When not buying from Apple

There’s a large secondary market for Apple/MAC devices because they hold value and deliver as promised being built on quality that lasts. Devices are generally hard to fake but sellers tend to embellish specifications or downplay usage.

However the thing you have to watch out for is Mobile Device Management (MDM). It’s a remote management tool that devices can be enrolled into from the factory. Implying Sealed devices.

Depending on how restrictive the policy is, It prevents you from even upgrading the Operating system. There are several means to enroll the device. If the MDM profile is visible in Device Management under system preferences, lucky! You easily delete it if you’re the admin or if you do a factory reset.

However the sinister hardware based MDM, comes up after you do a factory reset. When configuring your device to create accounts you need connect to the internet. This sends information to the servers* which flag the device as locked to a company. You need to report or enroll it. The company will not release the device if you don’t have proper documentation. Most likely you won’t have it or it’s not valid. Luckily, there’s a by-pass utility that you can use. However this will work till it won’t (🤞)

To validate if your misfortune, do a factory reset and be able to add an account yourself. Or if there is a dummy admin or apple account on the device, someone has already run the by-pass. Buyer beware!

Serial number

To check usage, use the serial number that is etched into the device (or printed on the box) to confirm coverage and the model of the item. You can also check the About this mac to confirm if the device is as advertised.