30 school ipads can't update software to use the needed app for school work

[benyben123]

Hi all.

Short:
* Lost Apple ID.
* Credit Card expired and can't be used as recovery.
* Apple Recovery processes fails to arrive
* Apple support are clueless.



I am trying to help the wife's school with 30 (!) iPads which can't update to the latest iOS. They need to do this because the app they use for school work is only supported on iOS 13 now.

When these iPads were bought (I think 2 or 3 years ago) the person who worked at the school set them up on a newly opened personal account (with an email address he made up for the purpose) and he entered the CC info with his PERSONAL credit card.

Believe me, you don't need to tell me how dumb this was. The school reimbursed him for the purchased he made on the CC.

The school then bought an app from the App Store meant for the students.

This all worked fine till about 2 months ago.

The guy is no longer with the school - has not been for about a year now. And the CC is expired according to him, and in any case he claims to have disabled the card anyways and have no info of the card. (Maybe he just doesn't want to help out, idk).

In any case, we can't update the latest iOS, but worse - we can't use the App!

We tried to format one device but since we don't have the apple id - we can't format these to factory settings.

We tried to go through the recovery processes (which told us we will get an email within 2 weeks - but we did not). At least we have access to the email address used - but no emails arrived from Apple.

I contacted Apple support - but I am sad to say this - they are absolutely clueless! (I avoid using other words here).

We are stuck!!! 30 iPads sitting with no way to fix?

PS - tried doing the iTunes recovery (whatever it's called) - but still need apple id pass - which we don't have.

Any advice would be so appreciated!

I was about to give up and decided to post this here. We are talking about a substential ammount of money needed in order to find other devices (we are thinking Chromebooks) - but I have yet to let the boss know about this. She will FREAK the F out! (budget is tight nowadays).

Thanks so much!!!

PS - this screenshot is from a request made 2 months ago

 

[ader42]

If you have access to the emails sent to the apple id, surely you can reset the password?

If you’ve forgotten your Apple Account password – Apple Support (UK)

Here's how to reset your Apple Account password and regain access to your account.

support.apple.com

 

[benyben123]

Thank you. I have tried that.

It needs my Apple ID in order to reset the pass. Which i don't have.

Thanks for the reply. I do appreciate it.

 

[benyben123]

BTW - I do have a trusted phone number. But it will not suffice! It still won't send us the recovery.

We have tried a number of times.

 

[ader42]

I’m a little confused. When you say you have access to the email address used is this not the appleid?
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I suspect the chap that set the ipads up may have locked them down to prevent updates with apple configurator

 

[benyben123]

I’m a little confused. When you say you have access to the email address used is this not the appleid?

No.

We have an email address given us by the employee (see screenshot in first post).
The apple ID pass is not the same as the email's.

(sorry, hope I am answering your question. I am a bit rusted as I moved to Android a few years back, and I am currently the least-retarded-human on the premise as of now when it comes to tech stuff).

 

[benyben123]

let me try to clarify my last post (#6).

Apple ID is something (for privacy I will obviously not expose here):

Username:
DavidSmith@School.org
Pass:
Random

Email opened up for the purpose:
DavidSmith@School.org (same as apple id)
Pass:
Different

So while I do have access to the email, I don't have the Apple ID password. which is why I asked for recovery.

 

[ader42]

If you go to Settings: General: profiles and device management : there may be a profile you can delete (depends what options were chosen when he locked them down - if he did in fact lock them down).

 

[benyben123]

Here is part of the body of the email:


An account recovery request for your Apple ID (xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) was made from the web on August 25, 2020 at 10:55:00 XXXXXX. The contact phone number provided was XXXXXXXXXXX.

 

[benyben123]

If you go to Settings: General: profiles and device management : there may be a profile you can delete (depends what options were chosen when he locked them down - if he did in fact lock them down).

thank you. he did not use any profiles as far as I can remember (will be there in a few hours to verify).

He was utterly incompetent when it comes to tech. As you can surely see.

