Used M1 Air how to check for Activation & iCloud lock?

[BreakYurAnkles]

I found a used M1 MacBook Air. I don't know how to check if it has activation lock or iCloud account on it.

When I looked at it, it was on MacOS recovery screen.

Is that enough to know that it DOESN'T have iCloud and activation lock on it?

I restarted the MacBook and it would go directly back to MacOS recovery screen.

 

[Mike Boreham]

I found a used M1 MacBook Air. I don't know how to check if it has activation lock or iCloud account on it.

When I looked at it, it was on MacOS recovery screen.

Is that enough to know that it DOESN'T have iCloud and activation lock on it?

I restarted the MacBook and it would go directly back to MacOS recovery screen.

A used M1 Mac correctly prepared for sale or handover should boot to the SetupAssistant Welcome screen.

The fact that it boots to Recovery implies it does not have a bootable macOS installed. Or it may have a macOS installed which needs authorising, which you wouldn't be able to do without a user password.

My guess would be that someone made a mess of trying to roll back to a released version. If so (and maybe anyway) it will need either Apple Confugurator 2 or a bootable USB installer to make it bootable again. AC2 will completely erase and restore including whatever hidden Recovery is on it at present, and a bootable USB will leave the Recovery as is but put a bootable macOS on it.

Both are user do-able of course but AC2 needs a second Mac.

Anyone's guess whether it is still signed in to the previous users Apple ID. It depends what happened before it got into this state. Do you know the previous user?

In summary it is a gamble! (IMHO)

 

[BreakYurAnkles]

A used M1 Mac correctly prepared for sale or handover should boot to the SetupAssistant Welcome screen.

The fact that it boots to Recovery implies it does not have a bootable macOS installed. Or it may have a macOS installed which needs authorising, which you wouldn't be able to do without a user password.

My guess would be that someone made a mess of trying to roll back to a released version. If so (and maybe anyway) it will need either Apple Confugurator 2 or a bootable USB installer to make it bootable again. AC2 will completely erase and restore including whatever hidden Recovery is on it at present, and a bootable USB will leave the Recovery as is but put a bootable macOS on it.

Both are user do-able of course but AC2 needs a second Mac.

Anyone's guess whether it is still signed in to the previous users Apple ID. It depends what happened before it got into this state. Do you know the previous user?

In summary it is a gamble! (IMHO)

 

[BreakYurAnkles]

Have you or anyone else tried the pressing and holding the power button for startup options? 3:29 mark.

Has anyone ever used the "forgot all passwords" option?

I don't have access to the device right now. I believe the seller might have the user password.

 

[Mike Boreham]

Have you or anyone else tried the pressing and holding the power button for startup options? 3:29 mark.

Yes many times!

Has anyone ever used the "forgot all passwords" option?

No never.

I don't have access to the device right now. I believe the seller might have the user password.

If you are in contact with a cooperating seller then the risk should be low....you should end up with a good machine.

The risk was on the basis you didn't know the seller or the owner password or Apple ID.

 

[BreakYurAnkles]

While the seller might (high probability) have the user password.

Does that guarantee that it won't have iCloud or activation lock on it?

Will the user password be enough to wipe and erase the machine? for a fresh MacOS install?

 

[Mike Boreham]

While the seller might (high probability) have the user password.

Does that guarantee that it won't have iCloud or activation lock on it?

No, but to remove activation lock all the seller has to do is sign out of iCloud on the machine or on iCloud.com or the manage my ID page. He will need his Apple ID credentials to do this.

Will the user password be enough to wipe and erase the machine? for a fresh MacOS install?

Yes you should be able to wipe erase and install with just the owner (user) password. M1 Macs the owner is the admin user.

 

[laptech]

When you say you 'found a used M1 macbook air', is this a case of you finding a 'used' one on a sales site or you just 'found it' meaning it actually belongs to someone else and your trying to gain access to it?

 

[BreakYurAnkles]

When you say you 'found a used M1 macbook air', is this a case of you finding a 'used' one on a sales site or you just 'found it' meaning it actually belongs to someone else and your trying to gain access to it?

local store selling it used.

 

[Mike Boreham]

local store selling it used.

That doesn't sound quite consistent with being in touch with previous owner who knows the passwords.

I have bought quite a lot from CEX in the UK. They are a high street seller of used tech, which sounds a bit like your situation. CEX would not sell an M1 Mac that did not boot to the Welcome screen or was still locked to an iCloud account.

I would say to the seller they should sort it before selling to you and guarantee it is not signed in to another Apple ID.
If they won't do this, walk away....unless the price is ridiculously low, then the risk is on you.

 

[laptech]

local store selling it used.

I would not touch it regardless of how good the price is because in my opinion a store would check online as to how to get it working due to the wealthy amount of information there is on the internet on how to get such a machine up and running. The fact it is booting into recovery means to me they have messed with it OR it was brought into them like that, they tried to have have a go and bringing it back to normal, failed and now trying to sell it off. In my opinion this will be icloud lock. To be honest, I suspect the local store have tried to restore it, found it is asking for the owners apple id and password, realised they cannot go any further and is thus selling it.

This machine is a huge risk in my opinion.

 

[BreakYurAnkles]

That doesn't sound quite consistent with being in touch with previous owner who knows the passwords.

I have bought quite a lot from CEX in the UK. They are a high street seller of used tech, which sounds a bit like your situation. CEX would not sell an M1 Mac that did not boot to the Welcome screen or was still locked to an iCloud account.

I would say to the seller they should sort it before selling to you and guarantee it is not signed in to another Apple ID.
If they won't do this, walk away....unless the price is ridiculously low, then the risk is on you.

when they take them in (buy them from the owners) they require the owner give them the user account password. (this store does not specialize in computers) its a pawn shop.

Sometimes, their employees aren't trained in the ways to take in and check Apple products for iCloud, FileVault, etc. and sometimes they don't get the previous owners password (new employees)

The price I negotiated is extremely good (if I can check the iCloud/activation) before I buy it.

Now, I CAN ask to try to reinstall MacOS from a USB Drive or over the internet and check it before I buy it (I put a small down payment on the machine, Non-refundable) but it is contractually mine until I pay the full amount.

I was just seeing if anyone else knew any ideas for me to try/check before I purchase it in full.(anything less than 20 minutes).

I never said I was in touch with the previous owner, I said the seller has a high chance of knowing the user password.

 

[Mike Boreham]

OK. Understand. Most people sign in to an Apple ID and Apple nag you to do this if you don't. So, as @laptech said it is probably signed in to an iCloud account. Maybe the store can contact seller? Otherwise it would be too big a gamble for me. If it is a pawn shop got to be a high chance it has been nicked.

 

[BreakYurAnkles]

OK. Understand. Most people sign in to an Apple ID and Apple nag you to do this if you don't. So, as @laptech said it is probably signed in to an iCloud account. Maybe the store can contact seller? Otherwise it would be too big a gamble for me.

I understand.

I wanted to see if anyone knew methods to check if it has or doesn't have activation and iCloud on it in its present state with simple user methods. Maybe even in terminal with commands.

 

[laptech]

I understand.

I wanted to see if anyone knew methods to check if it has or doesn't have activation and iCloud on it in its present state with simple user methods. Maybe even in terminal with commands.

Yes, boot into internet recovery. Whilst going through the stages of recovery you come to a screen that asks for the owners apple id and password before you can proceed with the install then you can take it that the machine is icloud locked.

 

[BreakYurAnkles]

Yes, boot into internet recovery. Whilst going through the stages of recovery you come to a screen that asks for the owners apple id and password before you can proceed with the install then you can take it that the machine is icloud locked.

do you know if that prompt comes up in the early stages of internet recovery?

 

[laptech]

do you know if that prompt comes up in the early stages of internet recovery?

No, it takes a good few minutes. You will see the progress bar start to go across the screen and then it will get to a stage where it will stop then ask you for appple id and password (if owners ilcloud lock is active)

 

[laptech]

We had a T2 machine here many months ago. The company has a trade in service and it bought one of the last intel machines before M1's arrived. Part of the terms and conditions of the trade in is that all passwords and usernames must be provided. The owner did this. When the techs went to do a full restore, it's asked for the owners apple id and password but the apple id it was asking for did not match the owners id. What had happended is that the apple id it was asking for was from the very first original owner, the one who very first purchased it. The guy who purchased the macbook never did any erase or restores so never knew about this. Luckily for us he knew who he purchased it from so gave us that persons email but whilst we was waiting for that person to respond, we kept seeing if we could get past the apple id requirement but we couldn't.

A few months later the original original owner of the macbook got in contact. They remove the machine from their device list in their apple account, waited a few days for apples servers to accept the changes and then when we tried the restore again it never asked us for an apple id, it just allowed us to restore the machine and install the OS.

This is when we spoke to company that deals with erasing mac HDD's to security standards and they told us that as part of the internet recovery process, the serial number of the machine is checked to see if it is registered to anyones apple account and if it is it will ask you for their apple id and password to continue the recovery process.

Edit: If your going to try a internet recovery in the store, when it asks you for the owners apple id and password, part of the apple id is display to allow you to do a partial check against the alleged owners apple id. If they match and the store says they have the sellers details then it should work when enter in the apple id and password. If the partial apple id being shown on the machine does not match with the apple id of the seller then the store has suffered a similar to that of what we had OR they've been had and the seller has run off with the money never to be heard of again.

 

[BreakYurAnkles]

We had a T2 machine here many months ago. The company has a trade in service and it bought one of the last intel machines before M1's arrived. Part of the terms and conditions of the trade in is that all passwords and usernames must be provided. The owner did this. When the techs went to do a full restore, it's asked for the owners apple id and password but the apple id it was asking for did not match the owners id. What had happended is that the apple id it was asking for was from the very first original owner, the one who very first purchased it. The guy who purchased the macbook never did any erase or restores so never knew about this. Luckily for us he knew who he purchased it from so gave us that persons email but whilst we was waiting for that person to respond, we kept seeing if we could get past the apple id requirement but we couldn't.

A few months later the original original owner of the macbook got in contact. They remove the machine from their device list in their apple account, waited a few days for apples servers to accept the changes and then when we tried the restore again it never asked us for an apple id, it just allowed us to restore the machine and install the OS.

This is when we spoke to company that deals with erasing mac HDD's to security standards and they told us that as part of the internet recovery process, the serial number of the machine is checked to see if it is registered to anyones apple account and if it is it will ask you for their apple id and password to continue the recovery process.

Edit: If your going to try a internet recovery in the store, when it asks you for the owners apple id and password, part of the apple id is display to allow you to do a partial check against the alleged owners apple id. If they match and the store says they have the sellers details then it should work when enter in the apple id and password. If the partial apple id being shown on the machine does not match with the apple id of the seller then the store has suffered a similar to that of what we had OR they've been had and the seller has run off with the money never to be heard of again.

I'll ask the shop a few more questions before I purchase it.

I think they may have already erased the SSD (I hope not) and I might be able to boot up normally, and then see if they have their user password and login. Then check the appleID and FileVault.

They definitely know who sold them the MacBook, but like you said they might not be the original owner who set up the device.

 

[laptech]

I'll ask the shop a few more questions before I purchase it.

I think they may have already erased the SSD (I hope not) and I might be able to boot up normally, and then see if they have their user password and login. Then check the appleID and FileVault.

They definitely know who sold them the MacBook, but like you said they might not be the original owner who set up the device.

From what i understand stores are not allowed to sell computers with previous owners data on it as it breaches data protection laws. It would be standard practice for the store to do a computer restore which would erase the SSD and allow them to re-install the OS. The fact according to your first post with states when you looked at it it was on the recvoery screen tells me that the store has already tried to do a factory restore but have hit upon a problem and what is the betting that they got hit with the apple id and password during the restore process and they couldn't proceed so stopped it there.

 

[BreakYurAnkles]

From what i understand stores are not allowed to sell computers with previous owners data on it as it breaches data protection laws. It would be standard practice for the store to do a computer restore which would erase the SSD and allow them to re-install the OS. The fact according to your first post with states when you looked at it it was on the recvoery screen tells me that the store has already tried to do a factory restore but have hit upon a problem and what is the betting that they got hit with the apple id and password during the restore process and they couldn't proceed so stopped it there.

To be fair it actually had this screen on it.

 

[BreakYurAnkles]

they Told me it was stuck on that screen, but I was able to get back into MacOS recovery.

And since it was in MacOS recovery, I thought it wasn't Activation locked and didn't have FileVault encryption. (I assumed and I might be wrong)

My only concern was iCloud/find my Mac locked.

But I'm still not sure on any of the possibilities previously stated.

I could be wrong on all accounts and it has FileVault enabled, activation locked, iCloud account, & FindMyMac, could all be active on this machine according to what you guys have said. If I'm not mistaken.

 

[laptech]

To be fair it actually had this screen on it.

In the context of what is being discussed here, that screenshot means nothing. The ONLY way you are going to find answers to your questions is if you start the recovery process is to see if it asks you for the owner of the macbooks apple id and password.

as i see it you have got 3 choices:

1: Listen to what is being said in this thread and avoid the machine, basically do not purchase it

2: Ask the shop if you can start the recovery process to see if it comes up asking for an apple id and password. If it does get them to check it against the sellers details. If they do not agree and tell you you have to purchase it if you want to go that far then you either go back to 1 or to 3

3: Not knowing anything, you purchase the machine taking all the risks associated with it. Bearing in mind the store may not take it back if it is icloud locked or some other lock because you decided to accept the risks upon purchase.

 

[BreakYurAnkles]

good news, it just happen to be a bad network (wifi) connection they had while reinstalling MacOS (Big Sur).

I was able to connect it to a stable network and reinstall with no issues. No locks whatsoever 😃. It also has AppleCare+ on it as well.

I rolled the dice on it and got lucky.

 

[Mike Boreham]

Good to hear. Persistence paid off.