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iOS 7 bug allows anyone to disable Find My iPhone and bypass Activation Lock without a password

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvbter05UpA]

Starting with iOS 7, deleting an iCloud account or restoring a device requires Find My iPhone to be disabled. Find My iPhone, in turn, requires the user to enter the password for the Apple ID attached to the iCloud account. This system ensures that phone thieves can’t remove the account and avoid being tracked through the Find My iPhone website.

Unfortunately, there’s a pretty easy way to bypass this requirement, as demonstrated in the video above. To do so, you first need to tap both “delete account” and the switch to disable Find My iPhone at the same time in the iCloud settings panel. That’s actually the hardest part of the entire process. When prompted for a password, hold down the power button and shut down the phone.

When you restart the phone, you’ll be able to go into the iCloud settings panel and remove the account without being prompted for your password. After that you can plug the phone into iTunes and restore it with no problem. Not only that, but because Activation Lock requires Find My iPhone to be enabled, that feature won’t kick in after the phone is restored.

In short, whoever has your phone has just bypassed every possible method you had at your disposal to locate it again. The good news? Putting a passcode on your phone (especially with a short timer) prevents anyone from getting into the iCloud settings at all.

Thanks for the tip, Miguel!

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Comments

  1. Ryan Good - 10 years ago

    Have a passcode already, no problem

  2. gatto (@gatto) - 10 years ago

    It doesn’t seems to work on iPhone5 iOS 7.1.

  3. Edas Haha - 10 years ago

    Hmm it is fake and video doesn’t even load… shame for such website like 9to5mac

  4. shm1ck83 - 10 years ago

    Im not sure if this story is correct, I can delete my iCloud account with Find My iPhone on without entering my password straight away without doing anything.

    Has anyone from 9to5mac tested this also before this was posted?

  5. airmanchairman - 10 years ago

    This story is months old and is well known to the Apple community. Amazed that a highly technical blog has just picked up on it. iOS 7.1 defeats this hack.

    • shm1ck83 - 10 years ago

      In the video it shows that the iPhone is running iOS 7.1

      Even though I don’t think it is a hack, I’m just pointing out the version of iOS

      • airmanchairman - 10 years ago

        Gotcha, I noticed it myself after a second look at the video. No change then, still have to password protect your iPhone. That handset looked like an iPhone 4 or 4S; will the same trick work on 5 or 5S? I wonder…

    • rogifan - 10 years ago

      Nah, anything that could make Apple look bad will get posted here these days. I guess that’s their revenge for Apple not giving them anything to talk about in Q1.

  6. Subhasis Dig (@sdig07) - 10 years ago

    I have tried this on my iPhone 5 running iOS 7.1. The part was right as the phone got hanged. But after restart disabling the ‘Find my Phone’ still asks for my password. Not sure if this is consistent across the hardware. iOS 7.1 seems quite buggy to me, I have managed to freeze my phone quite a few times while just using it normally also. Looks like quality check at Apple is not working as we expect.

  7. liquidwolverine1 - 10 years ago

    So if you have a password on your phone they won’t be able to open the phone after the shut it down…

  8. ryscript - 10 years ago

    This might work but only if the phone is already open or logged-in, so the correct title of this article would be “iOS 7 bug allows logged-in user to disable Find My iPhone and bypass Activation Lock without a password” :)

  9. Gary Weisbrodt - 10 years ago

    Why would any responsible site report the exact steps for any thief to read?

  10. Bug does not work on iPhone 5s, tested on my iPhone 5s

  11. Jan Klaassen - 10 years ago

    I don’t understand how people can be so stupid not to use a password. They carry their phones, tablets and laptops with them, but none of them are protected by a password. They go through the security check at the airport and just put all of their devices on that belt. Anyone could pick up their devices on the other side of the belt while the owner of the products is still taking of his shoes. Unprotected phone, unprotected tablet, unprotected laptop and even the browser logs in automatically to every website, because they are to lazy to enter a password. To be honest I can’t really feel sorry for those people. Just protect your devices with a password.

    For me Apple’s current password protection isn’t even enough. Why only ask for a password to unlock a device? As far as I know (please correct me if I’m wrong) anyone can pick my phone (which I immediately protected with a real password, instead of that stupid 4 character PIN-code, the moment I bought it), hold down the Power button and slide to power off the phone. Then the phone is completely off, so can’t be tracked anymore (am I right?) I expect everyone who steals a phone to do this. If I were to steal a phone (I don’t do those things, but I say “If I were to steal a phone”) I would immediately turn it off or if possible remove the battery. Apple has those great phones, tablets and laptops that have batteries that can’t be removed. That’s perfect, because a thief can’t take out the power source, so power is always available to the device.