But I will verify this again when I arrive there.

 

[ader42]

You may dind something in Settings: Passwords & Accounts ?
e.g. website and app passwords might give a clue as to what the password could be

 

[ader42]

Strange that you didn’t get a call on the number. I only did telephone recovery once in the past but Apple called within minutes when I did.

 

[benyben123]

You may dind something in Settings: Passwords & Accounts ?
e.g. website and app passwords might give a clue as to what the password could be

I think I looked everywhere, but did not fine. But will check again soon. Thx so much. Will update here as soon as I do.

 

[ader42]

If the school has a mac that they were linked to you might get some joy from that. E.g. password in safari or profiles etc.

 

[benyben123]

Strange that you didn’t get a call on the number. I only did telephone recovery once in the past but Apple called within minutes when I did.

that's amazing! Perhaps because we are not in the U.S? We are an American org but not located in the USA.

Also, i was really shocked to learn that they will send us a call or an email "within 2 weeks"!

this is a quote.

 

[ader42]

And try the Apple Support App too...

 

[ader42]

that's amazing! Perhaps because we are not in the U.S? We are an American org but not located in the USA.

Also, i was really shocked to learn that they will send us a call or an email "within 2 weeks"!

this is a quote.

Yeah 2 weeks is a shock. I’m in the UK.

 

[casperes1996]

that's amazing! Perhaps because we are not in the U.S? We are an American org but not located in the USA.

Also, i was really shocked to learn that they will send us a call or an email "within 2 weeks"!

this is a quote.

Sorry I'm a bit confused here. I helped someone out very recently who had forgotten their AppleID password. We clicked the reset password, entered the email address, used a trusted device to verify identity and entered a new password. - Obviously when you do an emergency password reset you don't need the old password. - We did this in minutes with no need for a phone call or anything.

But also I would like to just express my absolute horror of someone using a personal Apple ID for this, and not having an organisational AppleID with documentation for this sort of thing

 

[benyben123]

Sorry I'm a bit confused here. I helped someone out very recently who had forgotten their AppleID password. We clicked the reset password, entered the email address, used a trusted device to verify identity and entered a new password. - Obviously when you do an emergency password reset you don't need the old password. - We did this in minutes with no need for a phone call or anything.

But also I would like to just express my absolute horror of someone using a personal Apple ID for this, and not having an organisational AppleID with documentation for this sort of thing

Really appreciate your input.

Perhaps it is me that is missing something.

I will be on location soon to see if I missed something. But to my memory, when we click the reset password it asks us to verify via Credit Card. Which we don't have. But you can skip that and go to trusted phone number - which fortunately this is one of the teachers in our school - so we do have access to that.

But when I input the code received at the trusted device, it then tells me I need to wait for the recovery process (if I am not mistaken). So this is the step we got stuck on.

When I called apple support, they simply told me I have to wait for the process to finish, and they can't help me in any other way.

Will verify this as soon as I have the devices on hand.


PS - about the organizational apple ID - I admit that even I don't know anything about this. Apple has a way to manage devices by the org? Curious at this point.

Thx again!

 

[ader42]

Been thinking some more about this.
Why can you not use the app?
Does the version of the app on the iPads no longer work?
If not, why not? It sounds very poor form from the developer if they have stopped their backend working with iOS12 for example.

I’m assuming you can’t login to the app store to update ios or an app on the ipads as that would require the appleid password. If so, then you could try switching apple ids, this way you should be able to update the iOS version at least.

How to switch Apple ID

Here's how to use more than one Apple ID.

www.imore.com

Were the apps purchased with the volume purchasing program? Just wondering which app store was used.
Or was the app purchased once (a single copy) and installed on 30 ipads all with the same appleid rather than buying distinct copies of the app or bulk buy via the vpp.

If you can update the iOS you might have to re-buy the app.

 

[benyben123]

Been thinking some more about this.
Why can you not use the app?
Does the version of the app on the iPads no longer work?
If not, why not? It sounds very poor form from the developer if they have stopped their backend working with iOS12 for example.

