an issue until a few days ago. I have a perfectly good working phone that has been rendered useless due to an iOS update failure and forced recovery.

 

[iLeoMarc]

I also had iCloud recovery issues. Call applecare, they might be able to help you in getting around it. Unfortunately for myself, they couldn't help me because I threw away my 2-step verification recovery code. If you didn't activate that, you might have better luck.

Waiting until everyone says I also stole my iPhone... A little secret, people can forget their passwords. Especially since my iCloud is separate than my iTunes store AppleID.

 

[FrizzleFryBen]

Figured I'd give an update.

So I went to the ATT store to buy a burner phone while trying to get this figured out (I had to leave first thing the next morning to SW FL). The dude there thought of a step I could take. So I ran home and did that...same activation lock results. (I wasn't surprised but was wiling to try)

I went back to the ATT store to buy a burner phone and a different dude insisted that it's an easy fix and I should call Apple. So I borrowed his phone to call. 2 hours later and 4 escalations I was on the phone with a total nerdy tech geek (I can say that cause I'm one) and his only answer was "I don't know. I've never seen this before. I don't know what to do. Can I sent this over to the engineers and give you a call back in a few days?" Of course I said yes....but there was one problem. My dumb ass forgot he has my iPhone number and not the burner phone number.

So it's been a week and I'm going to call them back tonight.