Unlocking iPhone XS purchased second-hand

Sorry, but I have to assume the phone is Activation Locke and says Locked to Owner, with a hint of the password the phone is locked to. The ONLY person who can unlock the phone is the person who locked it in the first place. Apple will not help you unless you have the ORIGINAL Purchase Receipt, which clearly shows the Serial Number on it. A bill from someone or some business other than Apple won't suffice.

The reality is if you don't know the person the phone is locked to, you have purchased a useless brick you can never use. Either return the phone for refund or if you can't do that, recycle it responsibly and learn from this unfortunate buying decision.

Read this --> The All Too Common SAD Reality of Buying … - Apple Community

man, that makes things a bit complicated. is it passcode locked or icloud locked? you can try restoring the iphone to factory settings using itunes or 3utools and see if the icloud account gets removed after the restore. even with proof of purchase, nobody can unlock it if it's still locked to the original owner's icloud account

anshuman225 (author)

Perhaps this fellow support user's helpful article may point out

'what is behind' Why your second-hand iPhone fails to activate.

(edited to remove earlier similar posted link from this reply)

A matter of legal first-owner likely Did Not make their old iPhone

ready, to transfer that first-purchaser's product over to 2nd user.

•Find My iPhone Activation Lock - Apple Support

•Activation Lock for iPhone and iPad *- Apple Support

*How & Why this works, under certain Limited conditions.

Gabrielzfz wrote:

man, that makes things a bit complicated. is it passcode locked or icloud locked? you can try restoring the iphone to factory settings using itunes or 3utools and see if the icloud account gets removed after the restore. even with proof of purchase, nobody can unlock it if it's still locked to the original owner's icloud account

Nah. They won't be able to use iTunes ot 3utools to restore the iPhone. They don't know the Apple Account already set up on the phone. They need to get a refund, or recycle the phone or they can make an interesting looking paperweight or coaster.

lobsterghost1 wrote:

... or they can make an interesting looking paperweight or coaster

Another use of a permanently locked phone: give it to a 3-year old to play with, ours loves to play with an ancient inactive iPhone that is too old to use anymore. She pokes and peers at the screen like her parents do with theirs and she has "conversations" using the phone. Keeps her from trying to sneak away the real operating phones that we have lying around.