    Why does Apple give everyone the ability to power off the device. I don’t want other people to turn off my device. I want to track them and call them and send them messages. It’s my device. Other people don’t have to right to power it off. If someone holds down the power button, don’t show a slider to shut down, but show the keyboard to enter a password to shut down. I’m not only talking about the iPhone, but also the iPad and the Macs. If someone steals my MacBook and opens it, it asks for the password, but there is an option to shut down the MacBook. If they click Shutdown, ask for my password. My girlfriend also has an account on my MacBook. If she wants to shut it down, that’s possible. She opens our MacBook, I’m still logged on, but of course it’s locked. She clicks Shutdown, then it should just show the user accounts (just like the logon screen), she clicks her own user account, enters her password and then it will turn off. I don’t want other people to turn of my phone, tablet, laptop or whatever device. Ask for the password to shut it down.

    • Tomas Vaitkevicius - 10 years ago

      I use a simple 4 character code, I think it’s more than enough.
      By the way, there are a lot of apps that can disable power off the phone, for example iCaughtU.

    • irockapple - 10 years ago

      Dude you make no sense at all. Thieves don’t steal your phone just to walk around with them powered off. If they do turn the power off they will eventually turn it back on, and guess what…….find my iphone has a feature for that. It will notify you when the device is turned back on.

      • He does have a point, it’s easy to turn off the phone & if you have the control center enabled on the lock screen, you can activate airplane mode easilly as well. It would be nice if Apple added the ability to request a password or code for both of those features (powering off & airplane mode).

  12. Jared Solace - 10 years ago

    Another easy fix (if you don’t lock the phone with a password) is to enable restrictions and don’t allow anyone to make changes to your accounts so your iCloud account can’t be deleted and also restrict changes to location services. That way if the phone is on, the thief can’t disable location services and you can track it without enabling lost mode. Some thieves are pretty dumb about that. I worked with the police and recovered my wife’s iPhone since the thief was clueless that it was being tracked.

  13. PMZanetti - 10 years ago

    It’s a small, very inconsistent bug that is much harder to reproduce in the real world than the video/article alludes to.

    It is also completely negated with a passcode. In short, your device is not secure without a passcode (but you knew that already).

    • rogifan - 10 years ago

      Shouldn’t be surprised that 9to5Mac would run a story on it. I mean on the day Apple announces WWDC, Mark Gurman tweets how excited he is for Google I/O. Some of the contributors here are worse than the trolls that frequent other tech sites.

      • rrobinson1216 - 10 years ago

        Heaven forbid they get excited for other technology made by anyone that isn’t the holy fruit…oh Lord.

  14. Kevin Fox (@kfury) - 10 years ago

    “iOS 7 bug allows anyone to disable Find My iPhone and bypass Activation Lock without a password” where “anyone” is someone with physical access to your unlocked phone.

  15. Danny Angel - 10 years ago

    This is sweet thank you Miguel works perfectly :)

  16. Ulises (@Eninety2) - 10 years ago

    What do you mean use a password with a short timer?

  17. Paul Cathalifaud - 10 years ago

    A temporal fix would be:
    Go to Settings>general>restrictions (set a code)>Accounts> DONT ALLOW CHANGES

  18. Melanie Marat - 10 years ago

    The best page for bypass iCloud Activation Screan lock iPhone 4 and iPhone 5. It works for all tipes of iPhones 4 and 5. All you need to do is to follow the steps on the page. You will use your iPhone agen thanks to this softver. Good luck. I recomend visit this page http://bypassicloudactivationlock.blogspot.com/ , and use your iPhone now.

    • Blaze Angelov - 10 years ago

      Thanks a lot. I just bypass my iPhone 5s with this page. I cant beleve it. THANKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

  19. Felix Omondi Eli - 10 years ago

    i have iphone 4s .and i cant pass the activation screen. how can i access that settings place to deactivate find my iphone

  20. Activation Lock is enabled automatically when you turn on Find My iPhone in iOS 7, or when you upgrade to iOS 7 from a previous version of iOS that has Find My iPhone already turned on. For more information click here: http://www.hacktivateiphone.com/p/bypass-icloud-activation-lock.html

  21. Reychel Kil - 10 years ago

    How to Bypass Activation Lock IOS 7 on your iPhone. We want to help you solve that problem, to remove iCloud Activation on your iPhone. Apple has created a protective measure if you lose or if your iPhone is stolen it can be blocked, If your iPhone is blocked when you want to activate it will ask you to enter your email to send code to the rightful owner, but because you aren’t rightful owner you can’t have that information. But now with this software will you solve that problem. This is the hack tool with which activate your iPhone quickly and easily, All you need to do is download the hack tool and install it on your PC. http://bypassicloudactivationios.blogspot.com/2014/04/how-to-bypass-icloud-activation-lock.html

  22. laugh-y (@PoweredByBjl) - 10 years ago

    It didn’t worked on my Ipad Mini iOS7.1. I followed all the steps please reply ASAP

  23. Roger Surs - 10 years ago

    Bypass iCloud Activation ios 7. now with this software will you solve that problem. This is the hack tool with which activate your iPhone quickly and easily. Below will explain step by step how to do it.

