As said above, we got our daughter an iPhone 4 from a friend.
The battery was completely flat so we have charged it and inserted the new sim card.
When turned on, it is asking for a password to the iCloud, which our friends have never signed into. Their apple ID is from an old account and they can't remember the password.
Please, fellow OzBargainers, give us words of wisdom. We are going on holiday tomorrow and need to get this sorted.
The previous owner should be able to take the phone into the apple store and using some ID and various other verification methods, be able to get it unlocked.
In fact, I'd be surprised if they couldn't just ring up Apple and get them to reset the password over the phone. Apparently the security verification process is pretty poor.
My question is - why did it suddenly request the icloud password? Did they have find my iphone switched on and reported it lost? Usually yes when you first activate your iphone it will ask if you want to sign in with your apple id, but you can just skip this step.
They don't need the phone to remove the account, they can log onto www.icloud.com and then remove the phone from their account,
They can also try this
https://iforgot.apple.com/appleid
Their verification is not poor, they are very protective of this Find My iPhone.
Good Luck
They can't remove it if they've forgotten their password to the icloud account.
Actually Apple security is pretty poor
http://www.wired.com/2012/08/apple-amazon-mat-honan-hacking/…
But that's not the point, the point is the original owners should be able to ring up and get their password and THEN remove the phone from their icloud account…
That article is 08/06/2012 Find my iPhone and Activation lock came out September 2013.
The original owner can't just ring up.
http://www.dailytech.com/Apple+Wont+Let+UK+Sons+Unlock+Their…
Apple did however unlock the above device as a result of the bad press.
The iforgot website will send an email to their registered email account which can be used to reset the password.
there is no way you can bypass the icloud activation unless you have the previous owner username and password. BE IN MIND before you buy any secondhand Iphone, please do
if they dont ask for the icloud activation and you can see the HOMESCREEN then you can grab your wallet and pay :)
hope this helps
Out of interest (and sorry to thread hijack), if you have a phone that is not signed into find my iphone, can it possibly become icloud locked?
I just bought an iphone 5 on ebay and when I turned it on it said: this phone is lost, please call ….
Thinking I'd bought a stolen phone, I called the number and it turned out to be the seller who had erased the phone remotely via icloud for some reason. He signed into icloud and removed the phone from his icloud account and I was instantly able to activate it.
My question is, can the phone now be locked again in any way? I'm worried that it might have been a dodgy sell. I assume the only way to lock it would be to report it lost and then the IMEI gets blocked?
No, once they unlocked it, and you login using your icloud credential, it will lock under your account, eventhough someone want to wipe it, they need to turn of Find my iphone under icloud setting before they can wipe your iphone
Setting - ICLOUD - Find My iPhone
hope this helps.
Thanks all for your help - we can bypass the iTunes log-in, so that side of things is okay.
The real problem lies with Telstra - the person I got the new SIM card from neglected to mention about the activation process and it also turns out the SIM is faulty.
So having to spend day on of our holiday hunting around Launceston for a Telstra shop to get it sorted.
Oh yuck. I think Telstra's policy though is that all iphones can be unlocked free of charge, usually online using the IMEI number. In which case you could just hop online and unlock it, then put a new sim in and forget about looking for a telstra store :)
The Telstra 8gb can't be unlocked for free as these are prepaid, all the other telstras can be.
To answer your previous question, once the owner signs the device out of his icloud, he/she can't get control again.
And yes the owner can only then report it lost/stolen to the network to get it blocked.
Thanks :)
Negative on that. eventhough its 8GB, you still can unlock it for free. try to call 125 8880 or 1800 782 489
If you did, you were lucky
Had a lovely time this morning a Launceston Telstra shop, along with all of those who had lined up to buy a new iPhone…
Now they are saying the phone was locked to Vodaphone, so have to now wait of the previous owner to get it unlocked. They are friends of ours, and were under the impression it was unlocked.
Oh my. Can't you just unlock it online/using itunes?
http://support.vodafone.com.au/articles/FAQ/Unlocking-your-A…
Without the password for the previous users Apple ID/iCloud, then the phone will not be much use to you! If you can get the previous owner to connect the phone into a computer that they have their iTunes account on, then you may be able to unlock the phone from there. Apart from that I am not much help!