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iPad Activation Lock bypass?

G

gr8gatzby

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 10, 2001
100
0
Charlotte, NC
Bought a "parts only" iPad 2(2,2) for $87.50 on eBay. Needed the back bezel to fix another iPad 2, as this part alone is $125 when bought separately. The whole thing is in beautiful shape, and it amazingly boots right up to the activation unlock screen, requiring entry of the users email address and PIN. The eBay seller did not have this information when asked. I do not know if it is stolen, but the thought has crossed my mind. I've performed a factory restore, but to no avail. I've searched the interwebs high and lo, and even though the Activation Lock is easily bypassed on iPhones running iOS 7.x, I cannot find a solution for the iPad. Any ideas?

Thanks.
 
gr8gatzby said:
Bought a "parts only" iPad 2(2,2) for $87.50 on eBay. Needed the back bezel to fix another iPad 2, as this part alone is $125 when bought separately. The whole thing is in beautiful shape, and it amazingly boots right up to the activation unlock screen, requiring entry of the users email address and PIN. The eBay seller did not have this information when asked. I do not know if it is stolen, but the thought has crossed my mind. I've performed a factory restore, but to no avail. I've searched the interwebs high and lo, and even though the Activation Lock is easily bypassed on iPhones running iOS 7.x, I cannot find a solution for the iPad. Any ideas?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Activation lock is not bypassable at all, not even on an iPhone. Even Apple will not do it for you. There's no way.
 
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Tyler23 said:
Activation lock is not bypassable at all, not even on an iPhone. Even Apple will not do it for you. There's no way.
Click to expand...

It's just software. It's doable. It's definitely doable on the iPhone, as 60 seconds of internets surfing will demonstrate.
 
gr8gatzby said:
It's just software. It's doable. It's definitely doable on the iPhone, as 60 seconds of internets surfing will demonstrate.
Click to expand...

It's not.

If the sale was legit, then I doubt he wouldn't have the activation details ;). It's most likely stolen. You can do one of two things - be nice, contact apple, and ask if they can trace the original owner to give them back their iPad, or use it for parts.
 
Tyler23 said:
Did you read the comments? Quite a lot of "it doesn't work" and people saying how they can hardly do anything after.

And good riddance, I hope Apple makes it even harder for people to use stolen devices.
Click to expand...

i agree.

Took the iPad to the Apple store to see if it was stolen and to contact the original owner if so. It was not marked as stolen in their system.
 
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gr8gatzby said:
It's just software. It's doable. It's definitely doable on the iPhone, as 60 seconds of internets surfing will demonstrate.
Click to expand...


It is not doable. The device is locked through apples servers and there is no way around it. Apple will not help you unless you can provide the iCloud account information.
 
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ninety5eclipz said:
It is not doable. The device is locked through apples servers and there is no way around it. Apple will not help you unless you can provide the iCloud account information.
Click to expand...

I was not expecting Apple's help in bypassing activation lock. I was hoping to return it to the original owner if it was indeed stolen.
 
This is really a good story that happen just last week to one of my work friends and it shows how beautifully find my iPhone and activation lock are implemented.

She bought last December an iPad Air for her husband who works frequently abroad and does lots of flying. On the way back from Belgium to Manchester he forgot the iPad air in the plane. He got back to the airline staff but no luck! iPad had disappeared. Not in a lost and found either. So he kind of give up.

So she (Sue) tells me 2 days after about her husband loosing the iPad she had given to him as a Christmas present and I asked her if she did try to look for it on find my phone. It didn't surprised me to much when she said she had not idea what that was. So I asked her if she knows her husbands apple ID details (she had them) and asked her to sign on iCloud.com

The lost iPad seemed to be off line. I asked her to activate the Lost Mode and enter her contact details, which she did. Now all she can do is just wait for that phone call! I have to say she was quite amazed by the fact she did not know any of this stuff was possible.

Several day passed. And then all the sudden she got a call from a lady in Northern Ireland. She said she bough an iPad on eBay and was trying to activate but a message comes up saying this iPad have been lost and please call me on ## number. The person who sold the iPad to her did describe it as bought from someone from a paper but did not get the activation details so he could not activate it. So she bought it from this guy (almost brand new iPad air 16GB, for £150) She bought it for her daughter.

My friend Sue explained to her that this is an iPad that have been lost, found by (quite possibly airline staff) and she should get in touch with ebay and PayPal to get a refund. She demanded to have her iPad returned to her. The lady from Northern Ireland give Sue the transaction details on eBay and Sue got in touch with the seller. Not surprisingly he appeared to be someone working at the airport. He had no option but to admit he did find the iPad and he sold it on eBay, he said he would be happy to refund the buyer and did beg Sue to not report him (he would probably been kicked out of his job)

So the buyer got refunded for the missing iPad she bought on eBay and she have just send it to Sue by special delivery today. Sue is going to put the iPad on his little office desk as a surprise for him to find when he gets back from abroad.
 
