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sudden activation lock screen on iPad

@MagnusVonMagnum The impression I get is that Apple is being extremely cautious about hacks on iCloud accounts, and are randomly requiring password re-entry whenever suspicious activity / login attempts are being made.

I know that when I changed my MacBook's root password, it required me to re-enter my iCloud password, and it actually did the same across all my iOS devices. It was pretty annoying, but I assume essentially a "safety feature" - i.e. Apple being super paranoid.
 
Lquintero said:
This just happened to my iPhone 6, i put my phone down for 30 sec, when i picked it up again the phone was in the lock screen (legit apple login) and impossible to skip, the screen claimed that the find my phone has been activated (bogus claim as i have been the only owner of this phone), so i went to my imac to login in icloud and see what was going on, i proceed to go to find my phone and it said no devices online, the only way to proceed was to put the apple id in the lock screen, so i did it, and after that i reseted my apple id password (with 2 factor authentication ), and then is when it hit me, in order to log in again i had to put the password again under settings and that pop up did not looked legit, inputs and text seem a bit off, so in my opinion this could be a elaborate way to force you to log of change password and re-login, i am just going to leave this in here for precent. sorry for the tin foil hat.
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[doublepost=1543612091][/doublepost]I just had the very same thing happen to me! After 3 days in communication with Apple, was told to get another iPhone and pop my sim card in and it will be up and running. Glitch in the system, or marketing strategy to get people off their iPhone 6's and upgrade to newer model??? I'm extremely upset . . . especially since they schedule the 'recovery' 9 days from now! Who does without their phone for 12 days total? Won't be another iPhone. I am in need of a reliable phone, in light of the fact that I have had to call and be taken out of here by ambulance multiple times. Customer service is also severely lacking.
 
bgilln606 said:
[doublepost=1543612091][/doublepost]I just had the very same thing happen to me! After 3 days in communication with Apple, was told to get another iPhone and pop my sim card in and it will be up and running. Glitch in the system, or marketing strategy to get people off their iPhone 6's and upgrade to newer model??? I'm extremely upset . . . especially since they schedule the 'recovery' 9 days from now! Who does without their phone for 12 days total? Won't be another iPhone. I am in need of a reliable phone, in light of the fact that I have had to call and be taken out of here by ambulance multiple times. Customer service is also severely lacking.
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The problem is happening to everyone again?
 
essiw said:
Where do you base this on? Do you know why I got that screen?
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by design the activation lock screen only comes up after you wipe your device remotely or via what's called DFU mode with a computer. it does NOT randomly pop up while the device is actively in use. that's why the other poster said change your password etc, you may have just been phished. and it might have been by the very game you were playing. always better to be safe than sorry
 
Happened on my iPhone with no warning a few weeks ago. Apple forced me into changing my Apple ID password.

Probably a good idea as I had been using the same for a long time, but I got to wonder why.
 
Newtons Apple said:
Happened on my iPhone with no warning a few weeks ago. Apple forced me into changing my Apple ID password.

Probably a good idea as I had been using the same for a long time, but I got to wonder why.
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You got an actual activation lock screen or just that you were logged and needed to change your password to get back in?
 
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C DM said:
You got an actual activation lock screen or just that you were logged and needed to change your password to get back in?
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When I took my MAX off the wireless charger it has a message that my Apple ID has been disabled. Guess it was not an activation lock now that I think about it.

Not sure of the exact message except there was concern on Apple’s side that my ID password had been compromised.
 
Be very careful if you get your system will be locked and then you are asked to click a link if you do and follow the instructions your private information will be stolen.
This is now happening a lot to many people.
 
charlituna said:
by design the activation lock screen only comes up after you wipe your device remotely or via what's called DFU mode with a computer. it does NOT randomly pop up while the device is actively in use. that's why the other poster said change your password etc, you may have just been phished. and it might have been by the very game you were playing. always better to be safe than sorry
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I’ve had it happen to me before. On my iPad Air. I may have even created a thread about it.

About two years ago or so, I was listening to a podcast via safari with the iPad off.

Walked over to my desk about 10 minutes later while the audio was still playing, and sure enough the iPad had the white activation lock screen. Completely locked out, while the audio from safari was still playing.

It’s a glitch that can happen.

