coffeebaron: Maybe a staff member who left and was locked to their personal Apple ID? I've seen that many times before.

timbosan:

 

coffeebaron: Maybe a staff member who left and was locked to their personal Apple ID? I've seen that many times before.

This.

Why do so many people jump to the conclusion there is something 'dodgy'? Its an iPad 2. As in 2nd generation iPad, probably worth less than $50.  It was in a bin of hardware. Probably not worth the cost in fixing.

I already have my own personal iPad, this was more of "I wonder what could an old iPad be used for"?

 

Assuming it can be unlocked, give it to the local school or something. As you say, by that age they are not worth a hill of beans.

had this happen at work, i called apple, they wanted receipts from purchase, supplied to them and they released the apple id lock.

timbosan:

 

Why do so many people jump to the conclusion there is something 'dodgy'? Its an iPad 2. As in 2nd generation iPad, probably worth less than $50.  It was in a bin of hardware. Probably not worth the cost in fixing.

In my case it's because I've recently discovered in auditing BCP processes and devices that a bunch of old iPhones have gone missing from work.  They were stored in a "bin of hardware" that to those who aren't aware of their purpose would look like old things that no-one is using and serve no purpose.  So the question was worth asking.  Regardless of the type of hardware in question, the initial postings were suspicious enough for the question to be valid.

Geektastic:

 

Assuming it can be unlocked, give it to the local school or something. As you say, by that age they are not worth a hill of beans.

 

Don't do this.  Schools need modern, supportable devices.  The resource overhead that goes into supporting old tech is something most schools can't afford. 

Give it to an individual sure, but schools need the same modern tech any business uses.  

If it was bought by the place of work from an Apple Authorised Reseller then surely they'd have a copy of the original invoice?

And if so get in touch with Apple and provide that proof of purchase and they will unlock it for you.

PolicyGuy:

When I retired from my previous employer a year ago, the instructions and warnings were quite clear:

• You must first disconnect yourself from the device (which needs your unlock code and/or fingerprint), then do a factory reset.


• If you do it the other way round, the device is bricked, because it's still locked to your account but you can't unlock it because it has been reset and doesn't 'know' your unlock code or your fingerprint.

So if the former user did a reset to "clear out" his/her personal data, but didn't disconnect first, then it's a rather svelte plastic brick.
If the former user just left it on their desk and walked away, and nobody knows the unlock code (or has identical fingerprints LOL), then probably it's a rather svelte plastic brick.

These were Android devices, not iOS, but it's probably the same issue

gehenna:

 

Geektastic:

 

Assuming it can be unlocked, give it to the local school or something. As you say, by that age they are not worth a hill of beans.

 

 

Don't do this.  Schools need modern, supportable devices.  The resource overhead that goes into supporting old tech is something most schools can't afford. 

 

Give it to an individual sure, but schools need the same modern tech any business uses.  

 

Donating is excellent, just not to a school  It's more trouble for them than it's worth.  And indirectly more trouble for my teacher wife when she has to support whoever is using the old and out of date software in her class because the IT team won't touch it.  For home use it's commendable to donate it, but schools need up-to-date supportable tech.

gehenna:

 

Donating is excellent, just not to a school  It's more trouble for them than it's worth.  And indirectly more trouble for my teacher wife when she has to support whoever is using the old and out of date software in her class because the IT team won't touch it.  For home use it's commendable to donate it, but schools need up-to-date supportable tech.

 

I can imagine other uses for such a device in an organisation such as a school other than using it in class.

For example, a dedicated ebook reader in a school library, or taking on school trips with documents so no one cries if it gets dropped in a field or a pond etc.