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I think locking down lost and stolen devices is the greatest thing Apple has done for their product in years. Of course, Apple was being prodded to do this because of the high number of thefts from person (physically taking from a person as opposed to stealing). It was just a matter of time before there was death or serious injury. Still, it protects us all, once the thieves learn that it is useless.
 
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It can be done on the iphone. Theres a guy that has done it a number of times, he's currently putting together the software so that everyone can do it.

Not all activation lock phones are stolen by the way. I'm a re-seller, and i've gotten a number of them, just because the person i bought them from forgot to take it off. And because i get so many at a time it's difficult to track down who you got it from.

Also, people have sold me lost phones. So now i have a phone i paid $100's of dollars for. i'd be happy to return it to original owner, but that person wont give me what i paid. And even though i'm willing to return it to the original owner, apple/att wont help me at all.

Heres the problem i have w/ it. Nobody gains anything. Most phones i get w/ activation lock, have absolutely no way to contact original owner. So who gains anything from activation lock? I'm the one that gets screwed here.

And i love how everyone says the phones are stolen. 95% of these phones were lost. And now everyone else gets punished because of your own stupidity, and how difficult APPLE makes it to return phone to the original owner.

Anyhow, activation lock bypass will be out soon, feature will be obsolete. I can already bypass icloud lock in about 20 seconds. Activation lock will be next.

What apple should do is develop a better system for returning phones. And they should have a policy that if you attempt to, and the original owner doesn't want it, or wont pay what you paid if you bought if, that it can be wiped clean again.

Oh, and by the way, theres a guy in ebay that bypasses activation lock for $150. My guess is that he pays someone off at APPLE. Because he charges the same amount for all phones. So how about that for security?
 
iPad Activation Lock bypass?

Mrclarkinc

1. Activation lock is not doable. on iphone or other devices.
2. As a reseller of iPhones why wouldn't you be checking these items for the lock instead of risking hundreds of dollars?
3. Aren't activation lock and iCloud lock the same thing?
 
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You are wrong. It is OFFICIALLY bypassable on all i4 devices. This is not a debate or theory. 100% done deal.

4s, 5, & 5s are coming soon.

I often don't have time to check all the devices i get. Sometimes 40-50 at a time. It's not much of an issue now, but when activation lock first came out, we got killed on it. Lost a ton of money. I get a lot of phones from a very big company that will not be named. And when ios7 came out initially, we had no idea this would be such an issue. So we got all these phones that weren't stolen, but had activation lock.
 
Theif

mrclarkinc said:
It can be done on the iphone. Theres a guy that has done it a number of times, he's currently putting together the software so that everyone can do it.

Not all activation lock phones are stolen by the way (just most of them). I'm a re-seller, and i've gotten a number of them, just because the person i bought them from forgot to take it off. (Oh and you "forgot to ask") And because i get so many at a time it's difficult to track down who you got it from.(difficult for the police I bet.)
Also, people have sold me lost phones (stolen means you "lost"your phone, "lost" doesn't mean it had to be stolen). So now i have a phone i paid $100's of dollars for. i'd be happy to return it to original owner, but that person wont give me what i paid. (my goodness, "you" set the price for "retrieving" their phone) And even though i'm willing to return it to the original owner, apple/att wont help me at all (oh you mean "sell" it back to the original owner, gotcha).

Heres the problem i have w/ it. Nobody gains anything (and "YOU" should definitely not). Most phones i get w/ activation lock, have absolutely no way to contact original owner (or get the details without their OK). So who gains anything from activation lock? I'm the one that gets screwed here (oh thank goodness, hope they run out of lube at the hillbilly inn).

And i love how everyone says the phones are stolen. 95% of these phones were lost. And now everyone else gets punished because of your own stupidity, and how difficult APPLE makes it to return phone to the original owner (not if it is honest) .

Anyhow, activation lock bypass will be out soon, feature will be obsolete. I can already bypass icloud lock in about 20 seconds. Activation lock will be next (ah, the forever optimistic parasite).

What apple should do is develop a better system for returning phones. And they should have a policy that if you attempt to, and the original owner doesn't want it, or wont pay what you paid if you bought if, that it can be wiped clean again (the phone was STOLEN, the person is a thief, the people they sold it to are accomplices and it gets returned to the "rightful owner", if it was lost, the person who finds it "has" to try to return it, not "sell" it back to the person who lost it) .

Oh, and by the way, theres a guy in ebay that bypasses activation lock for $150. My guess is that he pays someone off at APPLE. Because he charges the same amount for all phones. ( your logic is way past "stupid") So how about that for security?
Click to expand...

You sir are a thief, nothing more and nothing less.

Why do some dumb people try to move up in the world? , get honest and friendly and a better life happens, because, I don't think you are anywhere near as smart as you think, I think you just hang around dumber people and think that makes you smart.

