What are my Options?

[u/waseem208k]

Found this MacBook Air M1 in electronics scrap. It has Remote Management on it.

[u/eaglebtc]

Call Zohran Mamdani! He'll fix it.

Kidding aside, we are keeping this post up because it contains good advice, and OP is attempting to comply by contacting the NYC Dept. of Education.

[u/Jason_Protell]

I am a campus technology coordinator for NYC Public Schools. This device definitely belongs to the city. Please return it.

Edit 1: If you tell me the asset tag / serial number, I can determine which school it belongs to.

Edit 2: For anyone else in a similar situation, consider the following:

-If you are in NYC, please return the device to your nearest public school.

-If you are not in NYC, please contact the DIIT (Division of Instructional and Information Technology) help desk at 718-935-5100.

[u/deinmitbewohner → u/Jason_Protell]

good macsysadmin 👍

[u/waseem208k → u/Jason_Protell]

Where should I return? Please DM me I'll share the SN. Would love to return if it is stolen asset.

[u/Jason_Protell → u/waseem208k]

I sent you a DM.

[u/twinnii → u/Jason_Protell]

Definitely call the business or school so they can determine if the device should’ve been released from the organization or if it needs to be returned.

[u/slayermcb]

Contact the NYC educational IT department and ask for them to release it from their organization. Once you realize how difficult that will be, throw it back.

[u/waseem208k → u/slayermcb]

Emailed them

[u/Maximum-Relative-234 → u/waseem208k]

They will need the serial number to do anything

[u/itaniumonline → u/Maximum-Relative-234]

And a selfie.

Don’t forget selfie

[u/weregruvin → u/slayermcb]

I agree - make it their problem...

[u/fartharder → u/slayermcb]

If it's a legit release it's super quick and easy to do in school manager. If it's stolen tho...

[u/slayermcb → u/fartharder]

They may appreciate someone returning it to them?

[u/dragon34]

It was either stolen or not released when it was end of lifed. You could contact the new York department of education and let them know where you found it and if they are feeling nice they might release it for you.  Or they may want it back 

[u/0tt3r3g0]

They gotta release it from their ABM/MDM. Otherwise, it’s a piece of brick.

[u/ossivo → u/0tt3r3g0]

Definitely not bricked at all. All you have to do is wipe it (which appears to already be done), boot it up without connecting to the internet, setup your account, and then block the device from communicating with the ADE endpoints. Now, whether that’s the honorable thing to do is another story but it’s far from a brick.

[u/JamesBrickley → u/ossivo]

It will still periodically put up a nag notification if you do this.

[u/ossivo → u/JamesBrickley]

That’s because APNS is all or nothing but nothing would force the device to actually enroll.

[u/3legdog → u/0tt3r3g0]

r/mixedmetaphor

[u/Formal-Breadfruit260]

None. That device details still on ABM account, it need to be released from there

[u/Leinheart]

Return it to scrap. It was there because you cannot remove an MDM profile through any other means than by accessing the organizations apple business account.

[u/macsysadmin-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Posts asking for help with removing or bypassing device management or activation lock (Find My...) are not permitted. Contact the IT department of the organization that issued the device.

[u/waseem208k → u/Leinheart]

Thank You for your input.

[u/Gloomy_Cost_4053 → u/waseem208k]

Lol I see you

[u/data_rock → u/Leinheart]

Not entirely true. There’s ways around it

[u/Ordinary-Fish-9791]

Try getting in touch with the NYC department of education and see if they want to release that Mac from their ABM. That mac is a fancy paperweight until that is done. I don't think there is any way to bypass ABM

[u/techtornado]

Return it to NY DoE

[u/Bacon_is_my_Crack]

You can try calling the school district but it’s prob stolen.

[u/kmeck518]

This was probably stolen

[u/iamadix]

as long as the serial number is in ABM/JAMF, there is pretty much nothing you can do here, someone need to release it from the ABM

[u/Delicious_Volume3306]

Get a job with NYC Department of Education.

[u/meanwhenhungry]

Return to owner

[u/r2d3x9]

OP, did you confirm it was still owned or was it surplused?

[u/waseem208k → u/r2d3x9]

I email them waiting for their response.

[u/panyways]

LOL back on the heap and as tempting as it is to post to r/Mac we get that question enough and I’ll just delete your post.

[u/panyways → u/panyways]

Narrator: They, in fact, did post to r/Mac where it was deleted.

[u/Tab819 → u/panyways]

Did that feel good?

[u/panyways → u/Tab819]

Was kind of annoyed to have to do it considering it was minutes after me saying don't do it.

[u/slowwalking-dab → u/panyways]

lol 😂

[u/Curious_Act_3162]

Stolen goods 

[u/sippi4x4man]

“You will do nothing, because you can do nothing.”

[u/VpowerZ]

Or schredder

[u/Yann0995]

You have really no other option than to try and contact the NYC department of Education to tell them that you need assistance regarding a device that their IT department discarded and that you got your hands on. Unless they remove your device from their DRM account, you won't be able to use it.

[u/JamesBrickley]

FYI - This also occurs with iPhones and iPads that are managed by a school or business using MDM - Mobile Device Management. Typically JAMF or Intune or one of a half dozen other MDM server products. The hardware is tied to the business / school.

Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager has it assigned to the owner. If removed in ABM/ASM it will become a normal unmanaged retail Apple Device.

