A friend of mine has gifted to me her late mother’s iPad mini. Her mom died rather unexpectedly, and she thinks there may be some pertinent information on the tablet that might answer some questions.
Of course, her mom’s iTunes info is still attached to the tablet. I called Apple, and was told that, given the circumstances, I would have to go through all of her belongings and obtain the proof of purchase. And then a copy of her death certificate.
This seems insanely excessive to me. Assuming that I could even FIND the receipt/proof of purchase in the first place.
So, are there any (legal) workarounds that might be able to get this thing past the “activation lock?”
Google hasn’t been much help. I’ve tried a force reboot, but can’t get anything accomplished.
Apple should have her proof of purchase in their system if she bought it at an Apple store. Your friend would probably have to request it, though. Providing the death certificate shouldn’t be too difficult–surely your friend has the certificate, or can obtain one, right?
Well, the death certificate will take a while. Autopsy, inquest, toxicology reports, and so on. I asked the rep I talked to about them having a record of the purchase, and was told that they wouldn’t supply anything like that without a court order.
Does your friend have an attorney he’s working with to deal with her affairs/estate? Especially if he thinks there’s important information pertaining to her death on the iPad, it might not be as hard to get a court order as you might think.
Why do you think this is excessive?
Do you think that anyone should be able to walk into an Apple store with an iPad and have them unlock it? Wouldn’t that defeat the purpose of the lock?
Apple, if I remember correctly, wouldn’t unlock the San Bernadino shooter’s phone for the FBI. I don’t think they’re going to bend on this.
If your friend’s mother was absolutely terrible about doing upgrades and her iPad is old enough, you might, theoretically, be able to find a way to do this with enough searching around on Google. Apple has things locked pretty tightly with most newer models and OSes.
Is there any chance your friend’s mother used LastPass or a similar service? If she did, then they might have her Apple ID and password. Your friend will, again, have to prove the legitimacy of her need to get into the service in order to get that information, but it’s another avenue to investigate.
I think it’s certainly excessive to have to supply a copy of her death certificate, AND it being incumbent upon the family to have to supply a proof of purchase.
I understand what you’re saying. It just seems like this is an awful lot of hoops to jump through in order to unlock it. Especially when they have to worry about funeral arrangements, finding homes for her pets, dealing with life insurance, social security, police investigation, and all of the other things that people have to deal with when someone dies suddenly.
I figured that I would try to ease the load somewhat by worrying about the iPad while she was busy trying to take care of the big stuff without totally overwhelming herself with this.
Her mom died in a car accident. She had battled depression for years. It’s probably nothing, but my friend said that during their last conversation, her mom said something that indicated that it may not have been an accident; that her mom may have done it deliberately.
I don’t think that’s what happened, and even if it was, I doubt seriously that she would have done something so stupid as to document her plan to do so.
The cops want to wait until all of the autopsy results are in. I think they think like I do, that it’s unlikely that there’s anything pertinent on it.
But her mom had been known to do irrational things. She had a brain tumor that she had surgery to remove around 8-9 months ago, and if it returned, I could certainly see going out on your own terms, even if you irrationally decide to do it where you could take other people with you.
even if what you say is truthful (which i doubt) … the ipad belonged to her and nobody else. tell your friend to get on with her life and to ask god’s blessing for the woman’s passing. since when don’t people respect the dead anymore? as to the ipad, itself, it should be crushed and then incinerated.
What is the reason to have the iPad unlocked so soon? Why not wait until after all of the funeral arrangements, the autopsy, etc. are all mostly or completely done before taking the time and patience to send a copy of the death certificate to Apple (and get court order if necessary regarding the proof of purchase) to have the iPad eventually unlocked?
For the proof of purchase, since finding the receipt seems unlikely, how about a record of the credit card (assuming wasn’t bought with cash) charge to help bolster your friend’s case? However IANAL, so I am not sure of how strong a reason has to be for a court to order unlocking of a deceased relative’s iPad.
As for the question of a workaround, evidently there is because the FBI found a hacker that was able to unlock the San Bernardino phone. However, I believe it cost them $2 or 3 million, which is probably more excessive than providing a death cetificate. I don’t think you’re going to find a workaround using google.
Apple’s position seems excessively lenient to me. I would have expected them to require a statement in the deceased’s will specifically allowing access to a named person. Merely proving that the owner of the iPad has died (which is all that the purchase record and death certificate provides) shouldn’t allow you to access her personal information, a vague suspicion that there may be “pertinent information” on the iPad notwithstanding.
Did the mother have a computer that the iPad was synched to? If so, might the info be accessible in iTunes? (I have no clue - I use Android). And even if not, you / she might be able to use the computer to do a password reset on the Apple ID if the computer can access her email.
Obviously these require physical access to the computer.
That’s hardly excessive. How else are they to know that she’s dead?
There aren’t any special legal rules about the devolution of iPads on death. The iPad is part of your friend’s mother’s estate, as is the intellectual property in the information needed to unlock it. Dealing with this, if we are talking about what you can insist on as opposed to what Apple or any other company might do voluntarily, is a matter for her executors/administrators. And of course her executor, when appointed, will have a copy of the death certificate.
I understand your friend’s desire, in her shock and grief, to get access to the iPad to see if it contains anything that might help your friend to understand and come to tems with her mother’s death. Though, from what you say, it strikes me as very unlikely that there is anything. Apple won’t be easily persuaded that there is “pertinent information” on the iPad and, even if there is, is isn’t necessarily information to which your friend has a moral or legal right; one of the reasons why someone might store information on a locked device is to keep it private, including from family members.
The iPad might also be sync’d to the iCloud, and if you can find that password… Or if it’s in an email account that you can access and have mailed to her (you). the problem with the San Bernadino phone was that an iCloud backup had not happened for 6 weeks, and they wanted the latest data - and they reset the Apple password, so it would not back up again…
What model is it? Depending on the answer, you might be (in order from “early” to “late” model) 1)able to hack it yourself using instructions from the Internet, 2)able to get Apple to hack it by presenting adequate documentation that you have a legitimate right to do so, or 3)completely SOL.
Moral: Include the access information to your digital files and devices (insofar as you want your heirs to be able to access them) in your will.