Disabling Activation Lock in ABM

Have you encountered situations where end users activate the activation lock on an Apple device owned by the organization and available in ABM (Apple Business Manager)? Now, there is a method to disable this in ABM. This can also be achieved through MDM, but only if the device is Supervised and enrolled using ADE, and configuration is in place. Let's consider another scenario: if you are using Device Enrollment or User Enrollment, this feature is highly beneficial.

Requirements: The device must be accessible through ABM.

Let's go through the steps to disable the activation lock in ABM

Step 1: Sign in to Apple Business Manager https://business.apple.com/ and complete the authentication

Step 2: On the left panel, click the tab and choose the device option. Enter the serial number of the device you wish to disable the activation lock. If the activation lock is displayed in green color as "On," it indicates that the device currently has the activation lock enabled.

Step 3: Click on the three dots located at the top right corner, then choose the option to Disable Activation Lock.

Step 4. Tap on Confirm to disable the activation lock and you will see that the device activation lock has been successfully turned off.

Even if the device shows the Activation Lock is still on after you erase everything or use Apple Configurator to reset it, you can still get the device set up without having to log in as the previous owner.

Device state	User Interface	Turned off by ABM	Turned Off by MDM
User-based Activation Lock turned on	Activation Lock On by user	Yes	NO
Organisation-based Activation Lock turned ON.	Activation Lock On by Organization	Yes	Yes
Managed Lost Mode turned of by MDM	Activation Lock On by Organization	Yes	Yes
Lost Mode turned by user	Activation Lock on by user	Yes	No
Device Not Configured	No Activation lock state appears	N/A	N/A

Apple Watches and Apple Vision Pros bought before June 2024 from Apple, an Apple store, or a phone company will be added to Apple Business Manager. If the Activation Lock is already on, you can't turn it off in Apple Business Manager unless the user turns it off first.

Conclusion

This article outlines the process for disabling Activation Lock on a corporate device, even when the user has previously enabled it.