Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Users Report Some iPhone 7 and 6s Models Activation Locked With Wrong Apple IDs
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
This is farfetched. Music downloaded from iTunes does retain the purchaser's Apple ID in metadata, but it doesn't have DRM so it never checks that against iTunes or iCloud servers. Videos and other content that do have DRM wouldn't make it into the backup if they weren't authorized in the first place by the current Apple ID.
Makes you wonder if the unique id of the phone has anything to do with it, and that it's unrelated to your apple id at all..
I tried this with my new jet black iPhone 7 and it said there was an activation lock on it and that it was a iPhone 6! WTF?????
I think this just happened to me as well
I sold my iPhone 6s plus on eBay, the buyer got it with the activation lock on and it was locked to an email that was not possibly ever mine, uses different domain altogether.
long story short I am refunding the money and getting the phone back and am hoping apple can resolve it. something is definitely strange here people. I am 100% positive that mine was not locked, I have done this transaction dozens of times so am very well versed in the procedure.
I sold my iPhone 6s plus on eBay, the buyer got it with the activation lock on and it was locked to an email that was not possibly ever mine, uses different domain altogether.
long story short I am refunding the money and getting the phone back and am hoping apple can resolve it. something is definitely strange here people. I am 100% positive that mine was not locked, I have done this transaction dozens of times so am very well versed in the procedure.
This has happened 3 times to my iPhone 6S Plus that I am trying to sell. Twice had to submit proof of purchase on line and got reset. Going to store this time.
yeah me too, iPhone 7 Plus shown as iPhone 6...
my old iPhone 6s Plus shown as iOS Device but without lock, I restored the device a couple of days ago...
Perhaps we should get H.R.C to take control of the database on her personal servers. Soon all the activation details will disappear.
Now for a serious question: If I already have find my phone activated, will I eventually suffer the same fate as so many others?
Last edited:
Common scam tactic... verify serial number on returned device.
So we can't have two phones under one account ? If you upgrade to iPhone 7 your iPhone 6s becomes useless ? I am beginning to worry I hope Apple will investigate this situation ASAP
So does there seem to be a common thread here, such as wireless carrier or email provider ? Seems to have affected a wide range of iPhone models, so I would agree with others that a database at Apple seems to be compromised in some way, whether that be due to corruption or external factors.
Looks like I should put off that planned DFU Restore/Clean Install to iOS 10 I've been putting off for my 6s Plus. (I figure doing a DFU restore into whole-new releases of iOS [e.g. iOS 9, iOS 10, etc.] would be a way to at least minimize performance hits major version to major version.). Hopefully this isn't also applicable to iPads and iPod touches as I have clean restores to do on an iPod touch and two iPads as well.
Wow. Wonder if there is some way to spoof the server and give imei or serial numbers or something. That's wild. Or maybe this is happening from the factory? But why...
Was Apple able to do anything?
Happened with my iPhone 6s+ and my wife's 6s. So inconvenient since I had to dig thru emails to find receipts. Such a pain. Was so worried I had been hacked, almost relieved that this is an "issue"
And saves tons of headache on "preorder issue", "out of stock", "order cancelled"...
I'm glad this is finally getting some publicity and maybe Apple will actually look into it. This has been going on for a couple of years and seems to be gradually getting worse. I've never seen it happen on a brand new one purchased direct from Apple (which really throws a kink into some of the theories out there), but I see it on used devices all the time.
Apple can release it if the original owner has proof of purchase - then ownership can be transferred to the new user. But it normally takes an upper level tech support to get it done and can take a day or two to process. This happened to me personally as well - Apple was able to confirm it was re-locked at 3 am while in transit via Fedex, and the recipient confirmed the package wasn't tampered with.
It's clearly a glitch in Apple's system and I can't pinpoint anything consistent to help nail down the problem - especially now that brand new users are experiencing it. Since I've only seen it on used devices shipped to and from users, my one thought was that maybe there was some geolocation stuff going on when reactivating it. I had previously read it happens on devices that were formerly jailbroken as well, but that theory has since been squashed.
So... who knows... :/
Apple can release it if the original owner has proof of purchase - then ownership can be transferred to the new user. But it normally takes an upper level tech support to get it done and can take a day or two to process. This happened to me personally as well - Apple was able to confirm it was re-locked at 3 am while in transit via Fedex, and the recipient confirmed the package wasn't tampered with.
It's clearly a glitch in Apple's system and I can't pinpoint anything consistent to help nail down the problem - especially now that brand new users are experiencing it. Since I've only seen it on used devices shipped to and from users, my one thought was that maybe there was some geolocation stuff going on when reactivating it. I had previously read it happens on devices that were formerly jailbroken as well, but that theory has since been squashed.
So... who knows... :/
This happened to me on a 6s+ a few months back. I was doing a DFU at the suggestion of apple support and the activation lock came up. A few days later they fixed it. That phone was recently resold with no issue.
However, the second 6s+ was wiped so it could be set up as new by my buyer. Same issue. He got the phone and got a lock when he was trying to set it up. Apple has the case and I know will fix it. One of the reps I talked to said they are going thru a backlog of these right now. Another rep said it was the first they heard of it.
I did a lot of research when the first one happened. It has been happening for quite a while but it seems to have picked up in volume.
Exactly my thought. Probably somebody found a way to clone an IMEI/serial number on a locked phone and all of a sudden Apple's database finds twice the same IMEI and blocks it...
Theydonboi said: ↑
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.
Ummm. No. Music/Books etc don't contain any data that would be tracked by the phone for icloud purposes. And dodgy apps would usually be via jailbroken phones using appcake or something similar for installation and mountains of these affected phones haven't been jailbroken at all.
Dodgy overseas merchants/thieves using IMEI's would be the best guess.
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.
Ummm. No. Music/Books etc don't contain any data that would be tracked by the phone for icloud purposes. And dodgy apps would usually be via jailbroken phones using appcake or something similar for installation and mountains of these affected phones haven't been jailbroken at all.
Dodgy overseas merchants/thieves using IMEI's would be the best guess.