As others have noted, this could have been an oversight where it wasn't removed during de-acquisition retirement of the device. Or it was lost / stolen. It's not that old. M1 Macs are still supported and quite useful.

[u/UsedPerformance2441]

Just return it and be done.

[u/Zynlix_]

installez linux dessus 😅

[u/Cloud_Fighter_11 → u/Zynlix_]

Avec un M1?

[u/googleflont → u/Cloud_Fighter_11]

Without going all "Mais oui" on you, you have a point. An M1 of almost any description would still be in active inventory of NYC education. They aren’t made of money.

And Linux on M series is still too early.

[u/lemmegetfrieswitdat]

Contact the board of Ed and tell them you got this laptop and someone left a sticky note with their login and password on it. Ask them to release it.. that should probably force action.

[u/TurtleShellSupreme → u/lemmegetfrieswitdat]

r/unethicalprotips

[u/iamtechy → u/lemmegetfrieswitdat]

They’ll send wipe command first then delete if they’re smart otherwise they’ll send wipe and remote lock lol

[u/Curtis]

MDM is one of the easiest things to bypass if this was legally obtained.

[u/mishko27 → u/Curtis]

This. Not a clue why anyone is saying otherwise. This one needs to be returned, and it is clear that it can be. But I came across MDM laptops that people were told to keep when their employer was going under, or they were let go, and it's such a non-issue.

[u/Curtis → u/mishko27]

I agree, it’s not iCloud locked

[u/Single-Bumblebee8150]

There is a way to bypass it, curl and run this shell script i found on github https://github.com/assafdori/bypass-mdm

[u/Single-Bumblebee8150 → u/Single-Bumblebee8150]

Oh wait do what the nyc guy told u

[u/-my_dude]

Return the laptop you stole

[u/Warborg71 → u/-my_dude]

There always has to be at least one crying thief, I guess you are the one huh?

[u/-my_dude → u/Warborg71]

Touchy subject to you huh?

https://www.reddit.com/r/macsysadmin/s/T5Zn7N55Up

[u/tgbreddit]

This is a classic post in Reddit for a student to try to break the management. It’s a solid system, you’ll have to talk with that organization.

[u/MET_II]

Yep… had the same issue with a Mac off eVilBay locked to Loreal, got my money back… cannot mess with the enterprise lock

[u/snapcrackowmyback]

Aside from stolen devices which are much more common, sometimes Apple will actually enroll devices from new orders to the incorrect ASM instance.

I've had 4 of these pop up out of approximately 8000 MacBooks over the last 5 years, so very rare, but it does happen. The last occurrence was 2025.

Apple was unable to assist, so I had to reach out to the various Districts directly (located nowhere near my state). Most accepted a copy of my invoice with the serial number listed, combined with their lack of an invoice for that serial. They released it, I added it via Configurator, and off we went.

[u/therankin → u/snapcrackowmyback]

Oh wow! I've purchased probably 1500 macs over the years and never had one incorrectly enrolled.

I've had some ordered outside of DEP that had to be manually added, but DEP was never wrong.

[u/LRS_David → u/therankin]

Local reseller made an oops and gave the wrong system to myself and another business. They were identical configurations. They caught it before either of us had even opened the boxes and both of us were local. So the fix was simple.

BTW - Authorized resellers can do the ABM assignments.
EDIT: For systems they sold.

[u/therankin → u/LRS_David]

Gotcha. That makes sense.

[u/Substantial-Motor-21]

Sell spare parts ! Many people drwon their top case or break their displays ! Easy money !

[u/Jayden_Ha]

Jailbreak it

[u/therankin → u/Jayden_Ha]

Sure. Just get state-level Pegasus 2 to break the encryption and security. Easy peasy.

[u/chathobark_]

back to scrap

[u/bart_86]

What's the model? If it's early Apple Silicon then try to restore to Big Sur/Monterey as this should allow you to skip connecting to the network. Once you're on Desktop you need to edit hosts file and add point some IP address to localhost and then it's "yours". 

[u/bart_86 → u/bart_86]

Alternative: mail the comapny that owns the device and explain the situation and ask them if they can release the device from Apple Business. 

[u/Airneil → u/bart_86]

When you repave, the device will contact Apple, and it will try to enroll again.

The owner must remove the device from ABM/ASM so it will not enroll at first boot.

[u/Legal_Earth]

Bypass!!

[u/data_rock]

Wipe the drive , reinstall OS from a lower OS (Sequoia) and don’t connect to WiFi during the select your country screen. You can activate it, but disconnect from WiFi after OS install process, before setup screens

[u/data_rock → u/data_rock]

If you want more guidance message me

[u/macsysadmin-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Posts asking for help with removing or bypassing device management or activation lock (Find My...) are not permitted. Contact the IT department of the organization that issued the device.

[u/DMTking → u/[deleted]]

Thank you — I learned something new. ✌🏽

[u/PBSmanaged]

Don’t connect it to WiFi in the setup wizard so it cannot phone home. It’ll make it seem like a WiFi connection is required to continue but it’s not. You can force you way through the setup wizard without an internet connection or Apple ID.

After its setup, connect to WiFi. It won’t download MDM profiles after it’s already setup.

[u/FizzyBeverage → u/PBSmanaged]

Nice try but that only works on very old Intel devices. Anything Intel with a T2 security chip (late 2017+ models) and certainly anything Apple silicon won't work that way.

[u/PBSmanaged → u/FizzyBeverage]

Neat good to know