  24. Goce Mitev - 10 years ago

    For a long time I was looking for a solution, If I told you the whole story you would think that i’m telling you a fairy tale :D, this site helps for my daughter iPad Mini and my Iphone 5C,
    so this is the SHORT URL: goo.gl/xTZeWR

    • Goce Mitev - 10 years ago

      Sorry i think i made little mistake this is the SHORT URL : http://goo.gl/xTZeWR

      • Aleksandar Vanev - 10 years ago

        This is sweet thank you Goce works perfectly, this is real deal :) :)

      • Nikol Clark - 10 years ago

        Finally I fixed my iPhone 5s activation locked using this site MWa MWa… Big Hugs mann..

      • Jon Soer - 10 years ago

        Nice,,, Keep up with good work :)

      • Petar Krstov - 10 years ago

        When i see this request from the people “please i deeply request you to send me software on my mail, please i will pay for your software,” i feel sorry for them. Because now I must say this, My iPhone works, really can not believe,I bypass activation with your help be blessed my Friend.

  25. Darko Manoilov - 10 years ago

    I activated my iPhone 5s thanks to this web site: http://bipassactivationlock.blogspot.com/. visited many sites but only here to activate iPhone the tool worked.

  26. Roger Caron - 10 years ago

    FRAUD!!! There’s absolutely no bypass!!!

  27. Keith jim (@keith_jims) - 10 years ago

    I tried our various site but it didnt worked.
    But only this one worked
    http://www.bypassicloud7activation.com/

  28. alec par (@ParAlec) - 10 years ago

    i personally bypass my iphone 5s which i bought from craigslist not sure about other phone but u can check here http://www.bypassicloud7activation.com/

  29. matthewjasmer - 10 years ago

    Just set the phones date ahead by a year this will disable Find iphone, FaceTime and iMessage.

  30. Sherlyn Pan - 10 years ago

    I bought a second-hand iphone 4 from my frenz but i had reset the information & setting accidently, now i cant contact my frenz as she already not in spore for her Apple Id & password & also cant disable Find My Phone n cant log in to Icloud, now the iphone is locked..
    Is there a way to reset n unlock the iphone???

  31. Goce Mitev - 10 years ago

    Hi, guess what, I was on the internet the other day searching on the web and i found this site http://www.bypassicloudlock.net who i think is the second version of Dulci site, they have the same name? Or maybe there is something new about bypass icloud lock.at

  32. Petar Krstov - 10 years ago

    Here we can see enormous number of sites offering Bypass iCloud Lock and many i try, but always it was some trouble, now i see new site on the web http://www.bypassicloudlockios7.net, can anyone tell me is this a good site to try with?

    • Tom Stiller - 9 years ago

      WOW Thank you Petar ! It worked perfectly for me! Finally I fixed my iPhone with this tool! You are amazing!

  33. bhargav (@joomoom) - 10 years ago

    my help

  34. Rondel Rose - 10 years ago

    Is there anyone that can email me this program rondel_rose@yahoo.com

  35. Jim Mayhak - 10 years ago

    hmmm….cool if its a phone!!! but how bout an ipad 4.. how would I remove icloud from it???

  36. Eric Levinson - 10 years ago

    The bug is still in the latest iOS7 – I opened a ticket with Apple. In my case, the Find My iPhone option just gets set to Off arbitrarily. Apple claims there is another application which is conflicting with the switch, and in order to stop that from happening, reset the phone to factory defaults.
    I’m dumbfounded, how an app could shut this off without requiring the password. Kinda blows the whole security agenda out the window.

  37. the only tool that works is ievade the rest are fake or outdated the sooner people realise this the better

  38. Phillip J Piggie - 10 years ago

    How can you delete the account after you have already restored the device?

  39. Green HaroLd - 10 years ago

    THANK you Very much….YOU’re My MAN hehe welldone….-MrGhj-

  40. my iphone 4s bypass icloud lock removel tool I need this problem

  41. Law Crystal - 9 years ago

    i can’t download this file can u sent to my on lawcrystal014@yahoo.com?

  42. Shane Goth Evenencense - 9 years ago

    what if u gotten the phone and it is factory reseted and its saying u need the persons apple info but he wont give nor take it off of his icloud??

  43. Cere Jones - 8 years ago

    its not working

  44. coreidea - 8 years ago

    slowing down actions and talking us through what you are doing would makes this a very good video, but as is I found it useless.