Apple error blocks Massachusetts man from wiping dead mother’s phone
By Ben Simmoneau
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BOSTON (WCVB) — When you lose a loved one, the last thing you want to think about is what happens to their phone. But with so much of a person’s life in that device, it is critical to plan ahead.
One Massachusetts family said they did that and followed all the steps Apple recommends, but still kept hitting a roadblock when they asked the company to wipe the phone. They reached out to NewsCenter 5 for help.
In November, Roger Goodman lost his mother after a long illness. Before she passed, he set himself up as her legacy contact through Apple. The legacy program gives authorized loved ones access to data in an Apple account after the account’s owner dies. Being the legacy contact granted Goodman access to his mother’s files and photos, but only after he supplied Apple with documentation of her death.
“When I found it, I thought it was a great idea so I could set it up and could have kind of a smoother transition,” Goodman said. “The way we triggered the legacy status was submitting a death certificate, submitting the power of attorney that my mom had assigned for me to have control over other documents, and we submitted the actual will, as well.”
Once Goodman’s family had what they needed, they wanted to wipe the iPhone, an older model but in perfect condition for one of the grandchildren to use. According to Goodman, that’s when Apple essentially hung up on them.
“We cannot reset the phone. Period,” Goodman said. “There was no rationale, no reasoning that [Apple] gave.”
To make sure the hang-up wasn’t just due to an ill-informed customer service representative, the family tried to get help from Apple several ways: in a store, online and over the phone. Every time, they got the same message: request denied.
Wiping an iPhone usually requires entering the Apple ID password associated with the account on the device. That’s the one thing Goodman and his family do not have. To sidestep that process, Apple instructed them to reset the password. But every attempt at that triggered an error message saying the “Apple ID is not valid or not supported.” They think that’s because they activated the legacy contact access for Goodman’s mother’s account, deactivating her original Apple ID — which, in turn, means the password can’t be reset and the phone wiped.
“Someone hasn’t really thought through the logistics of what happens when someone passes away and what happens when they deactivate Apple IDs like this,” Goodman said.
Apple devices feature “Activation Lock,” which is designed to prevent phones or tablets from being wiped and repurposed without first entering a user’s Apple password. It appears that is what blocked the family’s access. Apple’s website says “Activation Lock” is also supposed to be automatically disabled when legacy contact access is granted, but it apparently did not happen in this case.
Apple told Goodman and his family it would only help wipe the phone if they could supply an original receipt for the seven-year-old iPhone, ostensibly to prove it belonged to them. But that ignores the fact that Goodman had already supplied the company with a death certificate, power of attorney and will.
“I don’t know what else we could give them to prove it’s our phone to use,” he said. “It seems pretty atrocious to me to send that message that if someone passes away their devices are no longer good to be used.”
After NewsCenter 5 reached out to Apple, the company contacted Goodman and unlocked the phone so it could be wiped. They told him there was an error in their system. What’s not clear is how many others this may have impacted, but now the company is aware of it and is working to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
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