Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account.

Reply to Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 06:22:49 GMT

tokeriis@helvede.net — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 06:22:49 GMT

@ben @miked1112 @codemonkeymike It seems pretty easy to me — go to settings > Erase > follow the guide.

Reply to Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 06:18:05 GMT

yama@tech.lgbt — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 06:18:05 GMT

@elly @codemonkeymike @paulywill Apparently "google is not your friend" as i cant seem to find anything that concretely tells me how nvram stores data "without power". The web truly is dogcrap theese days...

Reply to Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 06:13:55 GMT

brunoscheele@mastodon.social — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 06:13:55 GMT

@codemonkeymike Hmm, I’m about to donate a bunch of MacBooks. All personal devices that were collecting dust. I’ve reset them and reinstalled the latest macOS possible.

Any way to check if they’re still locked?

Reply to Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 06:13:42 GMT

yama@tech.lgbt — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 06:13:42 GMT

@RealGene @codemonkeymike @paulywill Is that an actual number ? Well that sucks. Then there have to be other ways of fooling it

Reply to Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 06:09:36 GMT

ljrk@todon.eu — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 06:09:36 GMT

@codemonkeymike I do appreciate that T2 chips make my macBook basically not a good target for thieves though: They by know understand that stealing these devices is not worth it and don't even attempt.

But it will take time until donors understand that they need to do EACS, which is quite simple:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/102664

But this isn't widely known yet. There's been some people who had luck with going to Apple Stores and providing some kind of guarantee that these are donated pieces but it's a hassle. But for such a big stack, buying a T203 would potentially make sense, could perhaps even be part of a hacker space's tools.

Reply to Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 06:03:14 GMT

noodlemaz@mstdn.games — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 06:03:14 GMT

@codemonkeymike the battery is dead, it doesn't hold charge. So not sure it can be?

Reply to Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:58:10 GMT

digitalstefan@fosstodon.org — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:58:10 GMT

@codemonkeymike what is the correct process that I should follow if I am about to donate a Mac with T2 chip in order to avoid this?

Reply to Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:52:40 GMT

dazo@infosec.exchange — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:52:40 GMT

@Victorsigmoid @magnetic_tape @codemonkeymike

Have you looked at the price for the T203 unlock kit? AliExpress has them for $275 and upwards.

Probably makes more sense when recovering quite some devices. But nothing likely what someone does for a 2-5 Macs. And then you need the appropriate hotglue gun and a functional Mac along side to reprogram the T2 chip.

Might be worth it if you got a pile of macs which the OP picture shows.

But it is clearly not good for the ability to repair/fix used machines. Quite good for device security though.

Just wondering if this approach renders previous data completely unreadable or if it's possible to scrape off data from the device somewhere in this process.

Reply to Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:48:37 GMT

gerowen@mastodon.social — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:48:37 GMT

@codemonkeymike I've had to give this same bad news to more than one person who bought a used Apple computer. Somebody will sell their Mac or iPad or whatever to a pawn shop or something without doing a reset and there you go. My brother managed to unlock one he got used from Rent-A-Center, but had to spend over an hour on the phone with Apple customer support to do it. I have a feeling if he'd gotten it from Facebook marketplace or a pawn shop or something he'd have been out of luck.

Reply to Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:46:39 GMT

mindiell@mamot.fr — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:46:39 GMT

@maverick604 @codemonkeymike @bigzaphod and I think you really don't understand what your planet is and why Appel sucks on all levels. They just want to keep your datas in their datacenters.

Reply to Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:44:49 GMT

richardazia@indieweb.social — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:44:49 GMT

@codemonkeymike https://support.apple.com/en-ie/guide/mac-help/mh21245/mac look for the startup options process. That is what i use.

Reply to Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:43:14 GMT

richardazia@indieweb.social — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:43:14 GMT

@codemonkeymike look up target mode. There is a key combination that allows to recover macs. You can choose to reinstall macos, safe boot or install another OS.

