Clearing the macOS Activation Lock

You can remotely clear the activation lock on macOS devices.

About the macOS Activation Lock

Activation Lock is a security feature developed by Apple to prevent unauthorized access to a lost or stolen device. When users enable Find My Mac on a device, Activation Lock is automatically activated. Once enabled, the user's Apple ID and password are required for erasing and reactivating the device.

In the event that an employee departs from an organization and returns a device without disabling Activation Lock, an Activation window appears after performing a factory reset. Administrators have the ability to bypass Activation Lock remotely without relying on the former employee's Apple ID before assigning the device to a new employee for reuse.

Prerequisites
  • The Mac must be supervised.
  • Enable Find My Mac after you enroll the device.
  • Upgrade to macOS Catalina or later.
  • The Mac must have the Apple T2 Security Chip.
Note: MaaS360® can only control Activation Lock on macOS devices that are added to your Apple Business Manager portal. DEP enrolled devices are automatically eligible for Activation Lock removal. If Activation Lock was enabled prior to device enrollment, MaaS360 cannot clear it. For removal of Activation Lock on devices no longer enrolled in MaaS360, please contact Apple Support.

Clearing the macOS Activation Lock with a remote command

Follow these steps to clear the macOS Activation Lock with a remote command:

  1. Go to Devices > Inventory and then select the macOS device that you want to clear Activation Lock for. The Device Summary page is displayed.
  2. Click More in the upper-right corner and then select Clear Activation Lock.
  3. Click Continue.

Clearing the macOS Activation Lock with a bypass code

Follow these steps to use a bypass code to clear the macOS Activation Lock after a device is unenrolled from MaaS360:

  1. Go to Devices > Inventory and then select the macOS device that you want to clear Activation Lock for. The Device Summary page is displayed.
  2. Click More in the upper-right corner and then select Clear Activation Lock. The Activation Lock bypass code is displayed.
  3. On a factory reset device, click Recovery Assistant > Activate with MDM Key. Enter the bypass code and then click Next.

Viewing the Clear Activation Lock status

After issuing the Clear Activation Lock command, you can track the status of the command in the device history.

Follow these steps to view the status of the Clear Activation Lock command:
  1. Go to Devices > Inventory and then select a macOS device. The Device Summary page is displayed.
  2. Select Summary > History. The details are provided under the Comments column.
    The Device not found is displayed in the following cases:
    • Find My Mac is not enabled.
    • Activation Lock is already cleared.