A friend of mine purchased a supposedly unused iPad from an elderly lady who lives in another state, and asked me to help her set it up. As soon as we turn it on it asks for a passcode. I have always assumed that you can’t bypass an unknown passcode—otherwise thieves would have a field day. Apple’s Support articles are typically short on information.
I’m seeing conflicting information elsewhere about whether we can reset the passcode or not. It looks like Activation Lock is absolutely unbreakable, but at least we’re not seeing that yet, just a passcode request. Because I suspect the niece doesn’t know much about Apple devices, I’m hoping she didn’t set up AppleID/Find My.
My friend contacted the previous owner, who says she has no clue about passcodes, and her niece set it up for her. We called the niece who says she has no clue about passcodes (ditto AppleID). We did ask for all the relevant birthdays and tried those
You’d want to factory reset it anyway, so that’s the next step. If it is activation locked to an existing Apple ID - well, if the original owner is uncooperative, there’s not much you can do. The only resolution is for the original owner to go to Apple with the original purchase receipt so they can help recover the Apple ID and allow the original owner to remove activation lock from the iPad.
If it’s asking you for a passcode, the device is not “unused” It may be still tied to an Apple Account. The previous owner did not properly prepare the device for ownership transfer.
You also probably won’t find any Apple article about bypassing passcodes if it’s even possible as that would be a security risk. Trying to reset the device using the advice in the Apple Support article you quoted might be worth a try. But it may not be enough if the device is still tied to an Apple ID/Account - but it may give you a clue to the Apple ID of the user that “owns” it (at least that’s what’s happening to one of my son’s old iPhones that needs to be recycled and that he didn’t give me the passcode for).
The question is indistinguishable from what someone who had stolen the iPad would be asking. I have no idea which it is, so that’s just an opinion, but…
The original owner is like 90 years old and doesn’t know anything. She sold it to my friend as “unused”, so we were surprised that it asked for a passcode; I advised my friend to try to return it and get her money back. I get the distinct impression the niece doesn’t know anything either, so maybe the device was never linked to an AppleID. My friend is resigned to losing a few hundred dollars if it doesn’t work out.
That factory-reset sequence will phone home. If it is tied to an Apple ID, it will ask for that ID’s password and maybe a 2FA code from some other device tied to that ID. If not, then you’re good to go.
If it’s tied to an Apple ID and the previous owner can’t help, then you’re got a brick. Apple won’t (and shouldn’t) help. Apple might be able to help out if the seller has the original sales receipt and is willing to work with you, but if they don’t even remember there being a passcode, I don’t think this approach is going to work either.
Also possible is that this friend of yours was scammed and actually bought stolen merchandise, and both of the people he talked to are part of the scam. A locked device that the seller doesn’t know how to unlock is a massive red flag in my book.
Update: I put the iPad in recovery mode and did a restore/erase all settings. Didn’t brick it, but it turns out that Activation Lock is indeed turned on. My client is traveling back to Arizona this week, and will try to get the seller to go to the Apple store with her see if they can unlock it. Unfortunately the seller is a clueless 90-year-old woman, not to mention unwilling to refund the purchase, so my friend might be reduced to selling the box of accessories that it came with.
Did the process of trying to log into the iPad after the recovery mode give a “hint” as to what the Apple Account is that “owns” the device? That might jog some memories of the person that set up the device for the seller…
You can continue to try different options, but based on what you’ve told us, I can say with about 98% certainty that nothing is going to take you away from the fact that you have essentially bought a brick.
Aside from Apple refurbs purchased directly (from Apple), I would never, ever, EVER buy used tech – no matter how great of a deal it is.
Yes, it did prompt with the first letter and suffix of the email address. In a normal situation this could be useful information. In this particular case, most likely not, but who knows.
That’s really crummy that the seller is refusing to refund your money on a device that they didn’t disclose (or didn’t realize) wasn’t able to be used by a new purchaser. IANAL but would small claims court be an option?
The seller the 90 year old lady living in the same retirement home as my friend’s mother. There may be senility involved. My friend is unwilling to press the case.
Even though I did advise my friend not to buy this iPad, it’s a good lesson for me to warn people to test drive used devices before finalizing any purchase.
It’s an unfortunate situation, and I hope your friend didn’t lost a lot of money.
Agreed with the test drive – but even if you get a “test drive”, insist that the device be factory reset after you’ve verified that the device works and before payment is made. If the seller is unable or unwilling to do that, it should be a hard pass regardless of the condition of the device.
