Several years ago, I purchased a used iPad 2. After I got home, I did a reset on it. When it booted up and tried to activate the iPad, it stated that the iPad was managed and asked me for a username and password as part of “Remote Management”. This was a problem because I did not have such a username and password.
I found out that this remote management login was a part of Mobile Device Management (MDM). It was a function which allows schools and businesses to remotely manage mobile devices such as iPads and iPhones.
Thankfully, unlike an iCloud activation lock, the MDM could be bypassed by using a free utility such as 3uTools.
Note: The instructions below are based upon note fragments and my memory, so the steps may not be totally accurate. However, the gist should allow for success.
I did the following steps to bypass MDM on a Windows 7 computer:
Download and install 3uTools.
- Connect the iPad to the computer.
- Run 3uTools. The iDevice tab should be selected and the information for the iPad should be shown.
- The most important field is named “Activated” and its value is “No”. Our goal is to change the Activated state to Yes.
- Click on the “Flash & JB” tab at the top.
- On the left, check both “Auto-activate iDevice after connection” and “Skip the setup wizard when activated”.
Click back to the iDevice tab.
- Click on the “Activate Now” link next to the “Activated” field.
After the above, when the iPad reboots, the activation should successfully completed without showing the MDM login screen.
I think the MDM might have been removed from the iPad, instead of only being bypassed. I did not test by resetting the iPad to see if the MDM login screen would appear again.