A combination of Apple’s new T2 security chip, software security, and diagnostic requirements are making it hard to breathe new life into old MacBook Pros that have been recycled but could be easily repaired and used for years were it not for these locks.
Matthew Gault for Vice’s Motherboard:
“The irony is that I’d like to do the responsible thing and wipe user data from these machines, but Apple won’t let me,” John Bumstead, a MacBook refurbisher and owner of the RDKL INC repair store, said in a tweet with an attached picture of two “bricked” MacBook Pros. “Literally the only option is to destroy these beautiful $3,000 MacBooks and recover the $12/ea they are worth as scrap.”
The irony is that I’d like to do the responsible thing and wipe user data from these machines, but Apple won’t let me. Literally the only option is to destroy these beautiful $3000 MacBooks and recover the $12/ea they are worth as scrap. #righttorepair pic.twitter.com/YS0FV6iBYu
— John Bumstead (@RDKLInc) April 18, 2020
As Motherboard has reported previously, without official Apple diagnostic software, newer MacBooks cannot be repaired or reset… As we’ve seen with iPhones in the past, users often don’t reset their own devices before they recycle or donate them, so the only thing that can be done with these devices — some of which are less than two years old — is have them shredded for scrap…
Bumstead said that around 20 to 30 percent of the new Macs he sees have this problem.
MacDailyNews Take: One of the main selling points of Apple’s T2 security chip that the devices can’t be reset except by the owner. Security. If Apple puts in a “back door” for refurbishers, there goes your security.
Apple’s T2 chip enables a new level of security by including a secure enclave coprocessor that secures Touch ID data.
These Mac computers have the Apple T2 Security Chip:
• iMac Pro
• Mac Pro introduced in 2019
• Mac mini introduced in 2018
• MacBook Air introduced in 2018 or later
• MacBook Pro introduced in 2018 or later
Before you you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac, please read Apple’s support document: What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac.