Do not buy locked Apple {hardware} when looking for used gear

When buying used Apple {hardware}, guarantee that it’s unlocked earlier than you hand over funds. In any other case, you’ve purchased one thing akin to a flowery brick. Plenty of folks have written Mac 911, and you discover the issue consistently on on-line shopping for and Apple boards.

After thefts of iPhones and different cell {hardware} skyrocketed within the early 2010s, regulators and legislators made noises about forcing Apple and different firms to supply further anti-theft safety. Apple launched Activation Lock in 2013 for the iPhone, rapidly extending it to the iPads, Mac, and Apple Watch. (Macs must be operating Catalina or later and be both an Intel mannequin with the T2 Safety Chip or any Apple silicon M-series mannequin.) An identical locking mechanism, referred to as Discover My Lock, applies to AirTags and third-party Discover My community monitoring gadgets.

With Activation Lock enabled on gadgets or Discover My Lock enabled on a Discover My merchandise, different events can’t use the {hardware}. Erasing, resetting, or in any other case making an attempt to zap the gadget or merchandise doesn’t disable Activation Lock or Discover My Lock. Solely the steps under do.

Find out how to disable an Apple lock

Right here’s how Activation Lock will be disabled earlier than it’s handed over:

• An iPhone, iPad, or Mac’s proprietor can disable Discover My earlier than handing it over in Settings/System Settings > Account Title in iCloud settings or on the prime stage. The proprietor also can erase their gadget, which can even disable Discover My and the related Activation Lock.
• An Apple Watch proprietor makes use of the Watch app to go to My Watches > All Watches, faucet the data (i) button to its proper, after which faucet Unpair Apple Watch.
• With any of these 4 sorts of {hardware}, the proprietor also can take away the gadget from their account of their record of gadgets Settings/System Settings > Account Title, although that requires the gadget getting access to the web to just accept the elimination.

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With Discover My Lock for an AirTag or third-party merchandise, the monitoring merchandise must be unpaired from an iPhone or iPad related to the iCloud account used to create the preliminary affiliation by way of the Discover My app’s Gadgets tab:

• Go to the Discover My app on an iPhone or iPad (the Mac app doesn’t supply merchandise unpairing). Faucet the Gadgets icon, choose the merchandise, after which faucet Take away Merchandise and make sure.
• If the merchandise is inside Bluetooth vary, the unpairing occurs, and the merchandise sometimes makes a affirmation sound. If it’s out of Bluetooth vary, the Discover My Lock was eliminated, however the merchandise must be reset manually utilizing its specific reset sequence.

Find out how to examine if a lock was disabled

When buying Apple {hardware}, you must require proof that the gadget or merchandise has been faraway from the proprietor’s account. In any other case, you might be doubtless buying tools that the vendor doesn’t personal or to which they’ve misplaced entry by shedding an iCloud account login. The {hardware} might or will not be stolen: many MacBook fashions have turned up on the market in a locked state after being bought from governments or firms that didn’t comply with procedures for deaccessioning.

Right here’s the way to keep away from being scammed by an Activation Lock-enabled iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch:

• Earlier than paying for a tool, you must ask to see (in individual or by way of reside video) the gadget energy up after which not show an Activation Lock message. It ought to present a typical setup display or have a password that may be entered that the vendor will present.
• If an Activation Lock message does seem, require the vendor to enter the iCloud password and unlock the gadget, then disable Discover My. In any other case, don’t give them cash.
• In case you are making a purchase order on eBay or related on-line websites that assure gross sales listings are correct, you may file a criticism and get a refund if the gadget that arrives has Activation Lock enabled and the vendor received’t or can’t take away it from an iCloud account.

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It’s necessary to recollect, too, that any gadget with Activation Lock enabled additionally has Discover My enabled. Which means a vendor can determine your location.

With a Discover My Lock:

• With an AirTag, convey it close to an iPhone or iPad and see if it’s acknowledged. If not, strive the following bullet merchandise.
• With third-party gadgets, open Discover My, faucet the Gadgets icon, and faucet the plus signal to the proper of the Gadgets label. Select Add Different Merchandise (or Add AirTag if the earlier bullet merchandise fails for an AirTag).

An AirTag ought to convey up a dialog it doesn’t matter what app you’re in that claims AirTag and affords a 3D-rotating preview and a Join button. A 3rd-party merchandise will equally information you thru the pairing course of within the Discover My app.

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If the 2 bullet factors above don’t work, utilizing the Discover My app’s Determine Discovered Merchandise hyperlink within the Gadgets view. This could let you understand if it’s nonetheless registered. If it doesn’t seem, strive resetting it and making an attempt the 2 bullet factors above once more. If that fails, the merchandise can’t be paired.

Ask Mac 911

We’ve compiled an inventory of the questions we get requested most regularly, together with solutions and hyperlinks to columns: learn our tremendous FAQ to see in case your query is roofed. If not, we’re all the time in search of new issues to resolve! E-mail yours to mac911@macworld.com, together with display captures as applicable and whether or not you need your full identify used. Not each query will probably be answered; we don’t reply to emails, and we can’t present direct troubleshooting recommendation.