[SOLVED] Can't Assign AirPods to New Apple Account - 'Find My' Locked

[Appletax]

Solution: after the old account was deleted, the AirPods were freed from that account's Find My and automatically assigned to my new account's Find My.

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I have Apple AirPods Pro gen 1.

I deleted my Apple account and made a new one. I didn't know I needed to remove the AirPods from my old account's Find My before deleting it. Now I cannot assign it to my new account and it sends location info to my old account. I can reset them, which will stop them from sending location info to the old account, but I cannot assign it to my new Apple account. I guess that doesn't matter much to me personally, but I suspect that it will hurt the resale value. The old account is permanently deleted and I still have my 12 digit code from when I requested the deletion.

What to do? Should I bother with contacting Apple themselves for help? Am I SOL but it's no big deal?

Thanks

 

[britechguy]

It's definitely worth contacting Apple about this. They can typically iron things out, but it also gives them another data point regarding how freakin' convoluted their requirements are.

 

[Appletax]

It's definitely worth contacting Apple about this. They can typically iron things out, but it also gives them another data point regarding how freakin' convoluted their requirements are.

Thanks. I just got off a chat with them. After my old Apple Account was deleted, my AirPods in my old Find My were freed and are now able to be assigned to another Apple Account. I checked my new account's Find My and the AirPods are in there. Yay!

 

[timeshifter]

I deleted my Apple account and made a new one. I didn't know I needed to remove the AirPods from my old account's Find My before deleting it. Now I cannot assign it to my new account and it sends location info to my old account.

I just got off a chat with them. After my old Apple Account was deleted, my AirPods in my old Find My were freed and are now able to be assigned to another Apple Account. I checked my new account's Find My and the AirPods are in there.

I'm confused. You said you deleted the account and then couldn't add them to your new account. Then you said you deleted your account and then you were able to add them. Then in your "solution" edit at the top of your OP you said they were automatically added to your new account.

 

[NviGate Systems]

I'm assuming Apple had to purge the account. So essentially if you delete an Apple account and don't remove devices, they are stuck unless Apple gets involved.

That's my take.

 

[Appletax]

I'm confused. You said you deleted the account and then couldn't add them to your new account. Then you said you deleted your account and then you were able to add them. Then in your "solution" edit at the top of your OP you said they were automatically added to your new account.

I requested that Apple delete my old account and it occurred days later - 1 day after I first connected my AirPods to my reset iPhone with new Apple account which resulted in sending my location data to my old account. The day the account was deleted was the day that the AirPods were automatically assigned to my new account. Just before I began my chat with Apple support, I noticed that they were in my new account's Find My. I thought that was odd and didn't realize till I chatted with Apple that an account that is deleted will purge all devices from Find My and free them up to be assigned to another account. It's very cool that it did it automatically, but not cool that it didn't notify me.

I'm assuming Apple had to purge the account. So essentially if you delete an Apple account and don't remove devices, they are stuck unless Apple gets involved.

That's my take.

They process the account deletion request days after making the request. A person must delete their devices from Find My before the deletion in order to be able to assign the devices to the new Apple account. After the account is deleted, it will automatically remove the devices from Find My and free them all to be assigned to a new account. That's awesome. I thought that my AirPods might be permanently unable to be reassigned. I thought I would have to reset them to stop sending my location to the old account and that I would not be able to assign it to my new account's Find My. They'd still work in that case so that is awesome.

Apple needs to do a better job of letting people know when their device is added to Find My. I never knew before that other devices could be in there, I thought it was just for the iPhone itself - or that if another device were in there that it would not be locked to the account.