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Yeah and the replacement phone nearly caused an explosion on a Southwest flight...now who is chirping?

No, it did not "nearly cause an explosion". It emitted smoke and burned a hole in the carpet, and everyone calmly walked off the plane.

The world has enough drama without people making up more.
 
When Apple replaced my first 6s with a replacement I was asked to login to the 'new' phone with a yahoo appleID that I do not have. I didn't think much about the problem the genius somehow took care of at that time. Unfortunately even though I have deactivated 'Find My iPhone' and logged it out of iCloud, it is still reporting this phone is Activation locked when it should NOT be. I'll be heading into the Genuis Bar for another session with those clowns and this phone to see if they can resolve this for me. If they can't I'm going to ask for a refund, since I won't be able to restore the phone in any timely manner.
 
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So, this is a device you've owned for quite some time then?

Correct, I bought this iPad directly from Apple a couple months after it released. About 10 months now, and I had no issues at all until I restored it to factory settings prior to upgrading to iOS 10.
 
2016 is not a good year for smartphones it seems. Samsungs blowing up. iPhones locking people out.

Yeah, and it looks like it'll get worse as hackers/criminals seem to be winning. It's only a matter of time before Apple gets caught with its pants down and experiences what other companies and their customers have gone through. It may be happening now.
 
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Wow - mods shutting other threads and insisting all conversation about this serious issue is held here...and its off topic on Samsung.

This is quite serious and the suggestions that it is <just> phone details being cloned don't explain how AppleID's with 2-step verification etc turned on are having the devices <moved> to another AppleID without the genuine one even being notified. Given that the fake device MUST be the second device added to the AppleID database this would seem a serious flaw somewhere.
 
the fake device MUST be the second device added to the AppleID database

Not necessarily. If there is an information leak in the manufacturing process, a newly created serial number could be immediately cloned to a different device which gets activated before the real new phone reaches the customer.
 
Not necessarily. If there is an information leak in the manufacturing process, a newly created serial number could be immediately cloned to a different device which gets activated before the real new phone reaches the customer.

How would that explain why people with older devices are experiencing this too?
 
I have 2 step enabled. Currently stuck with an activation locked iPad Mini 4 after restoring and upgrading to iOS 10.

I have 2 step on as well. Again in my case. Apple unlocked my old 6s Plus right in front of me at the store. I boxed it sent it to Gazelle, now they tell me it's locked AGAIN.
My offer went from $315 to $75. Waiting now for them to send it back to me.
 
Not necessarily. If there is an information leak in the manufacturing process, a newly created serial number could be immediately cloned to a different device which gets activated before the real new phone reaches the customer.

Every report I've seen involves a device already active on the genuine AppleID then a reset/reboot being carried out then it comes up with the Activation lock....happy to be corrected though. If it was a <simple> leak from manufacturing I would have thought that would have been shut down some time ago, there are reports of this happening over the past year...of course it could be several leak sources but TBH Apple should just instigate a secondary check on Chinese networks before locking devices...
 
Actually, I guess there doesn't need to be an info leak at all. Couldn't a computer program simply try to register different ranges of values with Apple, and mark the ones that succeed? Assuming that someone has figured out the registration message format.

Or... wait a sec... a gang could've signed up (or hacked) a bunch of device prep/reseller accounts, and used the official Apple Device Enrollment Program to pre-activate mass devices using a fake reseller serial number list.

Schools and businesses are allowed to do this. Perhaps part of the Apple-China investment deals has been to provide such institutions with accounts. Or the account info was just stolen.
 
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I guess I will have to sell my iPhone directly to Apple and for less money if the don't work this out soon enough. I want my money!!
 
I have 2 step on as well. Again in my case. Apple unlocked my old 6s Plus right in front of me at the store. I boxed it sent it to Gazelle, now they tell me it's locked AGAIN.
My offer went from $315 to $75. Waiting now for them to send it back to me.

I'm definitely going to make my way to an apple store because it would be nice to use the iPad I bought but yeah for Gazelle it would be nothing but parts at that point. It's frustrating that a company such as apple did not go far and beyond to recognize how this security feature could back fire. Two weeks ago, I thought I was alone.. I signed up today because I realized I wasn't after googling at work.
 
Same thing happened to my friend with 4S this summer. I was helping him to wipe the phone. Disabled iCloud (signed off) and then hit the reset button. BUM, activation lock there to unknown email. We had to find receipt. Friend got angry at me cause I thought it was stolen iPhone. APPLE FIX YOUR ICLOUD!
 
Some days ago I watched a video on Youtube about removing the activation lock. So, they are changing serial number of an iPhone/iPad to a new random generated one using special hardware and modifying chip. After some time when a new iPhone is released officially with the same serial number it will be automatically locked.So two people will use a two different devices, but with same Serial number.
 
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I had this happen on a 5S a couple of months ago, on a phone I sold on Swappa.

I updated and then wiped the phone, removed it from my account, and the buyer was asking about the password to "my" yahoo.com account. I was positive he was trying to scam me, but then I read about it happening (rarely) to others.

Taking it to the Apple Store was a total pain that lasted nearly two hours. I was able to produce the shipment verification e-mail, but the receipt was no longer in my Apple Store purchase history. Even though I bought the phone at the Apple Store (online), and it had a valid AppleCare contract, the Genius refused to do anything. Multiple rounds of talking to the manager, and finally a call to Apple got them to verify that yes, I was indeed the original owner of the phone.

Luckily for me, the buyer was super nice, and still wanted the phone. But, the ridiculous hoops I had to jump through at the Apple Store gave me serious pause about future purchases.
 
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.

Well, to be more specific: it's just the music. Books etc. Aren't the problem.
 
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.
 



Activation_Lock.jpg
An increasing number of iPhone users are experiencing an Activation Lock issue in which the device is linked to an Apple ID email address that does not belong to them, according to crowdsourced information from MacRumors and Twitter.

MacRumors reader Balders, who recently purchased an iPhone 7 Plus, explained in our discussion forums:With the wrong Apple ID being displayed, users cannot sign in and are therefore unable to proceed with setting up the iPhone. The issue has primarily affected new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models upon being turned on for the first time, and iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus models upon being restored to default settings, although older models appear to be affected to a lesser extent.

MacRumors user TheKricket said his iPhone 6s suddenly became activation locked:The discussion topics above and others have received multiple replies from other MacRumors readers experiencing the same issue, while several Twitter users have also shared similar complaints. It is unclear when the Apple ID mixups first began, but user reports have gained traction since at least September.

A number of affected users said Apple was able to remove the Activation Lock on their iPhones upon providing the company with proof of purchase. This process can seemingly be completed at an Apple retail store by scheduling a Genius Bar appointment, or remotely by calling Apple's support team at 1-800-MY-APPLE.

On rarer occasions, however, the Activation Lock screen linked to a wrong Apple ID email address reappears more than once. In these cases, some users report that Apple fully replaced their iPhones.

It remains unclear what is causing the Activation Lock issues. Apple has not publicly commented on the matter.

Article Link: Users Report Some iPhone 7 and 6s Models Activation Locked With Wrong Apple IDs
[doublepost=1475793384][/doublepost]The same thing just happened to my old 6S (purchased at an Apple store). I just got the 7 and was cleaning out the 6S to give to my mom and when trying to set it up again it is locked with a different Apple ID. Does anyone know the magic phrase to tell Apple support? I've called 3 times and they keep giving me the runaround or tell me to make a Genius appointment. Not thrilled about this.
 
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