Reply to Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:36:40 GMT

maverick604@mastodon.social — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:36:40 GMT

@codemonkeymike @bigzaphod So your problem is that Apple is prioritizing the hardware and data integrity of THE OWNER and the owner did not properly unlock the device before it was recycled (or stolen). Sorry, but that doesn’t sound like an Apple problem. As an owner, that is what I want.

I understand that I sucks to be in your position, but Apple is doing the right thing here.

Reply to Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:33:50 GMT

ishaderdevicemgr@mastodon.social — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:33:50 GMT

@codemonkeymike @Victorsigmoid
Fun fact: you don't actually need a Mac for a DFU restore: https://github.com/libimobiledevice/idevicerestore

Reply to Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:31:08 GMT

brandonscript@appdot.net — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:31:08 GMT

@csgraves yeah, resetting after a time limit without a claimant would be great. @codemonkeymike

Reply to Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:22:06 GMT

ben@social.benjaminturner.me — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:22:06 GMT

@miked1112 @codemonkeymike you have to specifically remove the iCloud account using these steps, logging out of iCloud and reseting the device is not enough. it's a (purposely?) confusing end user experience. https://support.apple.com/en-us/102773

Reply to Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:17:52 GMT

ishaderdevicemgr@mastodon.social — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:17:52 GMT

@dalias @oscherler @codemonkeymike
Well, you're still probably getting dropped in EL1, so you're not truly free. The freest device you can buy is a used Chromebook, as they use Coreboot, so you can just compile and flash your own firmware. Thanks to the weird CR50 TPM thingy, if you've got a SuzyQAble, you can even get RW access to the AP firmware and a serial console without having to open the device, provided you run a command and assert your presence (once) with timed power button presses

Reply to Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:14:13 GMT

codemonkeymike@fosstodon.org — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:14:13 GMT

@HitokiriEric @coldclimate yeah. I mean look. You can unsolder the t2 chip and reprogram it etc. Motivated thiefs can still do it.

But was this when a problem? I really don't think it was.

Again. Look at Chromebooks. They have a firmware level lock too that can't be hacked. And yet it can be decomissioned remotely when the org releases it.

You're telling me apple couldn't do this?! For regular users? Its a racket

Reply to Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:12:04 GMT

ben@social.benjaminturner.me — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:12:04 GMT

@codemonkeymike @SamuraiSakura gotta get ready for another Mother Earth keynote appearance

Reply to Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:11:56 GMT

ishaderdevicemgr@mastodon.social — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:11:56 GMT

@amsomniac @codemonkeymike
Nah, those are specific to AOSP and Qualcomm devices respectively, T2 is a much different beast. There are some workarounds I've seen using checkm8 to trick bridgeOS into believing it's activated, but those are not truly permanent since machine identity and activation lock is tied to the ECID which is burned into the chip itself, and can't be changed.

Reply to Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:10:15 GMT

codemonkeymike@fosstodon.org — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:10:15 GMT

@ben @SamuraiSakura and you know if you have apple recycle it. All they're going to do is shred it and reclaim a bit if metal from it. Then do a victory lap about how awesome they are.

Meanwhile how much energy when into reclaiming that tiny bit of metal?

Reply to Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:08:53 GMT

codemonkeymike@fosstodon.org — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:08:53 GMT

@ben @SamuraiSakura exactly.

Reply to Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:08:17 GMT

codemonkeymike@fosstodon.org — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:08:17 GMT

@Aaron @bigzaphod it was donated 3rd party. How am I to prove it?

Also, id bet you this device is absolutely removed from their iCloud account. Yet remains locked on device.

It's purposely confusing and hard to get around. They could make this better right now. But they won't

Reply to Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:06:12 GMT

ben@social.benjaminturner.me — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:06:12 GMT

@codemonkeymike @SamuraiSakura Apple skips right over Reduce & Reuse. The order is important.