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Refurb from Apple is activation locked

pshifrin

pshifrin

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 14, 2010
522
393
Here's an interesting one. Last week when my 15 inch failed, I immediately ordered an 16 inch refurb, directly from Apple.com with overnight shipping, as I cannot be without a computer at this time. The 15 inch issue was resolved the next day with a T2 bridgeOS reinstall but in the meantime the 16 inch arrived and I started setting it up because if I decided to keep it, the 15 inch would be passed down to another employee who is soon due an upgrade.

Sequence of events:
  1. Fired it up and created a dummy login, no AppleID login just to check it for screen quality, coil whine, speaker pops, etc. All seemed good.
  2. Loaded internet recovery and reinstalled 10.15.5. (it came with 10.15.4 and with 10.15.5 now out, why not?)
  3. Proceeded to sign into my Apple ID and start setting up a fresh Mac.
  4. Screwed up how I set it up because I was quite tired and decided to sign out and try again.
  5. Rebooted into internet recovery and boom, activation lock!
If you attempt to activate it with my Apple ID, it says that it's linked to another appleid! I called support and they couldn't figure it out because on their end it wasn't showing locked. They asked me to submit proof of purchase, which I was easily able to do since I have their own invoice showing the serial number. Still waiting to hear back... So strange.
 
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pshifrin said:
Here's an interesting one. Last week when my 15 inch failed, I immediately ordered an 16 inch refurb, directly from Apple.com with overnight shipping, as I cannot be without a computer at this time. The 15 inch issue was resolved the next day with a T2 bridgeOS reinstall but in the meantime the 16 inch arrived and I started setting it up because if I decided to keep it, the 15 inch would be passed down to another employee who is soon due an upgrade.

Sequence of events:
  1. Fired it up and created a dummy login, no AppleID login just to check it for screen quality, coil whine, speaker pops, etc. All seemed good.
  2. Loaded internet recovery and reinstalled 10.15.5. (it came with 10.15.4 and with 10.15.5 now out, why not?)
  3. Proceeded to sign into my Apple ID and start setting up a fresh Mac.
  4. Screwed up how I set it up because I was quite tired and decided to sign out and try again.
  5. Rebooted into internet recovery and boom, activation lock!
If you attempt to activate it with my Apple ID, it says that it's linked to another appleid! I called support and they couldn't figure it out because on their end it wasn't showing locked. They asked me to submit proof of purchase, which I was easily able to do since I have their own invoice showing the serial number. Still waiting to hear back... So strange.
Click to expand...

So the person that bought it first locked it? I'd guess that Apple would check for that with refurbs. So maybe it fell through the cracks.
 
So it is linked to another account, but not activation locked?
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What does the activation lock window look like on a Mac? I'd love to see. Can you post a picture?
 
pshufd said:
So the person that bought it first locked it? I'd guess that Apple would check for that with refurbs. So maybe it fell through the cracks.
Click to expand...
The Man said:
So it is linked to another account, but not activation locked?
[automerge]1591040274[/automerge]
Click to expand...
chabig said:
What does the activation lock window look like on a Mac? I'd love to see. Can you post a picture?
Click to expand...
It wasn't locked when I first took it out of the box and set it up the first time. It became locked after I decided to wipe and reinstall macOS using internet recovery.

This is what the screen looks like. After I type my AppleID, the red message appears. The other two options are "activate with an MDM key or use the device password, which won't work because there is no OS on the SSD.
 

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pshifrin said:
  1. Screwed up how I set it up because I was quite tired and decided to sign out and try again.
Click to expand...
Maybe you tried to sign in with a different Apple ID and locked it to that? I have a feeling you'll have to send it back to Apple.
 
russell_314 said:
Maybe you tried to sign in with a different Apple ID and locked it to that? I have a feeling you'll have to send it back to Apple.
Click to expand...
I only have one AppleID and it's highly unlikely I happened to guess someone else's full appleID and password ;)

Waiting for Apple to get back to me. It's been 3 business days / 5 real days. Just frustrating that there's this awesome 16 inch MBP sitting here the can't be used
 
pshifrin said:
I only have one AppleID and it's highly unlikely I happened to guess someone else's full appleID and password ;)

Waiting for Apple to get back to me. It's been 3 business days / 5 real days. Just frustrating that there's this awesome 16 inch MBP sitting here the can't be used
Click to expand...
I would be calling them! This isn't something they need to sit down and think about LOL
 
I've logged out of the cloud on my Mac, made sure I was logged out of everything. Wiped the drive. Reinstalled and been hit by some Japanese yahoo email address login. Straight out of the Apple Store. I've had similar things happen with a phone that I was wiping and restoring. Some crazy appleid address. I think the Apple Activation Database has issues sometimes. Easy to fix. Make sure to keep your receipt. Never know when that could popup.
 
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russell_314 said:
I would be calling them! This isn't something they need to sit down and think about LOL
Click to expand...
I've called them multiple times, each time they tell me they'll get back to me :(
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bhodinut said:
I've logged out of the cloud on my Mac, made sure I was logged out of everything. Wiped the drive. Reinstalled and been hit by some Japanese yahoo email address login. Straight out of the Apple Store. I've had similar things happen with a phone that I was wiping and restoring. Some crazy appleid address. I think the Apple Activation Database has issues sometimes. Easy to fix. Make sure to keep your receipt. Never know when that could popup.
Click to expand...
Something like this has always been my assumption, that somehow my initial log out of iCloud wasn't completed successfully and somehow their data is corrupt on the activation side. A little scary though.
 
