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DO NOT show your serial number when you sell your iPhone/iPad/Macbook. There are people steal these data for living. Thieves at foxconn are probably already doing this to new devices. Once your serial number is stolen, multiple devices could be using your serial number resulting in constant activation lock.

Apple needs to stop putting serial number on the back of boxes, they are too easy to steal.
 
Same issue. Here's my experience: iPhone 6S purchased from Apple retail store in Sep of '15. I turned off 'Find My iPhone' and reset. Sent it into Nextworth and they contacted me that it was IMEI locked (aka find my iPhone on) under m....@icloud.com which is not my Apple ID. Called Apple & they sent me to a store. The store printed my receipt from a year earlier and told me to call support again. I called support & they made me take a photo of / submit the receipt to them. They are saying it will take up to 4 days to get a response... whatever that might be. Apple retail employee claimed phone may have been hacked and it's a ransom scheme? Seems unlikely.

You will need some way to prove you actually purchased the phone originally. They want to see your name on something with the phone serial number.
 
Lucky for me that I actually bought it myself at an Apple Store, and not bought it second hand, or else I wouldn't have been able to disable Activation Lock. Even though I didn't have proof of purchase, an Apple rep told me over the phone that the Apple Store I bought it from had the receipt. So after waiting a couple hours in the store, they were able to remove it.

But here's the thing...

Even though I knew they had a record of my purchase, I pretended to have bought my phone off somebody else, I told them the original owners removed the lock and that it was successfully transferred to me, and that this glitch caused by Apple itself locked me out of my own device. The "Geniuses" were like "Nope, we can't unlock it for you if you have no proof." I got pretty heated myself, because I was thinking, what **IF** I did buy my phone off somebody else? I would have totally been cheated by Apple. This was their fault that caused this bug. It takes on "planned obsolescence" to a whole other level. I would've sued Apple for screwing me like this! What if I was travelling? What if I had sold my iPhone and get charged for "scamming" someone? I would be smashing phones with a steel ball, I swear.

All you iPhone users who bought a used iPhone, you're **** out of luck
 
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If anyone can walk into any Apple store and have a phone switched to themselves with no questions asked...then THAT is a huge security problem for genuine owners.

At the end of the day Apple can tell where a phone was sold, where it has been used and the history of what AppleID's it has been associated with. If "it" randomly pops up in China against a different AppleID they should be able to tell that without receipts etc.
 
If anyone can walk into any Apple store and have a phone switched to themselves with no questions asked...then THAT is a huge security problem for genuine owners.

At the end of the day Apple can tell where a phone was sold, where it has been used and the history of what AppleID's it has been associated with. If "it" randomly pops up in China against a different AppleID they should be able to tell that without receipts etc.

You would *think* they could, but they're sure making people jump through crazy hoops to prove their ownership. As someone who just two weeks ago bought a used 6s+ off Swappa, this has me pretty on edge. Is the transfer of the remaining year of Applecare into my name by the previous owner going to be enough if it happens to me? What about when I hand my 6 to my mother in law next week...it was replaced under Applecare in the first month after release, so the IMEI on the phone doesn't match the one on the receipt. So if it happens to her, is Apple going to disqualify that as proof?

This is stupid, and it's something legit end users should NEVER have had to worry about in the first place. Apple should have better security in place to keep this sort of crap from happening.
 
You would *think* they could, but they're sure making people jump through crazy hoops to prove their ownership. As someone who just two weeks ago bought a used 6s+ off Swappa, this has me pretty on edge. Is the transfer of the remaining year of Applecare into my name by the previous owner going to be enough if it happens to me? What about when I hand my 6 to my mother in law next week...it was replaced under Applecare in the first month after release, so the IMEI on the phone doesn't match the one on the receipt. So if it happens to her, is Apple going to disqualify that as proof?

This is stupid, and it's something legit end users should NEVER have had to worry about in the first place. Apple should have better security in place to keep this sort of crap from happening.

