iPhone5 iCloud locked. Owner passed away

Forums › Apple iOS and devices › iPhone5 iCloud locked. Owner passed away

tehgerbil

1110 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 884

ID Verified

Subscriber

#270499 12-May-2020 17:12

Hi Everyone,

A co-worker gave me his old iPhone5, A1429 a few months ago, had it in my drawer at work, and only managed to get in today and retrieve it.

He passed a couple weeks ago from cancer and I am not going to his grieving family asking for his iTunes account.

Neither of us are Apple people, so didn't realise it would lock the damn thing to his iTunes account, even after a factory reset.

I guess it's better for apple to cripple the second hand market.

From a quick Google, I am one of hundreds of thousands of people caught out by this delightful 'feature'. Thanks Apple.

Is there any way to recover this? I have Googled, but as you can imagine I have been bombarded with some dubious websites and youtube videos!

Thank you in advance.

1 | 2

8667 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3883

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2482084 12-May-2020 17:20

No way to recover without the iCloud account, or proof of ownership to lodge a support request with Apple directly. In the case of your example, consider the phone a brick.

Linux

12173 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 8469

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2482085 12-May-2020 17:21

I have tried before Apple not interested in helping in anyway at all

Just not worth the headache

jarledb

Webhead
3319 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1983

Moderator

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2482091 12-May-2020 17:29

As an iPhone owner I must say I appreciate the extra security. It makes the phones a lot less attractive to thieves.

Any iPhone or iPad that you get or give/sell away should be signed out of iCloud and factory reset to avoid these kinds of problems.

Jarle Dahl Bergersen | Referral Links: Want $50 off when you join Octopus Energy? Use this referral code
Are you happy with what you get from Geekzone? Please consider supporting us by making a donation or subscribing.

Nate001

677 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 465

#2482110 12-May-2020 18:06

Sorry to say its only good as a paperweight, or for parts.

You can go down the route of proving ownership etc but I doubt its really worth your time.

tehgerbil

1110 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 884

ID Verified

Subscriber

#2482114 12-May-2020 18:14

jarledb:

As an iPhone owner I must say I appreciate the extra security. It makes the phones a lot less attractive to thieves.

Any iPhone or iPad that you get or give/sell away should be signed out of iCloud and factory reset to avoid these kinds of problems.

Yes, but it should be common knowledge, or even a warning SOMEWHERE when you do a factory reset? The only way I found out about it was when it happened.

I appreciate the security aspect, but as a layman this is really bad performance.

That said, Apple hates third party resellers, so call me a narcissistic bastard (cause frankly I am) but I feel this is done to make it as hard as difficult as possible to sell an iPhone.

gehenna

8667 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3883

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2482116 12-May-2020 18:19

tehgerbil:

Yes, but it should be common knowledge, or even a warning SOMEWHERE when you do a factory reset? The only way I found out about it was when it happened.

The steps are clearly outlined on the Apple iOS device reset KB. Basically - sign out of Find My Device. Sign out of iMessage. Sign out of iCloud. Reset. Just because you aren't aware of something doesn't mean it's not documented or common knowledge.

Mighty Ape

Shop now at Mighty Ape (affiliate link).

tehgerbil

1110 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 884

ID Verified

Subscriber

#2482146 12-May-2020 18:55

gehenna:

tehgerbil:

Yes, but it should be common knowledge, or even a warning SOMEWHERE when you do a factory reset? The only way I found out about it was when it happened.

The steps are clearly outlined on the Apple iOS device reset KB. Basically - sign out of Find My Device. Sign out of iMessage. Sign out of iCloud. Reset. Just because you aren't aware of something doesn't mean it's not documented or common knowledge.

Fair. :) I am just 100% used to the old Android way of Factory reset, and hand over. Ignorance of the rules is never a good defence haha.

RunningMan

9184 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4834

#2482167 12-May-2020 19:27

tehgerbil:

I guess it's better for apple to cripple the second hand market.

It's pretty easy if you're selling second hand to do. It can even be done remotely if you forget when handing over, so it's unlikely to cripple the second hand market. Just log in to iCloud on the web and remove the device. Probably designed to influence the stolen market.

gehenna

8667 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3883

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2482183 12-May-2020 19:52

If an Android phone is logged into a Google account, and is reset before signing out that account, it does the same thing and locks the device to the account. It's just the way modern devices work.

JPNZ

1715 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 840

#2482492 13-May-2020 08:42

jarledb:

As an iPhone owner I must say I appreciate the extra security. It makes the phones a lot less attractive to thieves.

Any iPhone or iPad that you get or give/sell away should be signed out of iCloud and factory reset to avoid these kinds of problems.

QFT, 100% this. The ability to pretty much stop the selling of stolen iphones is a great move by apple.

Panasonic 65GZ1000, Onkyo RZ730, Atmos 5.1.2, AppleTV 4K, Nest Mini's, PS5, PS3, MacbookPro, iPad Pro, Apple watch SE2, iPhone 15+

tehgerbil

1110 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 884

ID Verified

Subscriber

#2482498 13-May-2020 08:55

Thanks everyone, I'll take it apart and try my hand at knolling. Everyone is right, I guess I am just salty at my own stupidity for not researching it first. I aught to have known better and should stop bitching at Apple because of my own mistake.

Geekzone support

Support Geekzone with one-off or recurring donations Donate via PressPatron.

mudguard

2327 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1250

#2482516 13-May-2020 09:20

I have no issue with it. Phones contain a tonne of personal information these days. If something were to happen to me tomorrow I'm quite happy for my phone to be bricked. Nearest has access to my Flickr account for photos, the rest I couldn't care less about.

Reminds of me of dealing with POAs at the bank when couples had 'joint' accounts in one name. And that person died, absolute nightmare.

Senecio

2851 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3159

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#2482522 13-May-2020 09:29

What did you want to do with the phone? Surely an iPhone 5 wouldn't be worth anything to sell and I wouldn't want to be using one today.

RunningMan

9184 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4834

#2482584 13-May-2020 10:34

Just hang on to it, and ask for the details at a more appropriate time from the family. Assuming they have the password, they just sign into https://icloud.com and remove that device from the account. Don't need the actual device on hand.

tehgerbil

1110 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 884

ID Verified

Subscriber

#2482609 13-May-2020 11:07

Senecio:

What did you want to do with the phone? Surely an iPhone 5 wouldn't be worth anything to sell and I wouldn't want to be using one today.

I was going to give it to my son (5) to use as a camera. He loves taking pictures and uses an ancient Samsung, but it's massive 6" so he struggles with it.

The iPhone 5 is a perfectly small sized wee simple camera device that is also metal so hardy if/when he drops it.

1 | 2