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Ren Nakanote Author

Level 1

8 points

Firmware lock unintentionally activated and Apple is unable to help me unlock my Mac Mini.

I was playing with Find My iPhone and had accidentally erased my Mac mini to end up with a paper weight of a Mac mini.

Since I purchased this from eBay, I was able to track down the original owner, and find out the authorized retailer he bought the computer. I gave up trying probe the seller and the nationally recognized retailer that the laptop was purchased from.

I really want this computer to work, can you please just let me use it again? I made a mistake learning how to use iCloud.com/findmyphone it was an accidental.

Do I really need to escalate this to the retailer to recover the original purchase reciept? The eBay seller I bought it from, purchased the Mac mini in 2016, so 5 years ago.

Follow up from the discussion linked below:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251046626?answerId=251980583022#251980583022

Posted on Mar 10, 2021 2:30 AM

Top-ranking reply

Axel Foley

Level 10

149,592 points

Posted on Mar 28, 2021 6:43 PM

A few things you need to know in the event that you did not-

These are user-only forums made up of folks like you and me. You are not speaking to Apple. if you need to speak with Apple Support, then contact product and tech support: ➔ Contacting Apple for support and service including international calling numbers.
A firmware password is never set by Apple or any Authorized Seller. Firmware Password is set by the user and that could be a corporate administrator or the single buyer. This is a data protection feature. The Firmware Lock is used so that if the computer gets into the hands of another person then the data on the drive / computer is protected.
Sellers on eBay generally sell computers that are often purchased previously by either themselves or someone else. Some may even be stolen merchandise. It is very difficult to know who initially set up the Firmware Lock. The only person who knows that Firmware Lock Password is the person from whom you bought the computer from. Please contact that person because no one else knows the password.

Axel F.

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Firmware lock unintentionally activated and Apple is unable to help me unlock my Mac Mini.

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