Activation Lock could not be cleared.

[Nick_Gooch]

When wiping a device occasionally I get an error message that says,

"Activation Lock could not be cleared, and the mobile device was not wiped. 404 - An error occured [sic] clearing activation lock."

Any idea's how to fix that and wipe the device and still have activation lock disabled?

[stoneacheck]

I've only had that happen once. Luckily we got the kid to provide the unlock credentials prior to wipe. Sorry that doesn't help much. That was on 9.51, about 3 weeks ago.

[freddie_cox]

If the activation lock bypass code doesn't work from the setup assistant, you have to contact Apple Support, provide proof of purchase and have them remove the activation lock.

If you haven't already, contact you're Apple Education Systems Engineer or Account Rep. They can provide you with the education support number to call and request the removal of of the Activation Lock.

You will have to provide the original device Invoice Number, PO Number, Purchase Date, and Receipt Number along with the serial number and institution information. If you have this information at-the-ready then it's a fairly quick process. Otherwise, it can take a few days.

[Nick_Gooch]

I've had to contact Apple many times to do this. I'm hoping someone can provide a fix for Casper not clearing it when wiping the iPad. This is one of the reasons that I would prefer that Casper didn't enable activation lock by default. https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/featureRequest.html?id=2185

[freddie_cox]

I've been holding back on upgrading for this reason. If you check the release notes, there's been an open defect since 9.4 regarding collection of Activation Lock Bypass Codes which I assume is why it cannot send the clear command successfully:

[D-007568] The Activation Lock bypass code is not collected by the JSS

http://resources.jamfsoftware.com/documents/products/documentation/Casper-Suite-9.61-Release-Notes.p...

I keep hoping for a resolution on this one, but it has remained.

[jkphs]

Getting error 90% of the time when wiping iPads with clear activation lock. We are having to call Apple at least once a month to request an activation lock bypass.
Error:
"Activation Lock could not be cleared.

404 - Device not found or activation lock bypass is invalid.

Do you still wish to wipe the device?"

Any update on the cause of this problem, or whether or not this has/will be fixed?

[thejenbot]

@jkphs there are many, many, many discussions on this and everyone is asking the same question. this one from 2014 is good to bring in to the mix - the more people are commenting and keeping these at the top of the discussions list/in the feed, hopefully if there are 4 about the SAME THING someone at jamf will GET ON THE BALL. especially since i don't see ANY MENTION of activation lock in the list of known issues. this is apparently a known issue to everyone but jamf...

[jkphs]

@thejenbot I agree that this is an issue that JAMF seems to be avoiding or unable to resolve. I have submitted support requests for this issue receiving no solution other than to contact Apple. Our organization just collected all old iPad Air 2s and rolled out brand new 6th Gens. I had to call Apple for an activation lock bypass request for 100-120 of the old iPads. In addition, one of our brand new 6th Gen iPads was bailed on by a student that enrolled and then decided they were going elsewhere. The newly enrolled iPad was wiped with "clear activation lock." I did not receive any error when wiping the iPad this time, however when I setup the iPad for a new student, sure enough it was activation locked and I once again had to call Apple. So frustrating!

Running JSS 10.3.1 at the moment but this has been going on for the last couple of years back on v9.3 or so.

[Sandy]

OH Happy Day!

Teacher iPad left district, leaving behind an activation locked iPad with personal Apple ID
iOS on iPad: 11.4
JamfPro v. 10.6.2

First time in FOREVER, wiped from jamf and checked box to remove activation lock, AND IT WORKED

[talkingmoose]

@Sandy, if the devices were enrolled through DEP, I believe you should see an Activation Lock Bypass Code under the Management tab of the device. That may be an alternative for some cases.

[Sandy]

@talkingmoose Yes our devices are all enrolled via DEP, have been since it became available
That code is there, yes, but rarely works.
With hyphens, without hyphens, with All caps, with lower case, whatever we tried, rarely worked in the last couple years (Originally it worked "pretty well" if the record was not too stale, as did the remote wipe)
Remotely Wipe also has not worked reliably to clear activation lock in quite a while.

Tiny glimmer of hope yesterday.

[jkphs]

Just spoke with Apple and found that this issue has been resolved for iOS devices enrolled with JAMF that are running iOS 11.4 or later. Unfortunately all of our devices were enrolled when they were on 11.3 which means we will still be dealing with this until we rotate out our current iPads. Still, great to hear it has been resolved. To anyone planning an iPad roll-out in the near future: make sure to update before enrolling in JAMF.

Cheers!

[Dylan_YYC]

Sounds about right, i usually have to fire an email off to Apple twice a year with a spreadsheet of devices the JSS was unable to unlock.

[scerazy]

I have no idea how that is resolved, as I do get the same error each time I try to remove lock (that was testing only) & wipe device

Only doing the long generated code by hand works OK