How to Bypass or Disable the Activation Lock on Apple Watch 7

What started off as a fashion accessory and a bragging right soon turned into one of the best health and fitness tracking devices. You bet we’re talking about the Apple Watch. Not only does the Apple Watch look stunning with the right bands, it actually positively affects your quality of life. Features such as the ECG sensor, incredibly precise heart rate scanner, and other impressive tracking elements make the Apple Watch one of a kind and put it far ahead of the competition.

The Apple Watch Series 7 brought about some big design updates after years of a very similar experience. The bezels have shrunken by a lot, curving the display to the edges, providing a lot more room for information on the screen. The display itself has gotten sharper and brighter, making the Always On feature more desirable to use. While the sensors and health tracking features remain the same from the previous year, you now get a USB C charging cable instead of the clumsy old Lightning port that Apple still uses in some of its products.

However, that’s not what today’s article is about. If your Apple Watch has become unusable due to the activation lock feature, there is still hope. In this guide, we will be going over how you can bypass or disable the activation lock on your Apple Watch.

Bypass or Disable the Activation Lock on Apple Watch 7

What is the Activation Lock?

The activation lock isn’t new or specific to the Apple Watch, in fact, it has been around for ages on other Apple products such as the iPhone, iPad, and iPod. The activation lock kicks in when you either factory reset the watch that’s connected to your iPhone without unpairing it first or when the original user of the watch reports it as a lost item on the Find My app.

Most users who face this issue are those who have purchased a second-hand Apple Watch. The original owner might not know about this feature, and you’ll pretty much be screwed if you don’t have any way of contacting the previous owner of the watch. Once the activation lock is enabled on the Apple Watch, you won’t be able to interact with it in any way or form without entering the iCloud credentials of the account that it has been paired to. Thus, the activation lock prevents people from accessing any sensitive data from stolen Apple devices.

Bypass or Disable the Activation Lock on Apple Watch 7

If you did end up with a locked Apple Watch, you can still try to bypass or disable the activation lock. Following are a few ways you can try out if you have a locked Apple Watch:

1. Ask the Previous Owner to Unpair the Apple Watch

If you are still in the position to contact the previous owner of the Apple Watch, you can simply ask them to unpair the Apple Watch from their iCloud account. This will immediately disable the activation lock on the watch. For this, the previous owner needs to launch the Watch app on their iPhone and unpair the watch. However, this method requires both the iPhone and the Apple Watch to be in close proximity since they need to be connected. If you can fulfill these requirements, then unpairing the watch is quite simple.

Bypass or Disable the Activation Lock on Apple Watch 7

  1. Make sure that both the iPhone of the original owner and the Apple Watch are connected.
  2. Launch the Watch app on the iPhone and tap on My Watch.
  3. You’ll see an info icon, tap on it.
  4. Simply tap on Unpair and you should be good to go.

2. Disable the Activation Lock using iCloud

In case you can’t physically meet up with the previous owner to unpair the watch using the method above, you can still ask them to unpair it using their iCloud account. Using the web version of iCloud, they can log in to their Apple account and see all their paired devices. Simply ask them to unpair the Apple Watch from their account and the activation lock should go away in an instant.

Bypass or Disable the Activation Lock on Apple Watch 7

  1. Head over to the iCloud website.
  2. Ask the previous owner to sign into their Apple ID using their credentials.
  3. Hop over to the Find iPhone section and click on All Devices to view all the various devices connected to their iPhone, and consequently to their iCloud account.
  4. Choose the Apple Watch from the list and click on Erase Apple Watch. Once done, finally press the Remove from Account button and that’s it!

3. Use an Online Unlocking Service

In the event that you cannot get the previous owner to unlink the Apple Watch from their account, the only way to go forward is by using an online service that does the unlocking for you. Most of these services are paid and while you can find some free ones, we highly recommend against using them for security purposes. We recommend using the Apple iPhone Unlock website that specializes in removing the activation lock from any Apple device you could imagine, including the Apple Watch.

Bypass or Disable the Activation Lock on Apple Watch 7

  1. Head over to the Apple iPhone Unlock website.
  2. Note down the Serial Number of your Apple Watch. The Serial Number can be found on the back of your watch. Input this into the box that asks for IMEI/Serial Number.
  3. Next up, choose your Apple Watch model from the dropdown menu. Be careful while doing so since there are a lot of devices, and make sure you pick the right model.
  4. Click on Remove Activation Lock and proceed to make the payment.
  5. Within the next few days, you should receive an email saying that your Apple Watch has been successfully unlocked.

That’s pretty much all the ways you can go about removing the activation lock on your Apple Watch. It’s always a good practice to check for any kind of activation lock on any device you purchase from someone else in the future so you don’t run into a similar issue! If this guide helped you, kudos! If not, let us know in the comments below and we’d be more than happy to help.

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