When an employee leaves your company or organization and hands over the iPhone/iPad back to you but doesn’t sign out from their Apple ID, the iPhone/iPad remains locked with their account.
If you factory reset the iPhone/iPad in order to give it to the new employee that you hired for the vacant position, you will find the iPhone/iPad locked by the former employee’s Apple ID and you are not able to get into the system even you restore it using iTunes.
Apple made its iDevices securer by locking them with the Apple ID, and making them unusable unless the user signs out and passes all the verification barriers.
When this happens, you may want to know how to unlock a company-owned iPhone/iPad. Here we tell you how to make it. Remember that there is no 100% working solution, but the 2 methods introduced below are worth trying.
1. Unlock Company-Owned iPhone/iPad at Apple Store
As discussed above, if you are the owner of your iPhone or iPad and your ex-employee didn’t unlock it before leaving the job, your first attempt should be to contact and request them to sign out of their Apple ID from your device. If they cannot be reached, the other solution that you can go for is to take your phone/tablet to the Apple Store along with the required documents that are listed below:
- Your iPhone/iPad.
- The original receipt of purchase.
- The original invoice that was issued by the authorized Apple Retail Shop.
If all your documents are correct and genuine, the professionals at the Apple Store will surely help you unlock the company-owned iPhone/iPad. However, the verification process that the Store will conduct may take a while. Nevertheless, it is still worth every second. Isn’t it?
2. Use a Tool to Unlock Company Owned iPhone/iPad
If Apple Store refuses to help you due to some conflicts between their policies and your document verification process, or you don’t have the documents required, you can go for a reliable and efficient third-party program that can get the job done for you.
One such application is AnyUnlock by iMobie which is available for both Windows and Mac platforms and works for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Some unique features that iMobie AnyUnlock offers include:
- Bypass iCloud Activation Lock. If you were locked by an Apple ID that you have no access to anymore, you can use this tool to bypass the iCloud activation lock and get into the system. Remember your iPhone/iPad will be jailbroken and there are some limitations.
- Unlock Screen Passcode. You can use this software to unlock your iPhone/iPad screen passcode if you cannot remember it or if it has been changed by another family member, a friend, or a colleague.
- Unlock Apple ID. If your iDevice is locked by your Apple ID and you cannot remember the password, AnyUnlock can help you unlock it so you can regain access.
- Bypass MDM. If your device is supervised and controlled by your organization via a Mobile Device Management (MDM) profile, you can safely use AnyUnlock to bypass the restrictions and regain access.
- Remove SIM Lock. If your iPhone shows the “SIM Not Supported” error message, iMobie AnyUnlock can easily remove the SIM lock from your device too.
- Recover iTunes Backup Password or Remove Encryption. If you encrypted your iTunes backup at the time of its creation and now forgot the password, AnyUnlock can recover the password. If you don’t want to create an encrypted backup anymore, you can remove the encryption with AnyUnlock.
In your case, you have factory reset your device and it is stuck on iCloud Activation Lock, you can follow the procedure given below to unlock the company-owned iPhone/iPad.
- Download and install iMobie AnyUnlock on your computer.
- Initialize the program.
- From the main interface, click the Bypass iCloud Activation Lock tile.
- Use the Lightning Cable to connect your iDevice to the PC.
- Wait while AnyUnlock detects your phone/tablet.
- Click Start Now.
- Carefully read the terms of using AnyUnlock by following the Terms of Use link on the Quickly Bypass iCloud Activation Lock Screen.
- Check the box before I have read and agreed to the Terms of Use.
- Click Jailbreak Now.
- On the Please Jailbreak Your Device screen, click Next.
- On the next window, click Bypass Now.
- Wait while AnyLock bypasses the iCloud Activation Lock.
- Click Done when the process completes.
Note: You must not reset your device or flash its firmware to avoid re-enabling the iCloud Activation Lock. If you reset it accidentally, you need to use AnyUnlock to unlock the device again.
How to Avoid Company-Owned iPhone/iPad Being Locked by Employee’s Apple ID
The best way to do this is by installing the Mobile Device Management (MDM) profile on the Company-Owned iPhone/iPad so you can supervise and control the iPhone/iPad remotely. You can refer to this guide to install a configuration profile.
Once done, you can follow the process given below to check if the profile is successfully installed and turned on before issuing the iDevice to the employee:
- On the iPhone/iPad, go to Settings.
- Tap General.
- Scroll down and tap VPN & Device Management.
- On the VPN & Device Management screen that appears next, verify the presence of your organization’s MDM profile.
- If it is present, you have successfully installed and enabled MDM on the device.
- You can now safely hand over the iPhone/iPad to the employee and monitor and supervise the iDevice remotely.
Note: Sometimes, you must enforce the company policy where the employee must return the device to the organization before leaving the employment. In the scenarios where your organization allows the employees to use their iPhone/iPad for official purposes, you must first have them sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), which should state that you will install an MDM profile on their device during their service period and, uninstall it when they wish to quit the job.
Conclusion
You may stumble upon an iCloud Activation Lock if your prior employee didn’t sign out of Apple ID before leaving the job. In such a case, you can follow the solutions suggested above to unlock the company-owned iPhone/iPad before you can regain unrestricted access to it and issue it to the recruit.
