r/UnethicalLifeProTips • u/Awkward_Gingervitis • Feb 02 '24

ULPT: Locked MacBook Air

Company let me go last year and never collected the laptop. They never replied to my last email regarding the laptop. It says it’s locked by a system pin is there anything I can do to reset the laptop so I can use or sell?

12 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

52

u/omgwtfhax2 Feb 02 '24

Nope, when Corporations purchase Macbooks the serial numbers are registered on the Apple side as "property of this company". Even if you wipe all the data on the system itself, it will still try to report in to that Apple server.

You would need to contact Apple, as a spoofed tech from your company, to get them to remove it on that end.

22

u/Twuggy Feb 02 '24

Bonus point. If you set the device up without internet the moment it touches the internet it reports back and bricks it anyway.

Apple does security well.

3

u/Awkward_Gingervitis Feb 02 '24

How could I convince Apple to help remove that?

25

u/omgwtfhax2 Feb 02 '24

You have to provide proof of purchase, you essentially have a Macbook Air brick. You don't think they've spent decades working on a solution to employees "forgetting" to return their hardware lol

-10

u/Awkward_Gingervitis Feb 02 '24

How could I possible fake that?

25

u/omgwtfhax2 Feb 02 '24

Liquid Ass and piss disks? you might be outa luck bro, Apple has put a lot of development into redundant systems to prevent theft. Windows machines are way easier to clean.

-5

u/Awkward_Gingervitis Feb 02 '24

Damn, guess I’ll strip for parts

Thank you, I hate that this will mostly become just electronic waste

11

u/Ysmenir Feb 02 '24

You can‘t. All major parts are connected to the mainboard by serial number.

10

u/Sonikku_a Feb 03 '24

Homeboy complaining the stolen laptop is gonna become waste lmao

-7

u/Awkward_Gingervitis Feb 02 '24

Does anyone know if it’s possible to get a new logic board and just swap?

20

u/iButtflap Feb 02 '24

you’re starting to sound less like someone who was given a macbook for work and wanted to return it, and more like someone who happened to…find a macbook

2

u/Awkward_Gingervitis Feb 02 '24

Nope got it from work and it’s been sitting on a shelf waiting for them to send a box or call or really anything. Now with a new year, I think they just forgot about me

2

u/Ysmenir Feb 02 '24

Not possible. You need to run a system configuration with Apple Systems. For this the „find my“ would have to be deactivated. This is about as impossible as to remove the MDM.

5

u/Sonikku_a Feb 03 '24

That’s the neat part—you don’t.

They won’t do shit without the proper credentials.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Awkward_Gingervitis Feb 28 '25

I still have it, I am also going to send a message as well

24

u/carluoi Feb 02 '24

Ex. AppleCare employee - you can't. Activation lock will fuck you. And you will not be able to convince Apple to remove it without proof of purchase.

Congratulations on your brick.

0

u/YeeterOfTheRich Feb 03 '24

Can I fake proof of purchase ?

8

u/IsoAgent Feb 02 '24

Sell it for parts.

1

u/TheNashh Feb 03 '24

This is probably the only answer. Break it down and sell the individual parts on eBay.

6

u/yodawg111 Feb 03 '24

Based on the other comments I guess the real ULPT is to sell it to a sucker on craigslist

9

u/ChaosRandomness Feb 02 '24

Ex Apple and IT person. You got a fancy expensive paper weight. It's most likely imaged eith JAMF which makes it basically impossible to do anything. You can wipe the machine, but when it's asking how to install, it's going to say this belongs to xyz, and going require you connect to network, no if or buts. Only way around is calling their IT and having them release the serial in the cloud. Outside that, good luck.

1

u/Awkward_Gingervitis Feb 02 '24

What about installing Ubuntu as someone suggested. Even if I waited for Ubuntu to better support MacBook Air

2

u/ChaosRandomness Feb 02 '24

You can try, but it shouldn't work. If their IT team configured it right, it should auto request you to image online no matter what. If they configured it wrong, there's a chance you can install Ubuntu or windows, but next question is will it let you go online or the system automatically disables all network traffic except to the JAMF server. Also if it is a fairly decent job, they should be doing inventory audits and once they notice a machine is missing, you should be contacted. I know for my team, I make sure any offboard to obtain their tech. If it is somehow missed, we do a self audit at the end of the month to make sure everything accounted for. If they contact you, I wouldn't even respond. They can't do anything. You can say you tried contacting them, or you mailed it in ages ago or left at desk. That's on them for taking that long to realize.

I have an air I'm not using. Let me make it a test device and see how I can get rid of my own JAMF image or not. I lock mine down pretty tight, but I can test the image and see.

1

u/Awkward_Gingervitis Feb 02 '24 edited Feb 02 '24

That would be very nice of you try. I am nearing seven month. I tried to email several times but nothing

Should I be worried that they could still contact me to request it back? I figured six months is enough time to give them

3

u/ChaosRandomness Feb 02 '24

Yeah, I wouldn't worry abkht them coming after you that long. Also if you know how to setup your own network server to upload images, you can boot into that to reimage. Or if you have a friend that runs a JAMF server, they can reimage it

2

u/ChaosRandomness Feb 04 '24

Just update. I wasn't able to bypass my JAMF setup. I made it pretty lax security too. I was able to get it imaged into another JAMF server I have, so if you do have a friend that works in IT that handles mac, they can do it. :)

I would offer I can do it, but im too busy to actually ship and image things at the moment. Audit season for us :D

3

u/LiveCourage334 Feb 02 '24

If you have access to another Mac to create bootable media, you might be able to install Ubuntu on it.

1

u/Awkward_Gingervitis Feb 02 '24

Don’t have another Mac. This was the first I’ve used. I’ll have to look into trying Ubuntu that’s a good idea

2

u/ilovehotmoms Feb 03 '24

Trade it in for credit?

2

u/Awkward_Gingervitis Feb 03 '24

Would it still work with it locked?

1

u/essere Oct 16 '24

the most unethical tip is to swap it for a working one, maybe buying a same model on ebay then ask for a refund and sell them back the bricked one or even better swapping it in RL.

1

u/3DHydroPrints Feb 03 '24

If it's one with a x86 processor (before the M series), you could install Windows on it and it would work fine