One of Apple's most popular security tools is its Find My iPhone feature, which allows us to locate and track our devices if they've been lost or stolen, giving us a valuable level of peace of mind. But there may be situations where we want to unlock Find My iPhone and we have to do it.
For this reason, in this article we will explore in detail the process to deactivate Find My iPhone safely, the reasons that may lead us to need it and we will talk a little about unconventional methods to do it.
What is Find My iPhone?
As we have said in the introduction and in other articles in the past, the Find My iPhone function is a functionality that allows us to control the security of our device especially when we do not have it in our possession, either because we have lost it or it has been stolen.
In this aspect, I think the name makes it clear what its main functionality is: find that iPhone that has disappeared to be able to locate it, but it is not the only security function that it has.
Another important one, and more so in the case of a phone theft, is the activation lock. If the iPhone has been remotely wiped by the user or force reset via Recovery Mode, the phone will ask us to sign in with the iCloud account that was originally set up.
This implies that unless you have it in your possession, it is impossible for you to activate this phone. (or almost impossible, as we will see below).
As we advanced in the last paragraph, Find my iPhone offers the ability to remotely wipe the content of the device in case it is in the wrong hands, or simply to block access to it by putting a personalized message so that if someone finds it, they can contact you.
Why do I need to unlock Find My iPhone?
Due to the life cycle that our phones usually have, it is likely that at some point in our lives we will need to unlock Find My iPhone.
The first reason that comes to mind is sell or give away the device, including the Renove Plans that some surfaces offer.
Since a phone with Find My iPhone is mostly unusable by a third party, if you want to sell or give it away, you need to disable it first and delete it, to prevent your personal information from being made available to a third party.
Another interesting reason to unlock it may be have your phone repaired. Within the Apple Warranty conditions, only terminals that have Find My iPhone disabled will be repaired. Therefore, if you send an iPhone to be repaired with it active, they will return it to you without touching it until it is deactivated in your Apple account.
How to unlock Find My iPhone
There are some proven and working methods that we can say are legitimate to unlock Find My iPhone. We will talk about them below.
It is important to note that on the web, and especially YouTube, there are people who comment that there are other methods to do it. We strongly discourage you from following them and spending money and time on them: the vast majority are usually scams or an attempt to sneak malware onto your computer.
The easiest option: unlock it on the device itself
Without a doubt, the easiest way to unlock Find My iPhone is to do it through the device itself:
- To do this, you must enter the section of Configuration of the telephone
- Select your Apple account, which will appear with your name.
- You will see that inside there will be the option to Search my Iphone. Slide the switch to the left.
- The phone it will ask you to enter your Apple ID or that you unlock it using your biometric data.
- Once unlocked, you will see that the switch is already gray and you will have unlocked it correctly.
Unlock Find My iPhone if you don't have mobile access using iCloud
If you need to have your phone repaired and you can't interact with it, nothing happens. As long as you know your Apple ID and password, you can remove Find My iPhone from your own iCloud web. Simply, enter the web with your Apple ID and within the Find my iPhone option, you will find your phone.
Wait a few seconds and an option will appear that will put Remove from account. By marking this you will have removed Find my iPhone from your phone to be able to send it for repair or recycling without any problem.
If you still have doubts, we advise you to watch the following video that explains it clearly and quickly:
Unlocking by GSX: a tool within the reach of a few
GSX (Global Service Exchange) is a service and support tool developed by Apple for internal use and by authorized service providers.
It is not intended for the general public and is only available to those who are certified and authorized by Apple to repair or support your products.
Basically, it is the basic tool on which Apple revolves a good part of its after-sales and that only the company's authorized centers of truth have access to it. Among the most notable functions of GSX, we can mention:
- Warranty Verification and from the seller of an iPhone itself, in addition to legitimately verifying if this phone has a Find My iPhone block.
- The ability to perform hardware diagnostics company officers.
- Request spare parts and official spare parts for Apple phones, in addition to having the internal guides to disassemble those phones.
- Tools of activation and system restore much more advanced than iTunes or Finder.
- registration of the service history: if it has been repaired in an official Apple SAT, the phone history will be recorded here
- And last but what really happens to us: the unlock Find My iPhone.
It should be noted that the latter is not a usual functionality of GSX and that You have to request special permissions from Apple to be able to do it, but with due justification you can unlock Find My iPhone through GSX.
About this tool we have seen that access is offered through certain Internet portals and above all, in the Deep web. Our advice is that you do not waste your money and that you do not choose to buy it, since it's probably a scam.
Hardware unlock: a complicated solution
One of the options we have to unlock find my iPhone is through the hardware itself, replacing the components that remain affected by the blockade of Apple.
Generally, the Find my iPhone lock affects the following components: the NAND or main memory of the phone, its processor or the TouchID in certain models as the most common.
Which means that with the necessary knowledge and the right tools, we can replace these components with new ones and unlock our phone affected by Find my iPhone.
The procedure is similar to the memory expansion seen in this Willtech video, which we leave below to give you an idea of how it is done:
Obviously, this method requires having a very advanced level of electronic repairs and is not within the reach of any user, but by finding the right technician you can try it.
With this we would end our article on Find My iPhone. We hope that it has been useful to you and that, if at any time you need to do so, you can do so with maximum security.