Users Report Some iPhone 7 and 6s Models Activation Locked With Wrong Apple IDs

[AZMecha]

Hmm,

During my trip to Apple store, Staff asked me before turning in my 6s plus, disable find my iphone and reset settings But also log into icloud and go to settings and remove from my devices by serial from the account. I thought it was odd that one a device has been removed/disabled it would update the backend..

This is interesting...

 

[joueboy]

These are used iPhone 6s sent back to China and housed into iPhone 7. Apparently the original account was not erased for this associated to the chip of the phone.

 

[robotica]

Sounds like some kind of fraud using authentic apple imeis.. either than or a data management cock up.

 

[Bubba Satori]

Ye goode olde days.

 

[xxnemoxx]

I wonder if somehow the IMEI of phones are being spoofed in Asia, like perhaps phones that are stolen in the USA and then imported into Asia. That would explain why the lock reoccurs even after Apple clears it.

I think you're right actually, because suppliers are now offering these machines that you put the chip in to it and it copies the information from another chip, or you can add your own info, so some IMEI's are most likely just getting copied and hence the lock. I know this because I have my own repair store and get emails constantly from suppliers about these machines or if you look up on youtube to remove iCloud some videos with these machines pop up.

If thats the case I think this could be a real issue eventually

 

[Bladery]

Thinking out loud: Just wondering if this is a case of the backup containing media (books, music, movies) that has been obtained in, er, less than legal ways. It still has vague links to the Apple account that downloaded it, so it's screwing up the account to authorise with iCloud and prompting for the one that originally downloaded the media.

This is exactly what it is!
I had it on my iPhone 5 a few years ago and I googled it and found it out!
No idea why Apple doesn't know this or they don't want to say "you must have downloaded illegal music"

 

[Karma*Police]

Not a great out of the box experience. Nothing worse than getting a perfectly good, shiny, beautiful iPhone you can't use because of an activation bug of all things. Hopefully Apple gets to the bottom of this soon.

 

[ILikeAllOS]

What the hell? Why would this be happening?

I can only think that maybe people are buying the phones, using them and then returning them.
Apple must be taking these phones that they know are only a few weeks old at most and deciding to pass them off as new!

But even then if you simply "reset and erase all content" then the activation lock doesn't show up.
It only shows up if you use Find My iPhone and remotely wipe the device...

 

[Kalvin00]

.

 

[auero]

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. Each time it has listed some generic icloud email address that isn't (and has never been) mine or associated to this phone.

I had received this phone as a replacement back in June for my original iPhone 6s plus that had a few pixels go bad in the screen.

A few forums posts have popped up of users having the exact same problem here on MacRumors forums.

Simply removing the activation lock isn't going to prevent someone we sell the phone to down the road having the same problem when they try to sell or restore the phone as new. Fortunately, I discovered all this while being up and running with my 7+. I can only imagine if I was having this issue on a phone I was relying on for daily use currently.

Same happened with me essentially. I tested my phone before sending it to someone who bought it from me which led me to initial discover the lock. After the store unlocked it, I shipped it thinking all was good. While in transit, I checked the lock status of it and discover that the damn phone locked itself some how. I had to cancel the sale and have UPS send the package back to me instead of delivering it. The buyer understood, but it still made me look bad. Morally I couldn't let him buy this device.

 

[Todd.Isler]

I received a full case of new iPad minis (10) from Apple which were locked to another institution via DEP at the start of July. They were part of a larger order I received. Apple resolved the issue in a week, but declined to provide any tracking numbers for my issue.

 

[LordQ]

Three weeks ago my brother's phone had this issue, good to know it is "widespread" and his account wasn't hacked or whatnot.

 

[auero]

What the hell? Why would this be happening?

I can only think that maybe people are buying the phones, using them and then returning them.
Apple must be taking these phones that they know are only a few weeks old at most and deciding to pass them off as new!

But even then if you simply "reset and erase all content" then the activation lock doesn't show up.
It only shows up if you use Find My iPhone and remotely wipe the device...

My phone was delivered directly from the factory at launch. It makes no sense what so ever why or how this is happening.

 

[Danilo - Italy]

This is a very, very strange story.

 

[6836838]

Sounds like the Foxconn employees were having fun with the phones before packing them up!

Another reason to not panic buy the phone on the day it's release. There are always minor hardware revisions made to devices which will never be published. I'd prefer to get a new release phone once they've bedded in a little.

The revisions may just be in the methods of manufacture. I'm not saying there are necessarily any physical differences internally, else we'd have found out by now.

 

[Porco]

Bizarre and worrying situation... hope it's sorted for everyone it's affected soon.

ActivateGate............Sorry

heh... please everyone, no ActivateGate-hate. That could lead to ActivateGateHateGate. (Also sorry).

 

[6836838]

I bought the 6S on release day (delivered). It ended up having a faulty home button (sticking on one side). Seriously, it's normally better to buy the new phones a few weeks after the launch date.

 

[kazmac]

This happened to me two weeks ago on my 10 month old 6s and I was on iOS 9.3.5 at the time. Called Apple took five days as my senior phone rep was not working for two of those days to get my 6s unlocked with proof of purchase.

When I went to the NYC 5th Avenue Apple store during that time I did not have my phone but my specialist asked me if I did so that makes me think they already knew about it.

Whatever it is, it is very troubling and I hope Apple gets to the bottom of it, restoring everyone's phones quickly. I wiped my computer over the span of a week thinking it was the Yahoo hack.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

Any clue on what happens if this happens with the 5s I bought refurbished?

 

[psychonaut]

I suspect the problem has to do with a corrupt apple support database that is impacting *some* users. Registered apple id's that are linked to devices are being mis-matched thus causing the problem.

Apple needs to restore their DB in all instances to ensure this does not continue further.

I was one of the guys referenced in the article and while I have no proof that this is the situation (there could be other factors as well) I do believe this to be all or part of the problem.

 

[mtcowdog]

Every iPhone release needs at least a few uh oh moments. Uh oh.

 

[shadowbird423]

Here's an unsolicited idea as to what's going on; crooks have figured out a consistent flaw in the way Activation Lock works and are removing the Lock by swapping details with a clean handset. That's my bet.

 

[auero]

Here's an unsolicited idea as to what's going on; crooks have figured out a consistent flaw in the way Activation Lock works and are removing the Lock by swapping details with a clean handset. That's my bet.

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).

 

[Larry The L]

Wouldn't happen if it had a headphone jack

LockGate
You're doing it wrong
This wouldn't happen if Steve Jobs were still alive.
[doublepost=1475700834][/doublepost]

Here's an unsolicited idea as to what's going on; crooks have figured out a consistent flaw in the way Activation Lock works and are removing the Lock by swapping details with a clean handset. That's my bet.

I support this theory!

 

[MikeLW]

I sold my iPhone 6s after getting my 7. Although I erased it properly, I didn't check to see whether the lock was off at Apple's website and when the new owner (a friend) tried to activate it, it was locked. Attempts to bypass the lock with a password failed and removing the device from my account wasn't possible as it was no longer there. Apple removed it with Proof of Purchase in about 36 hours. I don't think I did anything wrong, so definitely seems as if they are having glitches.

Check your lock status before you buy or sell!!!
https://www.icloud.com/activationlock/