Well they are just asking for proof of ownership, that isn't unreasonable and will probably immediately address 80% of instances. Apple replacements will be tracked through their system so they will be able to follow warranty, thats BAU.

Legit 2nd hand market phones are more problematic. That is where I'd expect Apple can trace the genuine device from the spoof one given a bit of time. What I would say is don't under any circumstances buy an iphone in China for use elsewhere...
 
If anyone can walk into any Apple store and have a phone switched to themselves with no questions asked...then THAT is a huge security problem for genuine owners.

At the end of the day Apple can tell where a phone was sold, where it has been used and the history of what AppleID's it has been associated with. If "it" randomly pops up in China against a different AppleID they should be able to tell that without receipts etc.

Well, that wasn't the case with mine. In fact the Apple reps sounded pretty weirded out when I first told them. They couldn't tell, they had to find my receipt which was the only way.
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Well they are just asking for proof of ownership, that isn't unreasonable and will probably immediately address 80% of instances. Apple replacements will be tracked through their system so they will be able to follow warranty, thats BAU.

Legit 2nd hand market phones are more problematic. That is where I'd expect Apple can trace the genuine device from the spoof one given a bit of time. What I would say is don't under any circumstances buy an iphone in China for use elsewhere...

But what if you sold a used iPhone to someone last year and moved to a different state. And then that person ends up getting the glitch after restoring their device, then what then? How will that person be able to prove the device was theirs... when throughout the year, the person had no technical issues and had the iPhone successfully transferred to him from the beginning? What then?
 
Well, that wasn't the case with mine. In fact the Apple reps sounded pretty weirded out when I first told them. They couldn't tell, they had to find my receipt which was the only way.
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But what if you sold a used iPhone to someone last year and moved to a different state. And then that person ends up getting the glitch after restoring their device, then what then? How will that person be able to prove the device was theirs... when throughout the year, the person had no technical issues and had the iPhone successfully transferred to him from the beginning? What then?

Apple Stores follow the process Apple gives them, if they only have that process then they will follow only that process, then you have to escalate to support - likely this is why it can take several hours/days to validate and unlock a genuine device.

In your scenario the device is much more likely to have been traded like that than suddenly have been moved to China...thats my point, given a bit of behavioural evidence Apple can glean from their own records it should be possible to sort this out. If all else fails they can block BOTH until a physical inspection shows them which is the genuine one (IMEI spoofing won't change the serial number for instance.
 
According to the reports in this thread, this appears to be effecting 5S, 6S(+) and 7(+) iPhones. Or has there been reports of older phones being "attacked"?

Anyway, it sounds as though if you've got find my phone enabled, you're safe as you own the activation lock. Therefore, don't turn find my phone off.

Hopefully Apple will fix it, but if it is due to cloned serials (etc), there's not much they can do other than turn off activation lock and somehow (magically) develop an alternative. I wish them luck because it doesn't appear an easy problem to solve.

My 6 Plus had this happen back on 8.4.1 and my 6s had this happen on 9.3.2
 
I wonder if this what happened with the 6S Plus I sold Gazelle. I sell my phone to them every year and I can do the deactivation process in my sleep. Got a nasty from them saying that I hadn't deactivated my phone. Long story short instead of getting $285.60 they adjusted the offer to $75 which I declined and the phone is coming back to me. Will be a bit upset if I lost out on $285 due to a corrupted Apple database.

This sounds similar to what happened to me with Amazon. Rejected because "unable to wipe user data". I got the 6s+ back today and it seems to be locked to another iCloud account. So it could either be due to a bug or Amazon clocking to another iCloud ID and rejecting since they are offering $100 less now than what my trade in was set for. I set up trade in on 7 announcement day and had a month to send it to Amazon.

Now i get to go through the fun process of "proving" it's my phone with Apple. I thought is would be easy since i ordered from Apple.com on on 6s+ launch day, but after 45 minutes on the phone with Apple support, the rep told me it has been sent to xxxx team and will get back to you in 3-5 days.
 
