What do I do if a second-hand phone is locked to the previous owner?
A reset phone that asks for someone else's account before it will finish setting up. What the lock is, why it cannot be removed, and the order in which to pursue a refund — including your rights under UK consumer law.
- Difficulty
- intermediate
- Time
- 35 min
- Read
- 6 min
- Safety
- warning
Short answer
This is Activation Lock on an iPhone or factory reset protection on Android, and only the previous owner can clear it — by signing in on the phone, or remotely by removing the device from their account at iCloud.com or Google's device page. If you cannot reach them, the phone cannot be used by anyone, and your remedy is a refund from the seller: goods must match their description and be fit for purpose, which a permanently locked phone is not.
Both Apple and Google tie a phone to its owner's account so a stolen handset cannot simply be wiped and resold. The lock survives a factory reset, which is the entire point of it, and it is checked against the manufacturer's servers at activation, so nothing done to the phone itself changes anything. That design has worked — phone theft for resale fell substantially after it was introduced — and it has the unavoidable side effect that an honestly sold phone whose previous owner forgot to sign out is equally unusable. The lock does not distinguish between a thief and a forgetful seller, and neither Apple nor Google will remove it for you without proof of original purchase.
Safety
Step by step
- Identify exactly which lock you have.An iPhone asking for an Apple Account email and password after a reset is Activation Lock. An Android asking you to sign in with a Google account that was previously on the device is factory reset protection. A phone asking for a network unlock code is something else entirely and is usually solvable — see the note on that below.
- Contact the seller immediately and ask them to remove it remotely.This is by far the most likely resolution and it takes them two minutes. On iPhone they sign into iCloud.com, open Find My, select the device and choose Remove from Account. On Android they go to their Google account's device list and remove it. They do not need the phone in their hand.
- Be precise and unthreatening in the first message.Most sellers in this position have simply forgotten a step and do not know what you are asking for. A message that names the exact page and the exact button gets a far better result than an accusation. Send the link and the instruction.
- Set a deadline and put it in writing.Give a clear, short window and say what happens next. Keep everything in the platform's own messaging system rather than moving to text or WhatsApp, because the marketplace's dispute process can only see what is on its own platform.
- Open a dispute on the platform if they do not act.eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Vinted, Gumtree and the rest all have processes for an item not as described, with time limits that are shorter than people expect. Start it well before the window closes even if the seller is still promising to sort it out.
- Use your consumer rights against a business seller.Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, goods bought from a trader must be as described, of satisfactory quality and fit for purpose. A phone that cannot be activated meets none of those, and you are entitled to reject it. A private seller is a weaker position — goods must be as described, but the quality obligations do not apply in the same way.
- Go to the payment provider.If you paid by card, a chargeback is possible, and for purchases over £100 on a credit card, section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act makes the card provider jointly liable with the seller. PayPal has its own buyer protection with its own deadline. Bank transfer offers the least protection, which is why it is the payment method sellers of stolen goods prefer.
- Report it if you believe the phone is stolen.A seller who will not remove the lock and stops responding is a realistic sign of a stolen device. Report it to Action Fraud and to the platform. Do not attempt to resell it — passing on a locked phone to someone else simply moves the problem.
Common mistakes
- Paying an unlock service — The lock is enforced by Apple's and Google's servers. No third party can change what those servers say. Every one of these services is either a straightforward theft or an installation of modified software that breaks the phone permanently.
- Waiting for the seller instead of opening a dispute — Marketplace and payment protections have deadlines measured in weeks. A seller who strings you along past the deadline has taken away your only realistic remedy, and some do this deliberately.
- Buying a phone without checking activation before paying — Insisting that the phone is reset in front of you and reaches the home screen with your own account signed in, before money changes hands, prevents this entirely. It is a two-minute check and the single best protection there is.
If it doesn't work
Seller says they removed it but the phone still asks
Cause: They removed the wrong device, or removal has not propagated — Fix: Ask them to confirm the serial number or IMEI they removed, which is on the phone's setup screen. Give it a few hours and try activation again on wifi.
Phone asks for a network unlock code, not an account
Cause: Network locking, which is a different thing entirely — Fix: This is solvable. The network that supplied the phone must unlock it free of charge on request, and in the UK new phones have not been sold network-locked since the end of 2021. Contact the network with the IMEI.
Seller has died or cannot be traced
Cause: No account holder available — Fix: Apple and Google can remove the lock only with the original proof of purchase — the receipt naming the device. An executor with the paperwork can pursue it; without the receipt there is no route. The catalogue's guide on closing accounts of someone who has died covers the wider situation.
You bought it from a shop and they refuse to help
Cause: A trader trying to avoid their obligation — Fix: A trader's obligations under the Consumer Rights Act are not optional and are not affected by a 'sold as seen' notice. Put the rejection in writing, then escalate to the payment provider and to Trading Standards via Citizens Advice.
You are the previous owner and have lost access to the account
Cause: Your own account recovery problem — Fix: That is a different and solvable problem — the catalogue's guides on recovering an online account and recovering two-factor access apply, and Apple and Google both run account recovery for genuine owners.
A shop offers to unlock it for £40
Cause: A fraud — Fix: There is no such service. They will either take the money, or wipe and relock the phone with their own account, or fit a non-genuine part and hand back something worse. Do not give them the phone or its IMEI.
Questions people ask
Can Apple or Google remove the lock for me?
Only with the original proof of purchase — a receipt or invoice showing the device's serial number or IMEI and the purchaser. They will not accept your purchase receipt from the second-hand seller, because that does not establish who owned the account. This is deliberate: a route that worked without it would defeat the whole mechanism.
Is the phone worth anything at all?
Very little legitimately. It cannot be activated, so it cannot be used or honestly resold, and the parts trade for locked phones is itself largely a market in stolen goods. Treat the money as at risk and pursue the refund rather than trying to recover value from the device.
What is the difference between this and a network-locked phone?
A network lock ties the phone to one mobile operator and is removable free of charge by that operator on request. An account lock ties it to a person and cannot be removed by anyone but them. Sellers sometimes conflate the two, and the words on the phone's screen tell you which you have.
How do I avoid this next time?
Insist on seeing the phone reset and set up in front of you, reaching the home screen. Check the IMEI against the UK blocklist. Pay by a method with buyer protection. And prefer a seller who is willing to do all three — an honest seller has no reason to object.