My aunt has a 2015 Macbook Air, that she purchased as a referb in 2020. The computer had Catilina on it, and she needed a newer OS to run a certain peice of software. To upgrade to Montery, I had to reformat the HFS hard-drive as APFS. After doing this, I installed Monterery. Now it imideaetly asks me for a passowrd to sign in. (which i never set on installation). If I go to recover mode, or even try to boot off an external drive. It gives me a black lock screen with nothing but a password input. Presumably, this was a firmware password from the previous owner, that someone still existed on the computer after it was refurbished. Where do I go from here?
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Locked out of Recovery Mode
- Thread starter cbt3
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If i am not mistaken, you can’t boot off an external drive with Monterey without the proper security settings (under normal conditions). If the Lock Screen is from a firmware lock, you have a paperweight, unless your aunt can show proof of purchase to Apple.
I'll have to talk to her, hopefully she got it refurbished from Apple and not a 3rd party seller, I have never had this happen before while reformatting hard drives.
If she received it refurbished from Apple there would be no firmware password. Apple refurbs are like new and can be set up just the same as a brand new device. Very likely the refurb was from a third party.
yea i have teh receipt, it's from "IT5050" on amazon, I am going to call them tomororw but don't expect them to be helpful, will apple help me with this receipt that I clearly pruchased this, even if it wasn't from them?
No help from Apple. Unless it was purchased direct from them, they won't provide any assistance. However, if the seller is an Amazon reseller, you may be able to contact Amazon customer service and go thru them. They generally are helpful even with third party reseller complaints. Give them a try even if it has been 2 years since the purchase.