Other Some questions about iCloud on family member's old devices

[iyiyi]

I have a family member who has dementia and just went into assisted living. My family asked me to sell their Apple devices. There are a couple of older iPhones, an iPad and an Apple watch.The problem is they are all signed into their iCloud account. I do not have access to the password.

I know Apple has a process for diseased family members, but I do not know what to do in this particular situation.

Basically I don't mind if I have to sell these as iCloud locked devices for parts, I just want to make sure there is no way anyone could access my family member's information.

Also, several of the devices are currently logged in with access to photos and other personal information. I am unable to log out of them without the iCloud password (which I don't have). If I hard reset it or something will it at least not allow anyone to see the personal information?

Just really not sure what to do here or if there is even a safe way to sell these devices.

Thanks in advance for any help

 

[now i see it]

Look up the going used price value for those devices on swappa. They might not be worth the trouble to sell. Maybe a crusher is the easiest solution

 

[iyiyi]

Look up the going used price value for those devices on swappa. They might not be worth the trouble to sell. Maybe a crusher is the easiest solution

As iCloud locked/for parts what I have is worth a couple of hundred dollars and my family wants to sell them (if at all possible), not entirely up to me unfortunately.

 

[iyiyi]

Anybody have any info/help on this?

 

[Fatus_Asticus]

You can try to log into their computer and see if they have the passwords saved on the browser. You might be able to get into iCloud from there or at least their email account and then reset the password.

 

[iyiyi]

You can try to log into their computer and see if they have the passwords saved on the browser. You might be able to get into iCloud from there or at least their email account and then reset the password.

It's kind of a complicated situation and they don't have records of saved passwords.

Really I just need to know if the device is in the locked iCloud mode, is it safe to sell for parts at that point, or is there still a way that somebody could access that personal information without knowing their iCloud information?

 

[eyoungren]

It's kind of a complicated situation and they don't have records of saved passwords.

Really I just need to know if the device is in the locked iCloud mode, is it safe to sell for parts at that point, or is there still a way that somebody could access that personal information without knowing their iCloud information?

Put the devices in DFU mode (a Google search will tell you how to do that) and connect them to a computer running iTunes. Once iTunes detects the device(s) in recovery mode do an upgrade and restore. If the device is already upgraded as far as it can go, then just click Restore.

This is going to wipe the device completely. DFU mode is going to allow you to do this without any annoying Trust this Phone popups or having to enter iCloud credentials.

When the device reboots you will then be faced with iCloud Activation Lock. But the device is wiped, so even if someone breaks activation lock all they will find is stock OS. The previous iCloud credentials would still require the password to access services.

As to the data, it's all encrypted and the iCloud stuff is on Apple's servers (not the device). When you wipe the device, it destroys the encryption key and wipes the storage. Without the encryption key you're going to need a forensic data recovery service. Those are specialized and extremely expensive - hardly worth the effort of your average hacker, unless your family member is Elon Musk or something.

So, unless someone is specifically targeting the family member you've got a wiped device with iCloud lock.

Parts…exactly what you want.