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pshifrin said:
I've called them multiple times, each time they tell me they'll get back to me :(
[automerge]1591062012[/automerge]

Something like this has always been my assumption, that somehow my initial log out of iCloud wasn't completed successfully and somehow their data is corrupt on the activation side. A little scary though.
Click to expand...
Why not just return it and order another one?
 
iRun26.2 said:
Why not just return it and order another one?
Click to expand...
It was a custom build from the refurb store, which is no longer in stock. 2.4/32/1tb/5500 8GB. Will wait another day or two and then thrown in the towel and return.
 
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If you bought it with a CC, have them reverse the charge. I would think that Apple will get back to you VERY quickly to resolve it. I wonder if Apple has a way to disable the lock on the server side (un backlist it?). I remember reading an article that mentioned that when electronic recyclers and refurbishes get these and they have the activation lock enabled, the computer becomes scrap and is only worth scrap value which was under $50 if I recall. (I would think selling the display assembly and top case assembly would fetch a few hundred dollars though)

The entire computer being soldered together on the logic board pretty makes the logic board trash, and the computer isn't worth much w/o the logic board. 😂
 
ouimetnick said:
If you bought it with a CC, have them reverse the charge. I would think that Apple will get back to you VERY quickly to resolve it. I wonder if Apple has a way to disable the lock on the server side (un backlist it?). I remember reading an article that mentioned that when electronic recyclers and refurbishes get these and they have the activation lock enabled, the computer becomes scrap and is only worth scrap value which was under $50 if I recall. (I would think selling the display assembly and top case assembly would fetch a few hundred dollars though)

The entire computer being soldered together on the logic board pretty makes the logic board trash, and the computer isn't worth much w/o the logic board. 😂
Click to expand...
I'm not worried they won't take it back, it was purchased directly from apple.com, I'm just getting annoyed having to wait multiple days to get a straight answer on if it can be resolved remotely. Anyway, it was purchased with ... an Apple Card of course!
 
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pshifrin said:
Interesting, any thing in common with the steps I posted to lead this to happen?
Click to expand...

Here is what I got today:

Apparently I got a refurbed base model from the Utech store here in SLC and I tried to reset it tonight which led to this. Apparently some guy bought it last week then returned it back to the store without disabling Find My Mac. Then I reset it with internet recovery and the laptop is now bricked. (The store called the guy to disable the Find My Mac but looks like he pretended to do it and wanted to leave the Find My Mac as a prank.)

Going to return it tomorrow for a different model.
 
pshifrin said:
Interesting, any thing in common with the steps I posted to lead this to happen?
Click to expand...
Wow really interesting I used to work for apple care from 2013 to 2015, we could escalate to have find my iphone removed with a valid receipt that shows matching imei, using an internal tool called icloud support tool, you had to have special training to use this tool, but again this was 5 years ago. basically we would have to verify security questions, if that didn't work we moved on to credit card, if that didnt work we could create an escalation with a copy of the original receipt if the serial/imei was on the receipt. Again, we only ran into this issues with iPhones around this time. I really dont understand why this is so complicated for them to remove, however im not shocked, apples support team (AppleCare) is tech a separate division from retail entirely, and has its own HQ is austin, texas. You ened to ask for a senior advisor.

Additionally a manager in a retail store has the ability to remove icloud activation lock with a valid receipt, a genius would need to start the request using icloud support to an easy pay (i know there called isaac now), the genius start the process, and manager has to confirm the receipt is valid, once he does he can remove activation lock. This process worked up until i left apple in 2017, so im sure it still works. Maybe ask for the store leader, or the family room manager, they would be more knowledgeable about the process. We mainly only did this process if it was purchased from apple, as we had more info about the transaction. AppleCare and Retail store barely know about each other processes, having worked at both.

So best of luck man, there is options out there, by the way no repair can be setup for any apple product if activation lock is enabled to. there T2 security chips allow activation lock to really work effectively like it does on iphone.
 
Last edited:
Just return it while you still can.

Either order another one, or move on.

Why fight with this?
 
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Aboo said:
Well thats a happy ending to the story? What final config did you get?
Click to expand...

Went from i7 to i9 (not really needed), 16gb to 32gb RAM, and 512 gb to 1 TB SSD. Needed more room then today my iCloud goes down when I try to add in my iTunes music to the hard drive and can't get album artwork!
 
SocialKonstruct said:
Here is what I got today:

Apparently I got a refurbed base model from the Utech store here in SLC and I tried to reset it tonight which led to this. Apparently some guy bought it last week then returned it back to the store without disabling Find My Mac. Then I reset it with internet recovery and the laptop is now bricked. (The store called the guy to disable the Find My Mac but looks like he pretended to do it and wanted to leave the Find My Mac as a prank.)

Going to return it tomorrow for a different model.
Click to expand...

The store sold you a MacBook that was returned last week?
That sounds like used, not refurbished.
 
pshifrin said:
I'm not worried they won't take it back, it was purchased directly from apple.com, I'm just getting annoyed having to wait multiple days to get a straight answer on if it can be resolved remotely. Anyway, it was purchased with ... an Apple Card of course!
Click to expand...
I’ve seen a few reports of these types of issues with refurbs lately, which is very much unlike my experience with Apple refurbs in the past (I have purchased several, including the 2017 12” MacBook that I still use daily). I’m wondering if Apple outsourced the refurb processing to a third party (or different third party) as part of the COVID shutdowns, and if they weren’t following the proper procedures.
 
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