Thinking out loud: Just wondering if this is a case of the backup
No my phone was brand new and never had any content loaded on it. I didn't even input an Apple ID after I activated it. Then after I factory reset it, it was locked to a yahoo address.
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I've personally been working with a Senior AppleCare specialist since about 9/26 on this exact issue. We first went through the process of removing the activation lock. It was removed and I was up and running in about 3 days. Then I happened to wipe the phone to sell (as I bought the 7 plus on launch day) and then read people were still having the issue happen again after the initial Activation Lock was removed by Apple. Acting as a responsible seller, I wanted to make sure my phone wasn't also a "repeat offender" Soooo...I wiped phone again and popped in my SIM and sure enough it was locked again.
Yep, happened to me twice too!
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Another reason to not panic buy the phone on the day it's release.
Happened to an iP6s I bought 4 months after launch and I bought it from Verizon.
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That does make sense, but it's not supposed to be possible by what my specialist and I gathered. He said you need the phone to activate it and that there isn't a remote activation method for the phone. That's why he said this situation doesn't make sense. I'm not ruling out that it's impossible, though, I'm more likely to believe that this is an issue with iCloud. My girlfriend had her phone replaced and in that situation she was getting pop ups for random Apple accounts that she didn't own (before she attempted to restore the phone).
I was told the same thing - that you had to be in physical possession of the device to lock it to an email address. They kept asking me if anyone else had touched the phone. No one else had.

It's not an iCloud problem - mine was locked to a yahoo address. It is an apple activation server issue. It happens after you factory reset the device. If the device is not locked to an Apple ID when you factory reset it, you are at risk.
 
It just happened to my iPad. Out of the blue. Installed 10.0.2 and after reboot i get this. What now?
 
It just happened to my iPad. Out of the blue. Installed 10.0.2 and after reboot i get this. What now?
Do you have a sales receipt for the device? If so, make a genius bar appt and take the device + receipt with you. Or call Apple and they will let you upload a copy of the receipt, but that takes longer.
 
Do you have a sales receipt for the device? If so, make a genius bar appt and take the device + receipt with you. Or call Apple and they will let you upload a copy of the receipt, but that takes longer.

No genius bar in my village.
 
If you are outside the US, idk how it works but in the US you can call Apple and they will email you a link to upload your original receipt.
Closest Apple store is in Sweden. This is so annoying. I will try calling them. Thanks.
 
I wonder whether Apple needs this story to pop up on Web sites like their much beloved "The Register" to open their mouth and at least acknowledge they are aware of the problem?

I don't understand how the same company can combine quite a respectable approach to users' privacy and data security with this ugly fashion of keeping silence about the very existence of the issues until people become really loud and what could be resolved nicely becomes a public scandal.
 
I wonder whether Apple needs this story to pop up on Web sites like their much beloved "The Register" to open their mouth and at least acknowledge they are aware of the problem?

I don't understand how the same company can combine quite a respectable approach to users' privacy and data security with this ugly fashion of keeping silence about the very existence of the issues until people become really loud and what could be resolved nicely becomes a public scandal.
The same way you don't hear the details of a lot of stuff that goes on in corporate america. That doesn't mean they aren't looking into it, or already know what is going on. This probably isn't apple specific, but it seems like cloning the serial number is probably the root cause.
 
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This sounds similar to what happened to me with Amazon. Rejected because "unable to wipe user data". I got the 6s+ back today and it seems to be locked to another iCloud account. So it could either be due to a bug or Amazon clocking to another iCloud ID and rejecting since they are offering $100 less now than what my trade in was set for. I set up trade in on 7 announcement day and had a month to send it to Amazon.

Now i get to go through the fun process of "proving" it's my phone with Apple. I thought is would be easy since i ordered from Apple.com on on 6s+ launch day, but after 45 minutes on the phone with Apple support, the rep told me it has been sent to xxxx team and will get back to you in 3-5 days.

Same thing here. Got a 7 Plus and was prepping my 6s Plus for sale when I noticed the activation lock. Went to Apple with original receipt, box and drivers license and they unlocked it. I shipped it to Gazelle and it was locked AGAIN! My $325 offer was changed to $75.

