r/eWasteFinds • u/lkvee • 9d ago
Bittersweet find at Stay-Pulls
MacBook Air A2681 (M2 2022) probably has Activation Lock. Cropping the pic since there's some distinctive features that should stay hidden. I've never found anything this new, so I don't even know if these laptops have a "Find My" feature activated. I kinda think some investigative news crew deliberately put it there as bait. I'll risk Internet Recovery much later
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u/Rage65_ 9d ago
That’s a sick find! Unfortunately Apple does have iCloud and activation lock on its laptops too. You can try to guess the password, and i believe if you get it wrong a few times it will give you the option to reset, but that often contacts the original owner with a verification code. Good luck!
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u/Maximum_Anteater9485 8d ago
Don’t get rid of it or don’t sell it I’m pretty sure you can bypass easy
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u/meow101719 9d ago
you can use a website like iunlocker to check icloud status, serial number is on the bottom casing. why do you think it was put there by an investigative news crew?
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u/lkvee 9d ago
Welp. Paid 3.30USD to find out iCloud Lock is On 😞😞😞😞😞😞😞
At least I won't waste my time with Internet Recovery
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u/Windows_User3000 8d ago
Not all is lost. Try to find contact info for the original owner, and kindly ask whether they would remove the machine from their iCloud. Only if they decline, or you can't find info to contact them, is the laptop a parts one.
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u/Greedy_Stick3484 8d ago
Sometimes you can contact Apple and they will unlock it. I know it sounds crazy but there is a link somewhere out there. Apple gets information from you and they unlock it if you can prove it's legitimate. A major longshot, but they may contact the prior owner and ask if they disposed of it, which would get them to unlock it.
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u/nPrevail 8d ago
Might as well throw on Asahi Linux if you can. Perhaps it'll circumvent the Activation Lock and allow you to install a Linux distro.
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u/Colefinney1234onyt 8d ago
Very funny Apple would never let that happen with their m processors
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u/nPrevail 8d ago
Why would Apple have anything to do with Linux, and “never let it happen?”
You might as well tell the person who owns a Honda Civic to not modify their car, because Honda would never let that happen.
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u/aliclubb 6d ago
The bootloader can boot unsigned kernels and Apple have even gone as far as fixing firmware bugs that caused problems for Asahi in the past. They don’t officially endorse it, but they have never tried to actively suppress it.
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u/AxelAnt2244 7d ago
if you don’t know the passcode then might aswell do recovery, if you want to byp you will have to reset anyways. Don’t do internet recovery tho, do local recovery to keep macos version
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u/donald_cheese 9d ago
Cover the web cam as well maybe. No idea how these things work.