[newaccount74]

There's a huge market for second hand Macs and iOS devices. I've bought a few and never had an issue with activation lock, because the seller just deactivates it before selling.

The only people who have an issue with activation lock are people who want to resell devices from questionable sources.

[Ancapistani]

A colleague of mine currently has five MBPs sitting on his desk. He's a foreign contractor, and the MBPs are owned by his agency. They didn't have a good asset management plan when they were purchased, so they were "bound" to the contractor that used them first. When those people moved on to other companies, the agency has no way to remove activation lock.

At least one person claims to have forgotten their Apple ID's password - they don't have any personal Apple products - and the only available alternative is to ship it back to the agency, have them track down the original purchase receipt, and ask Apple nicely to unlock it that way.

So no - those are not the only people who have an issue with activation lock.

... and for what it's worth, I like the way it's currently set up.

[newaccount74]

> at least one person claims to have forgotten their Apple ID's password

I think you can reset your Apple ID password with the device password (unless you already wiped the device).

[Ancapistani]

That particular situation is even more complicated when you dig into it.

The MBP was originally enrolled in the contracting agency's MDM system. They discontinued that, removed it, and it was enrolled in my employer's system. A few months after that person left, it was removed from my employer's system.

The MBP wants an MDM key:

    Enter your MDM key to activate this device.

We can't provide that because it was removed from my employer's MDM system. As a fallback, the Apple ID and password of the account previously used would work:

    This Mac is linked to an Apple ID. Enter the Apple ID and password that was previously used with this Mac. j•••••@icloud.com

We can't provide that because even after tracking down the machine's previous user, they claim to not recall the password. They tried to reset their password, but the password reset email was sent to... their iCloud account, which they can't access.

At this point, the only available option is the recovery process through Apple, which requires the original purchase receipt (including serial number!). I'm not sure if it's because of the agency's policy or Apple's, but the agency said they can only do that if they have it physically in their hands at the time.

So, in short, that particular MBP is a brick unless and until it's shipped from my colleague's desk in Argentina to the agency's headquarters - then they should be able to unlock it.

Finally, consider the value of the time involved here. My colleague estimates he's spent eight hours trying to get it unlocked. That was in coordination with the IT folks at both my employer and the contracting agency - so figure a total of ~30 hours burned so far.

Based on the average salary of a "software engineer"[0], 40 hours per week and 50 weeks per year, we've spent $1,728.84 already on a dead laptop[1] and haven't been able to get it working. That's already enough to buy a new machine with the same specs as this one. It quickly gets to the point where a smart company will just "throw it away" and buy a new one... because it's cheaper.

0: https://www.indeed.com/career/software-engineer/salaries

1:

$115,256 per year / 40 hours per week / 50 weeks per year = $57.628 / hour

$57.628 / hour * 30 hours = $1,728.84