Need to wipe/reset iPad but don't know Apple ID
Is it possible to wipe/reset an iPad without having the user's apple ID? We've got a pile of ipads at work which have been returned by users who have left the organization or retired. One of our guys is supposed to get the user's info when they leave and wipe the device, but he rarely does and by the time they need to be repurposed no one has the info and the user is long gone. I've tried going through Recovery Mode + connecting it to iTunes; doing this I was able to successfully wipe an iPad, but when you go to reconfigure it still prompts for the old user's Apple ID and you can't get any further without it. Is the only solution to use some kind of third party tool to deactivate the apple id (I saw EaseUS apparently has something for this)?
Answers (4)
I too have this problem from time to time and unfortunately have some ipads that are locked for good. If the Apple ID was created using their/your company email then you can re-enabled their email to do the forgot/reset process with apple. If you dont know their security passwords this process can take a month sadly they have gotten more strict on this.
https://iforgot.apple.com/password/verify/appleid
If the Apple ID was created with the users' personal account then your are kind of screwed unless they are willing to give you their passwords or have the user sign into their apple ID from the web portal and select sign out of the company iPad. This would involve contacting the user after they have left the company and depending on how they left the company this might not work for you.
https://appleid.apple.com/As a last resort I believe if you have the receipt for the original purchase you can open a support case with apple to have them remove the activation/apple id lock. I personally havent done this but my previous boss did this like once or twice.
For the future it would be best to invest in an MDM for your apple products so that you can avoid this problem. MDM is the way to go for apple product management.
One thing we did that can help in the short term is write up instructions on how to remove passcodes & sign out of apple id on the device for HR to include on their term process when collecting devices. My company did this and it saved us a few times
Best thing to do is contact Apple directly.
Apple Business/Education/Govt support can provide you a spreadsheet where you enter the serial numbers and send it back to Apple support. Then in 48 hours or so the Apple ID is nuked and you can wipe the devices, data is not recoverable. You will of course have to verify ownership, but if these were purchased under a DEP account that is good enough and always what I used.
Might consider using MDM policy to prevent people from logging in with Apple ID. Also, many MDM have an option to clear apple ID on wipe which is handy to prevent this in the future.
In fact, it is hard to thoroughly remove these Apple IDs if you can't offer the receipts of these devices to Apple. As you said, the activation lock will occur if you restore the device using iTunes. Therefore, the better choice is third-party tools. EaseUs, Joyoshare iPasscode Unlocker, or other programs, are workable to reset iPad without Apple ID. What you need to do is to check the compatibility and compare their price. Wish your problem is solved.