I posted about a gifted mba that I was going to set up for a friend, but was blocked by the previous not clearing Findmy before giving.

Lots of phone tag (3 parties - all in different states), but I finally have a new OS loading and will transfer stuff from the old computer later.

Apple needs to make this easier. I sent apple links and they were still confused about it, but we FINALLY got it done today.

So you had to get the original owner to clear the lock?

That's a major accomplishment.

With something like that you can't even install a new hard drive and move on, right?

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chopper
That's a major accomplishment.

With something like that you can't even install a new hard drive and move on, right?

Correct, it's like an iPhone, if it's locked, it's basically a brick. Makes these less likely to be stolen.

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AllGold
So you had to get the original owner to clear the lock?

yes - only took seconds once the message got across, but it had to come by way of a third person.

Chopper - there isn't even a drive that you can pull. You can't just ignore the internal drive either and install on an external - you MUST get the thing cleared of the old account.

Yeah, you can buy those bricked units on eBay cheap. There’s always somebody who thinks they can break the ID lock. Never heard of anybody who could do it though. It’s supposedly possible if you talk directly to the chip and reprogram it.

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special

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chopper
That's a major accomplishment.

With something like that you can't even install a new hard drive and move on, right?

Correct, it's like an iPhone, if it's locked, it's basically a brick. Makes these less likely to be stolen.

Right. But what are the chances that a thief would think, "Oh, it's a Mac and it can't be wiped because it's still in the owner's Find My...." C'mon, Apple, there must be a better way.

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lost in space

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special

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chopper
That's a major accomplishment.

With something like that you can't even install a new hard drive and move on, right?

Correct, it's like an iPhone, if it's locked, it's basically a brick. Makes these less likely to be stolen.

Right. But what are the chances that a thief would think, "Oh, it's a Mac and it can't be wiped because it's still in the owner's Find My...." C'mon, Apple, there must be a better way.

Hopefully Windows has/will have something similar and all computer theft will stop.

People no longer steal TVs because they are too large to steal, and the smaller ones are of no value these days.
Rewind 15-29 years ago when TV theft was a real thing.

Same with Tesla, I don’t think anyone steal Teslas since you can track it remotely.

This is quite an accomplishment.....congratulations hal.

Glad to hear you were able to do it. I remember a few years ago, trying to unlock an iPad Air. Had the pw, Apple ID pw, and still couldn’t unlock it. Brought in receipt from third party reseller. Never was able to get it unlocked. As frustrating as it was, and because I think the problem ultimately was that I forgot the backup iCloud acct pw. I appreciated the layers of security setup to stop a thrift from using it.