I’m assuming you can’t login to the app store to update ios or an app on the ipads as that would require the appleid password. If so, then you could try switching apple ids, this way you should be able to update the iOS version at least.

How to switch Apple ID

Here's how to use more than one Apple ID.

www.imore.com

Were the apps purchased with the volume purchasing program? Just wondering which app store was used.
Or was the app purchased once (a single copy) and installed on 30 ipads all with the same appleid rather than buying distinct copies of the app or bulk buy via the vpp.

If you can update the iOS you might have to re-buy the app.

That's very interesting. To be honest - and excuse me for it - i don't know.

I don't work for the school, I am just trying to help. But I should have figured this out by now. Honestly I was just thinking that it would be better off if the iPads were formatted anyways and the new info will be made by my Wife since she is more responsible. I was also going to check about if apple has a system for orgs and have 1 admin which will manage all iPads. I just didn't sink my teeth to this extend as I am busy with my own work.

But I will get to the bottom of this. I think I am going to do a video of the process and upload it here to see if are missing something.

Really appreciate all the help.

PS - where are the days where U plug a windows USB installed and wipe the PC clear?! LOL

Thx so much!

 

[ader42]

I sympathise as I once had an AppleID from years back and couldn’t recall the password, didn’t have any devices that used that account, had moved home and telephone number etc. So no chance of recovery and then one day months later the password popped into my head. I put it in on safari on my new Mac and bingo. I was in. The best bit was it meant I could access the paypal account I had associated with the appleid and found there was a positive cash balance there I’d forgotten about.

And on the other end of the scale, two factor device authentication has had “issues“ for years. Sometimes I get a 6 number code sent to all my devices when I’m trying to login and the code comes up on all screens, even the device I’m trying to login to. Had this most recently yesterday when getting a dev certificate. I think it’s due to my Mac and Safari on my Mac being recognised as separate devices but haven’t dug into it.

There are a variety of MDM options out there to look at if you want to go that far.

 

[Howard Ellacott]

If the iPads are activation locked you will need the iCloud password to remove the lock. We had this at our school with a similar set up. You should still be able to update the iPads to iOS 13, that doesn't use the iCloud account.

For apps in school and for future updates, you will need to get an Apple School account and an MDM solution.

Apple School Manager

Manage your organization’s devices, apps, and accounts.

school.apple.com

 

[casperes1996]

Really appreciate your input.

Perhaps it is me that is missing something.

I will be on location soon to see if I missed something. But to my memory, when we click the reset password it asks us to verify via Credit Card. Which we don't have. But you can skip that and go to trusted phone number - which fortunately this is one of the teachers in our school - so we do have access to that.

But when I input the code received at the trusted device, it then tells me I need to wait for the recovery process (if I am not mistaken). So this is the step we got stuck on.

When I called apple support, they simply told me I have to wait for the process to finish, and they can't help me in any other way.

Will verify this as soon as I have the devices on hand.


PS - about the organizational apple ID - I admit that even I don't know anything about this. Apple has a way to manage devices by the org? Curious at this point.

Thx again!

It may depend on some other setup I guess. I have many Apple things connected to the same Apple ID that can be used as trusted 2 factor authentication devices for each other, so if this is just a trusted phone number and not a device on the same Apple ID that could be a factor I suppose.

But yes, Apple has many facilities for organizational management, especially for schools. There are even mass deployment discounts for schools both for software and hardware.

PS - where are the days where U plug a windows USB installed and wipe the PC clear?! LOL

That’s sort of still a thing, also on Apple platforms. You can plunk a macOS installer into a Mac, boot from that and wipe the machine, assuming it doesn’t have a firmware lock or is Activation Locked by the Apple ID associated with it. It’s a security mechanism. iOS devices just have restoring and such locked by default for security

 

[benyben123]

Here is the update I have.

i read through this thread again - but none of the advice seemed to fit in.