[austinheap]

Do you recall the issue? Was it FaceTime specifically or all-things-iCloud? The latter is one of the most common last-mile issues since you need to present Apple servers with hardware identifiers that iCloud agrees are real (i.e.: from your old MacBook gathering dust).

[Wowfunhappy]

Just to add to this: it's not strictly necessary to pull an MLB from a real Mac, although that can certainly be a shortcut.

If you present Apple with computer information that makes sense, and you do it right the first time, they'll usually accept it as real. I've done this around five times now and it has always worked. I can actually enter my made-up serial numbers on Apple's website, and they show up in the system as real computers[1]!

The serial, MLB, hardware model, etc all need to match, and you need to get it right on the first try! Apple seems to get suspicious once you've fed them weird data.

[1] When I tell people this, they always ask if I'm sure I didn't collide with a real serial. The possibility that this happened--especially every time I've done it--is incredibly small, so I'm quite sure that isn't what's happening.

[ghostpepper]

This is fascinating to me. Surely Apple has a databases somewhere of all the S/Ns of all the computers they've ever sold. Why would they accept a made up one and insert it into their database?

[Wowfunhappy]

I've long wondered that too! I have to assume that, for some kind of manufacturing reason, Apple either doesn't have such a database or doesn't trust its accuracy.

If anyone with more knowledge of supply chain dynamics knows why this might be, please feel free to chime to chime in!

[zamalek]

I think it was all things iCloud, and your explanation for the issue does ring a bell.