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I’m sorry, but I honestly feel like this is the OPs fault entirely. It’s clear they had disabled account security on the laptop, in order for the other user who

I’m sorry, but I honestly feel like this is the OPs fault entirely. It’s clear they had disabled account security on the laptop, in order for the other user who swapped laptops to add their account to that laptop. It’s not even that they didn’t enable “Find My” (which it does during initial setup, all you need to do is add an iCloud account)… he disable the password required setting to open the Mac. (Yes you can disable the requirements for logging in, but it’s definitely not the default setting) If you jump through such hoops in the first place to weaken your computer’s security, your can’t claim it’s not your fault when someone encrypts your computer on you. I buy Mac’s specifically because for me this is a feature. I have backups. And if someone steals my laptop or I lose it, I’d much rather be out the money and the hardware and have it 100% bricked unusable and inaccessible, than have any possibility of my data getting accessed. (Not to mention making it worthless to the average petty thief). Creating a work around, no matter how many N levels of authentication means there’s a hole for social engineering, and I’m definitely not a fan of that. So it’s a trade off. If you don’t care about such level of security, then there are other laptop options, but please don’t ask Apple to start making their security weaker because there are those of us who want it this way. And if you’re traveling with your laptop, put a password on it at least, and better yet encrypt it.

the_black_hand 3y ago
Agree. OP messed up. How would anyone not bother to set a password or "find my" on a $1200 Macbook? That's just negligence and complaining to Apple about it is a bit silly. I haven't set up a Macbook in a while, but I bet you have to go out of your way to disable those security features.
- crazydoggers 3y ago
  It’s a little like buying a Lamborghini, and then speeding and totaling it, and then complaining they need to make it not as fast so you can’t do that.
  - crazydoggers 3y ago
    To be a little less facetious though, at what point do we expect a company to dig us out of our own mistakes. Let’s say you didn’t know you had to take your new car in for an oil change? You ignore the warning lights and requests to service the vehicle. When the vehicle breaks down, I think it’s obvious that the car manufacturer can’t be responsible for fixing it for you. To me, this is the same. The computer is functioning exactly like it should, locking him out is a feature for the vast majority of users, requiring some very basic knowledge to prevent/fix (as mentioned in my other comment, it’s hard to have what happened to him happen without circumventing security on the mac)
- s3p 3y ago
  How funny. I had my mac repaired by apple a few months ago because of a strange display issue. Repair was free and took ~2 days. Just checked Settings and it turns out Find My has been off this entire time. Just goes to show that some of us genuinely forget! Not all of us remember to re enable this stuff 0.2 seconds after we turned it off. Edit: I'm sure HN already knows this but just adding in here: Apple doesn't accept devices for repair until Find My is turned off and that's why mine was disabled
lokar 3y ago
You can reset a Mac without a login if it does not have “find my” activated.
- crazydoggers 3y ago
  That’s not true with new Macs. If you go into recovery mode it first asks you for the machine password. If you say you forgot; then it will try Apple ID. OP specifically states this was a new M2, so it’s not possible unless he left it unlocked. It might be possible if he never associated it with an Apple ID at all (literally the first thing the setup asks you to do, I’ve never tried not). Without an Apple ID though, you can’t update/upgrade the OS, download App Store software, use iCloud backup, iMessage, FaceTime, apple care, contact warranty support etc etc. And Mac is pretty good about bugging you to do this. So if he did this, saying just “I didn’t enable Find My” is a bit disingenuous. So to be clear, you cannot reset a Mac without a login just because it does not have “find my” activated. BTW, then he also admits “maybe I setup an iCloud account I don’t remember.” But his other linked article about this states “They presumably can see that my Apple ID is associated with it.” Ummm. If that’s the case, why doesn’t he recover the Apple ID first? So on closer inspection a lot of things don’t add up, other than the fault was almost certainly his.
  - yakkityyak 3y ago
    What about a DFU restore?
    - crazydoggers 3y ago
      My understanding is that someone still needs your Apple ID login to get DFU mode to work.

the_black_hand 3y ago

Agree. OP messed up. How would anyone not bother to set a password or "find my" on a $1200 Macbook? That's just negligence and complaining to Apple about it is a bit silly. I haven't set up a Macbook in a while, but I bet you have to go out of your way to disable those security features.

crazydoggers 3y ago
It’s a little like buying a Lamborghini, and then speeding and totaling it, and then complaining they need to make it not as fast so you can’t do that.
- crazydoggers 3y ago
  To be a little less facetious though, at what point do we expect a company to dig us out of our own mistakes. Let’s say you didn’t know you had to take your new car in for an oil change? You ignore the warning lights and requests to service the vehicle. When the vehicle breaks down, I think it’s obvious that the car manufacturer can’t be responsible for fixing it for you. To me, this is the same. The computer is functioning exactly like it should, locking him out is a feature for the vast majority of users, requiring some very basic knowledge to prevent/fix (as mentioned in my other comment, it’s hard to have what happened to him happen without circumventing security on the mac)
s3p 3y ago
How funny. I had my mac repaired by apple a few months ago because of a strange display issue. Repair was free and took ~2 days. Just checked Settings and it turns out Find My has been off this entire time. Just goes to show that some of us genuinely forget! Not all of us remember to re enable this stuff 0.2 seconds after we turned it off. Edit: I'm sure HN already knows this but just adding in here: Apple doesn't accept devices for repair until Find My is turned off and that's why mine was disabled

lokar 3y ago

You can reset a Mac without a login if it does not have “find my” activated.

crazydoggers 3y ago
That’s not true with new Macs. If you go into recovery mode it first asks you for the machine password. If you say you forgot; then it will try Apple ID. OP specifically states this was a new M2, so it’s not possible unless he left it unlocked. It might be possible if he never associated it with an Apple ID at all (literally the first thing the setup asks you to do, I’ve never tried not). Without an Apple ID though, you can’t update/upgrade the OS, download App Store software, use iCloud backup, iMessage, FaceTime, apple care, contact warranty support etc etc. And Mac is pretty good about bugging you to do this. So if he did this, saying just “I didn’t enable Find My” is a bit disingenuous. So to be clear, you cannot reset a Mac without a login just because it does not have “find my” activated. BTW, then he also admits “maybe I setup an iCloud account I don’t remember.” But his other linked article about this states “They presumably can see that my Apple ID is associated with it.” Ummm. If that’s the case, why doesn’t he recover the Apple ID first? So on closer inspection a lot of things don’t add up, other than the fault was almost certainly his.
- yakkityyak 3y ago
  What about a DFU restore?
  - crazydoggers 3y ago
    My understanding is that someone still needs your Apple ID login to get DFU mode to work.