Edit/ my thread from 2 years ago
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ipad-air-automatically-went-into-activation-lock.2009143/
 
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Aneef said:
Oh boy. How should I start telling my story. This activation lock screen could have turned my iphone 7+ into a brick.
I made my Apple ID in 2013 when I was at my previous employer on their work email ID. Didnt bother changing it even after leaving the job. They deactivated my account after my resignation.
Now out of nowhere, yesterday, Apple locked my Apple ID on both my macbook pro and iphone. I couldnt answer my security questions correctly and my email was not in my access. I had find my iphone and find my mac turned on that didnt let me erasing my phone. So I took a bold step and erased my iphone from recovery and restored it but guess what, on turning the phone on I had an activation lock waiting up for me. My ID was locked. I had nowhere else to go except my previous employer.

I went today in the morning to meet the network administrator, a very nice guy indeed. He told me that he had to take approval of the authorities before taking any action. Moreover my account had already been deleted 2 years ago. So after 6 hour long requests and recommendations from some personnel, they finally agreed and made me the account with the same username. I unlocked my Apple ID after sending a reset link to that ID using Forget my password thing on apple ID website.

The thing is, had they not given me the access of the old account, I would have been holding a brick right now.

Now I have changed the email address of the same Apple ID to my own personal email address, a thing which I should have done 2-3 years ago.
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This is an old thread, but thought I'd post just in case someone really needs some extra help. I deal with this frequently in the school district for which I work. We have teachers leave, etc, where we cannot unlock their unmanaged iPads. I just had an iPad with the activation lock show up that was in the hands of one of the school counselors. There is no option to go anywhere. If you click 'Back' it tries to activate again and comes right back to the same screen. It does, in this instance, show the partial Apple ID of who set up the iPad, and it looks like one of our district email addresses, but we don't know anyone who would have set it up whose email starts with an 'i'.

If like ericwn situation, it does not have to end up a brick. When you have no way of remembering your Apple ID, and your email address is no longer accessible, and you cannot answer your security questions, you can call Apple and be on the phone with them for probably 30 minutes as they go through all the steps I just listed, and then they will finally assign you a case number and send you an email to reply with a PO number (in our case, it's a PO # - in personal vs business cases, I'm not sure what they will require). After you send to them the iPad Serial number and anything else they require, they will remotely remove the Find My iPhone activation lock, and you can set up your iPad again. This has taken about a week to 10 days after sending them the information, checking daily to see if it unlocked. You need to leave the device on, so you should probably keep it plugged in in the meantime.

Hopefully this will help the few who are really stuck. The best security is one that no one, including those who are supposed to, can get into! Apple has that down!
 

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A week or ten days without the device. It'd be faster to snail mail someone both ways. Welcome to the 21st Century.
 
Amazing from Apple!... I sent a request to them on Friday and they replied to on Sunday and said the activation lock had been removed! It must have been quicker this time because of this known issue. Once I was able to get back into the iPad, I could see the full email address, and I recognized it as being specific to that school, but a very old one, so was able to do a quick search of one of my documents that had that email address and password in it, and I removed the account from the iPad. I did not have to do a recovery on the iPad, and was able to make it easier on us with the apps that were already installed. Problem solved quickly from Apple this time!
 
Got a sudden activation lock when I helped restarted my SIL’s iPhone 6s running iOS 9.3.5 to fix a mobile courier disruption. No explanation why it happened.

Can this iOS 9 still glitch while Apple’s already on iOS 12 server side...?
 
Eithanius said:
Got a sudden activation lock when I helped restarted my SIL’s iPhone 6s running iOS 9.3.5 to fix a mobile courier disruption. No explanation why it happened.

Can this iOS 9 still glitch while Apple’s already on iOS 12 server side...?
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Just happened on my iPad Mini First-gen with iOS 9.3.5. The weird stuff is that it appears offline at "Find my iPhone" page even if it's connected to WiFi for re-activating. Don't know what triggered the activation lock, but I scheduled a support call to make sure that it wasn't infected by some malware. Don't know if I should change my Apple ID password, though (I'm already on two-step verification).
 
I had old Ipad 3 been using since 2014, activation lock happen out of the blue. Old email I used to setup the Ipad back in 2014 gone..Went through two calls from Apple they said nothing they could or would do..buy a new one but the same could happen with it.
 
man00 said:
I had old Ipad 3 been using since 2014, activation lock happen out of the blue. Old email I used to setup the Ipad back in 2014 gone..Went through two calls from Apple they said nothing they could or would do..buy a new one but the same could happen with it.
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iOS 9 is considerably vulnerable. I believe there’s some sort of jailbreak or something out there for iOS 9 that allows you to basically take control of another persons device and/or activation lock it.
 
Hey yesterday i get same screen on my ipadmini, I have reset my password and trying to login again but its won't activate. wat sud I do???
 
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