It doesn't.
 
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Wow, what vitriol in this thread.

I'm in also, looking for activation unlock help. We found an iPad on a plane when we transferred flights when we checked the pocket halfway home. When we got home, we contacted the airline in order to give our information to pass along to anyone reporting an ipad missing on that plane. They informed us that they couldn't do that, and we would have to turn the device in to the airline, and it would go to a warehouse and if it wasn't reported by the owner with an exact description within a certain time frame, it would be put up for auction, presumably for the employees of the airline.

So we called Apple customer care. They told us there was nothing they could do except to call the 'authorities'. Which authorities, they didn't say, but there was no way to determine where the owner lived, and since 'authorities' aren't in the business of tracking down owners, it would have sat in an evidence locker until it was reported, read: forever. Worse than solution 1.

Solution attempt 3: We contacted the nearest Apple store. The nearest one is about an hour away, so I called and they told me they would be able to hook it up and read the owner's information to contact them and provide my information so they could contact me. Awesome.

The next time we were in the area, we took it in. We were then told that they couldn't give me the owner's information (which we didn't want or need), nor could they give the owner our information. Liability and lawyers. Wonderful.

So we contacted a few IT friends to see if there was anything we could do. Nothing.

So we sorta gave up for a while, but then a video on YouTube showed how one could bypass the lock and use facetime to contact the owner.

Excellent. So I give it a try and it doesn't work for iPad, as was indicated earlier in this thread.

So I'm in for ideas, and hopefully to give some of the vitriolic people some information they weren't aware of. Further, there are still some good Samaritans in the world. not everyone's a thief, and shouting and finger pointing doesn't accomplish anything. Anyhow...

Along the way, I learned that connecting to iTunes gave me the 'name' of the iPad, which appears to be the owner's name, but it's a common name, so no help there.

Thanks,


***TL;DR***

Found iPad, unable to track down owner, trying to get past activation lock to use facetime to get some contact info to contact owner to return device.

iPad2 iOS 7.0.x
 
gr8gatzby said:
Bought a "parts only" iPad 2(2,2) for $87.50 on eBay. Needed the back bezel to fix another iPad 2, as this part alone is $125 when bought separately. The whole thing is in beautiful shape, and it amazingly boots right up to the activation unlock screen, requiring entry of the users email address and PIN. The eBay seller did not have this information when asked. I do not know if it is stolen, but the thought has crossed my mind. I've performed a factory restore, but to no avail. I've searched the interwebs high and lo, and even though the Activation Lock is easily bypassed on iPhones running iOS 7.x, I cannot find a solution for the iPad. Any ideas?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I just wanna share this and maybe it could help you. But please bare with me coz I'm not good at written instructions. I've had the same problem with my iPad 2 for over 2 months. i forgot the answers to my security questions and my apple id was disabled and i thot resetting it would clear the applw id but i was wrong and got stuck on the activation lock. So I've decided today to get my iPad and mess with it a little bit to see if there is a way that I could bypass the activation code. It was a success and I was surprised coz I've done a lot of searching and I found nothing at all. I know how frustrating it is so this is what I did. *pick language *location/country When I get to the "network selection" option I just selected a text and try to bring it to the copy/cut/paste/define mode ,then I chose define .after that the manage or search web option popped . What I did is I chose "manage" and there are multiple languages that has the icloud download icon, so I tapped multiple languages to download over and over ,locked the screen and unlocked it back then after doing that the screen shuts off (slightly like it'll stop to work)and it brought me to the home screen of my iPad. And I've bypassed the activation code. So there you go . Please let me know if it helped you too. Best of luck... Cheers...
 
mrclarkinc said:
You are wrong. It is OFFICIALLY bypassable on all i4 devices. This is not a debate or theory. 100% done deal.

4s, 5, & 5s are coming soon.

I often don't have time to check all the devices i get. Sometimes 40-50 at a time. It's not much of an issue now, but when activation lock first came out, we got killed on it. Lost a ton of money. I get a lot of phones from a very big company that will not be named. And when ios7 came out initially, we had no idea this would be such an issue. So we got all these phones that weren't stolen, but had activation lock.
Click to expand...

So, you buy stolen phones in bulk? :rolleyes:
 
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Tyler23 said:
Activation lock is not bypassable at all, not even on an iPhone. Even Apple will not do it for you. There's no way.
Click to expand...

Funny you mention that.

I recently won an iPad whose iCloud lock was enabled, which, admittedly, I knew little about. I was discouraged reading comment after comment that Apple would not undo it. I decided to visit my local Apple Store anyway. I was initially told that nothing could be done, but the store's manager was kind enough to unlock it for me since it wasn't registered as stolen. Now I have a fully functioning iPad at a fraction of the cost.

It never hurts to try.
 
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