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The silent killer scrapping millions of Apple products.

Tech

Thanks to Wispr Flow for sponsoring! Learn more and get started with one month of Wispr Flow Pro: https://ref.wisprflow.ai/luke-miani-yt Use code: LUKEMIANI Thanks to John Bumstead at @RDKLInc for a lot of information on this problem, check out his extensive coverage of these issues! There's a silent killer of millions of Apple products that few people know about- MDM, or multi device management enrollment. This feature intended for business use has huge downstream effects, and today we'll examine the impact this has on waste in the electronics industry time stamps 0:00 The problem 2:40 Types of eWaste 3:56 How does MDM work? 5:55 How to bypass MDM 9:34 Fixing this is... easy? Follow me on Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lukemianiyt Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LukeMiani Gear: iFixit Pro Toolkit: https://amzn.to/3bYIzdM Sony A7Siii: https://amzn.to/3SWqtQG Sony ZV-E1: https://amzn.to/3VGoeCE Sennheiser MKH 416: https://amzn.to/31zGwt2 Zoom H6: https://amzn.to/2ECYSk6 Edelkrone SliderOne V2: https://amzn.to/33mTZmt *Amazon Links are affiliate codes and generate small commission to support the channel*

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R
rodrigo.mendes 2 weeks, 4 days ago

So many companies virtue signal their "commitment to the environment" – while they make products that we can't keep out of the landfill

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grégoire_louis 2 weeks, 4 days ago

What a great video. And I have a headache thinking of all of these scenarios. Uggh

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luz_mireles 2 weeks, 4 days ago

Hey Luke this is a huge issue I have seen where I work. I work in IT for a huge company and we use iPads a lot. The issue is that we use Company Portal which is Intune, I wish Apple made something other than the Business portal, maybe having a Mac Mini on site that manages the iPads or a cloud way of doing it that is simple

M
marguerite_robin 2 weeks, 4 days ago

Another idea: after 5 years the MDM automatically releases the device. That should cover over 90% of corporate or educational devices.

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lorraine_powell 2 weeks, 4 days ago

Here’s an idea. The manufacturer (e.g. Apple) keeps emailing the original owner until they either mark the device as stolen, or they unlock it. That would free up all these locked devices.

E
ethan.santos 2 weeks, 4 days ago

MDM locked MacBooks seem to sell for the same price as non locked ones on ebay.

D
dawn_horton 2 weeks, 4 days ago

MDM Macs are very popular in Vietnam as they are cheaper and there are bypass tools to make it usable, the only annoying thing is there is a notification every few like hour telling it is part of organization

S
sabrina_king 2 weeks, 4 days ago

could it be a web app that pulls the serial number to a qr code to be scanned and then release the equipment?

A
andrea_hodges 2 weeks, 4 days ago

Apple doesn't want this. It was them all to go the landfill/recycling. Even stripping old ones for parts is problematic because of individual component keys.

A
andrea_hodges 2 weeks, 4 days ago

One mistake at 7:15, a reset isn't required after an MDM lock is removed, at least in macOS Tahoe. I just recently purchased a Open Box M4 MBA from Best Buy and it was MDM locked (yeah idk how) but the IT department removed it for me and all it took was a reboot and reconnecting to wifi and the MDM lock briefly flashed with an "unknown" manager but then it closed and advanced to the next part of the macOS setup with no restrictions.

advaithsoni654
advaithsoni654 2 weeks, 4 days ago

There are benefits to purchasing used from places like Other World Computing. They understand issues like this and typically do a great job making sure that the machine is back to factory fresh status before leaving their warehouse.

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gabriela.miranda 2 weeks, 4 days ago

I got laid off at one point, they said we could keep our laptops. However they never removed them from MDM. I had to hound them for a couple weeks and they finally released it.

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joanne.rose 2 weeks, 4 days ago

I think there's it depends with one you use I had Old Intel Macbook 2020 with the t2 chip and It was enrolled in an Intune Remote Management that is from Microsoft you can have diff types of devices, Mac, windows, Android IPhones. And my company got merged with another and when the merge happend the release all the intune macbooks and when I restore the machine I never received the MDM message. So maybe the problem is the Apple MDM system.

R
reynaldo_godínez 2 weeks, 4 days ago

As the MDM admin for my organisation i still don’t understand how other admins don’t release the devices before recycling them. It takes 30secs to do so… it also keeps our MDM inventory tidier. Without all thoses old recycled devices still showing in ABM.

L
lisaswift313 2 weeks, 4 days ago

Thank you for not shying away from criticizing bad and wasteful business practices, or even just more political topics in recent times. We need more of this in the tech content sphere!

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robertyadav686 2 weeks, 4 days ago

ones you use mac product never get away from frustration for some damages that never had before. we spend money for a device but they secure some reason just for their business not for really of client security.

R
robinhollow77 2 weeks, 4 days ago

But the problem here is that many people thought, even if the device is just normally locked to the Apple ID as a personal lock as the activation lock. It’s either that it is the activation lock that you couldn’t activate. The device is either that it is not about the Apple ID that you don’t know the password, but it could be that it’s actually because of the software can no longer activate the software because it is maybe an older version of the OS and the other one is that you thought because of the MDM or iCloud, Or firmware lock that you truly thought you could no longer bring these devices but maybe you can no longer use this invoices as of Apple product but that does not meant if the computer still has a week to function you could still turn it into a Windows PC a crumpet where is the computer or a Linux computer

J
jayeden68 2 weeks, 4 days ago

I’ve worked in the industry for a long time and this is simple to deal with, in exactly the same way that the guys that buy your old iPhone etc. ensure that Activation Lock is removed. The companies buying old stock from corporations give them two prices. A locked (scrap) price and an unlocked price. You don’t pay for the device until you have checked it over, assessed the condition and if it is MDM locked or not. If it’s locked, just like if the screen is smashed, they only get scrap value. It is not down to Apple to remove MDM lock. MDM lock works through a chain of trust and Apple will not remove it without proof that it no longer belongs to that organisation, and that proof is the organisation releasing it in Apple Business. Something that takes only a few seconds.

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stéphane_lagarde 2 weeks, 4 days ago

Yep.. I'm a remote worker and have a couple of MDM locked MacBook Pro's from my work - when it's past it's 4 year life, they send me a new one and don't want the old one back, they just tell me to recycle it. It's not worth our time/money to ship them back, reprocess and sell them.. but at the same time, corporate infosec says we can't remove the MDM and reuse it personally.. sigh. My current one is a 48GB/1TB M4 pro.. I'll be fighting the policy when that one comes up for renewal in 2028..

michael.campbell
michael.campbell 2 weeks, 4 days ago

I’ve had to retire most 2017 MBP in my org this year bc we only support Mac’s that are still getting security updates ie it can support the last 3 versions of macOS , when I retire devices I make sure to remove them from Apple Business Manager and remove it from our MDM environment.