iPad Drained Battery/Activation Lock

[JenT]

I have a fleet of iPads set up under one Apple ID for loaning to students to trial AAC/Communication apps. The apps are assigned directly to mobile devices, but we use Apple ID for "Find My iPad".

Everything has been working WONDERFULLY for the past few years, however I am noticing a lot of activation-lock problems as of recent. There are several generations of iPads within this pool, operating on different iOS (9.3.5, 10.3, and 11+). If an iPad is drained of battery, it goes into activation lock and requires the Apple ID/Password.

The Apple ID information for these devices is not shared with the teachers overseeing the device, so I need to troubleshoot over the phone to get the device up and running again.

Has anyone else had Activation Lock issues similar to this? It's happened to employee-assigned devices as well (they have their own Apple IDs), so I am not confident it has anything to do with 1 ID for many devices.

[johnstone]

I can't find any information on an iPad going into lock over a drained battery (we are running 9.101, so if this is a new jss feature then my bad). Isn't the lock only initiated from a device that was wiped with "Find My" not being turned off?

Have not had any issues using the activation lock bypass, assuming you can just email them the code to use via itunes?

[JenT]

Thanks for your input!

Devices are not getting reset, which is why I'm puzzled. Once a devices is charged up again, it will show a setup screen stating it's in activation lock, requiring the Apple ID/Password. Once you put in the password, everything comes back up as if nothing happened.

STRANGE!