They are sending it back but how am I going to ever sell this phone to anyone but Apple when it will probably lock again and again.
 
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Re: Edit 2: I've turned off find my iPhone both times it has happened to me so far.... it's like that removed the lock to your icloud account and then there is still one in the background that takes over with the other random icloud email...

In my mother's case, I had a 'senior engineer' tell me that iTunes 'does not remember old Apple ID's. It just does not do that!', and yet it clearly, in her case, DOES remember, and refuses to forget.

They have, even the senior engineer, blown off the issue. They keep blaming it on 'old files from the previous Apple ID', even though I've gone through each app one at a time and verified their account, and removed all of the other content. Something is wrong with the beast sleeping under the surface of the iCloud Miracle... (And they claim not to be able to tell through any utility or otherwise, what account/Apple ID was used to purchase anything. AND all of the 'purchased' stuff she might have was 'purchased' for FREE!!!:mad::mad::mad: So WHO WOULD GIVE A POOP?)

Maybe they need to do a complete rewrite of the entire system. It's showing its age. I mean, not able to permanently change iTunes content when you change your Apple ID? What sense does that make. Constantly prompting for 'verification', and then throwing up old, or not prior used addresses. Forcing a password change if you blow entering it twice. That last one is a b*t*h for her. She's freaking 75 and a cancer survivor for 30 years, and it's taken its toll, and she has to constantly verify her password in a system that still remembers her old account name, that has been dead for nearly a decade?**

At what time does that become just raw user abuse and actionable in a court of law?

** Oh, and a new wrinkle: She got prompted for a security question that she didn't even answer! How's that for abuse!:mad:
 
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In my mother's case, I had a 'senior engineer' tell me that iTunes 'does not remember old Apple ID's. It just does not do that!', and yet it clearly, in her case, DOES remember, and refuses to forget.

They have, even the senior engineer, blown off the issue. They keep blaming it on 'old files from the previous Apple ID', even though I've gone through each app one at a time and verified their account, and removed all of the other content. Something is wrong with the beast sleeping under the surface of the iCloud Miracle... (And they claim not to be able to tell through any utility or otherwise, what account/Apple ID was used to purchase anything. AND all of the 'purchased' stuff she might have was 'purchased' for FREE!!!:mad::mad::mad: So WHO WOULD GIVE A POOP?)

Maybe they need to do a complete rewrite of the entire system. It's showing its age. I mean, not able to permanently change iTunes content when you change your Apple ID? What sense does that make. Constantly prompting for 'verification', and then throwing up old, or not prior used addresses. Forcing a password change if you blow entering it twice. That last one is a b*t*h for her. She's freaking 75 and a cancer survivor for 30 years, and it's taken its toll, and she has to constantly verify her password in a system that still remembers her old account name, that has been dead for nearly a decade?**

At what time does that become just raw user abuse and actionable in a court of law?

** Oh, and a new wrinkle: She got prompted for a security question that she didn't even answer! How's that for abuse!:mad:


sounds like a slightly different issue to me but perhaps related to the bigger problem here. There are quite a few of us here stuck with useless "bricked" phones until this is sorted out. yes, they can remove the activation lock but the key here is that the moment you reset and/or restore the phone the activation lock returns and must be unlocked again. While I could still sell this phone once its activation lock has been removed, I GUARENTEE, down the line when the buyer goes to sell/reset/pass on the phone to someone else I'll be getting a call (if they still have my contact information) OR that buyer will be SOL. I can't do this to someone in good consciousness...so I wait for Apple to resolve. I'm wondering if Apple will ultimately have to replace the phones out there with this issue (with valid proof of purchase). you can guarentee that I will be setting up/restoring/erasing said replacement multiple times before I pass it on though to make sure it's not plagued by the same lock issue. Apple sold millions of 6s so this clearly isn't "widespread" but there are an ever-growing number of loyal apple customers "stuck" currently.
 
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