Perfectly good M1 MacBooks are being scrapped because of Activation Lock [video]

I would be pretty annoyed to discover Apple unlocking my Activation Locked devices without contacting me, positively identifying me and getting my permission to unlock them. The whole point of Activation Lock is to ruin the resale value of stolen Apple products.

Actually, they are not “perfectly good”, because they lack provenance. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Provenance" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Provenance</a>

Apple boasts great device security, I refuse to believe that in 2023 it isn&#x27;t enough to just wipe the storage encryption key. Device will still be usable and customer data protected. Oh well, the problem would be even less severe if these devices had removable storage. This is yet another anti consumer and anti environment greedy move from a company that markets lock-in practices as features.

It&#x27;s a small price to pay as a planet for not getting your laptop (or phone or tablet) stolen, I guess?<p>Backdoors can (and therefore, will) be abused, so it is better that there is no way around these security measures.

it&#x27;s doing exactly what it was designed for. you can easily contact the previous owner to unlock them... though it&#x27;s obviously not feasible if it&#x27;s stolen.

Whatever the environmental and security arguments pro and con, Apple has a strong financial disincentive to unlock these machines.

I&#x27;m in two minds about this, I am glad that there is no way around activation lock, but of course it produces waste if nobody else can use it.<p>It would be great if they could engineer a solution in that the device is activation locked and be factory reset and reused.<p>There was a discussion around activation lock somewhat preventing thefts due to the risk that the device becomes activation locked. But I don&#x27;t know how truthful that is. As stolen devices are often sold to unsuspecting users with activation lock enabled.

This is amazing, as an M1 MacBook owner I see it as a great advertisement to buy Apple products.

I&#x27;m torn on this whole M1 MacBook scrap situation due to Activation Lock. On one hand, I get the need for security. Activation Lock makes Apple devices less appealing to thieves, which is a win for owners. I&#x27;ve seen cases where stolen iPhones are practically useless thanks to this feature. But on the other side, it&#x27;s frustrating to see perfectly usable tech turned into waste.<p>Apples does have owner transfer service that works very well, I&#x27;ve used it for a few sales and now there&#x27;s also a &quot;Legacy Contacts&quot; feature if someone passed away (added 2022).

“Those companies are selling their perfectly good used cars without giving new owners their keys, and since the security system in those cars is really good and can’t be overridden, they’re trash.<p>Bad carmakers! Could you just allow us to use your cars without keys??!”<p>Seriously. Blame on the institutions that don’t unlock the devices, maybe they just have no idea. Blaming activation lock is totally silly.<p>Maybe a way to “ping” an activation lock “owner” for “lock deactivation” and allow deactivation if no answer in, say, 90 days, could be a useful improvement; but the fault of this is not Apple’s.

I&#x27;d love to have a cheap used M1 macbook to play with.. but at the same time those activation locks are useful and gave me better resell value for my apple stuff.<p>Still sucks because there are people who just cant afford a brand new Apple laptop but would make great use of a used Apple Silicon macbook. Instead they are going to get a used thinkpad&#x2F;inspiron because those are resold for cheap instead of being scrapped. Wasted opportunity for Apple to get people hooked in the ecosystem

How about the facility to connect to WiFi from that screen and trigger an email to the previous owner, ok to unlock this device or is it stolen?

This is the video I would post if I were a fence.

One reason people buy Apple products is because of security. Undermining activation lock would destroy that.<p>Are these MacBooks stolen?

Just make there be a transfer ownership key, that the user must request, and the recycler won’t accept without.<p>Having apple unilaterally unlock the device is not the only solution, just the recycler’s preferred one.<p>This would also protected unlocked macs from being stolen en route, like in the post.

If I go into my iCloud account and remove the device off my list, does activation go away even if I didn’t explicitly remove it before I get rid of it?<p>If yes, that would be more than enough at this point.

A bit disingenuous to post these particular macs as a problem when you have mountains of decade old macbooks in background.<p>All that said, his proposed solution sounds reasonable.

Apple has no incentive to address the issue, as it would upset the original owners. Also, an unlocked device may be resold, resulting in a lost future sale.<p>Given Apple&#x27;s limited responsiveness to customer pressure, the best approach may be to involve the original owners in finding a solution. This may involve ensuring that all owners are aware of the problem and providing a simple way to erase the hard drive and set up a generic account and password. Simplicity is key. Additionally, offering a small token of appreciation, such as a Starbucks gift card, could be a nice gesture to those who participate.

Install Asahi Linux?

I think we should tackle this problem by collectively teaching people not to steal.<p>Legit resale people can be contacted. People who were tasked with destroying equipment, but trying to resale should be upfront about their operations and get unlocks before accepting delivery.

Really, this is disgraceful and it&#x27;s unacceptable that Apple hasn&#x27;t come up with a work around... Just as millions of iPhones and iPads have been scrapped due to Activation lock, we are now seeing 2018+ MacBooks scrapped at recyclers as well, due to the &quot;feature&quot; being enabled on those devices.