With the iOS 18 Release Candidate (RC), Apple has introduced a new feature called Activation Lock. As the name suggests, the feature links an iPhone’s internal components, like the display, camera modules, and battery, to the Apple ID used to activate the handset. In other words, the internal components would have a digital signature, which can be used to track the rightful owner in the event of a theft.
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What Is Activation Lock And How It Works?
In case a user loses the iPhone, and the bad actors try to take it apart and sell the internal components, the person using those parts to repair another iPhone would show a “[Part] Locked To Owner error.” Further, it would also ask for the Apple Account and the password used to lock the iPhone to which the part belongs.
At the prompt’s end, the feature says, “You cannot use this part until the Activation Lock is removed.” For all intents and purposes, the feature will encourage users to get original Apple parts of their iPhones. Further, it will also discourage thieves from stealing iPhones for selling their internal components.
However, in practice, the feature works a bit differently. While Apple said that the Activation Lock feature will limit component calibration and disable the features that it facilitates, it has come to attention that the feature doesn’t achieve it, at least on the iOS 18 RC.
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Is There A Way To Bypass Activation Lock?
According to BetaProfiles (via a Threads post), one can hit the “Cancel” button at the bottom of the screen (when the Activation Lock prompt shows) and continue using the unverified spare part.
There’s a video on the platform, too, wherein we can see that hitting the Cancel button bypasses the feature. However, the part appears as “Unknown Part” in the Settings app. Nonetheless, everything seems to be at a very nascent stage, and we would wait for the stable iOS 18 update to roll out before commenting any further on the feature.
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