When I was working for a university they bought me a 2017 iMac Pro to use for work from home, which came with some sort of MDM profile linked to the university. When I left several years later, my boss said I could keep the Mac since it was getting old, any new hires would get a new machine anyway.
I used it for a while without changing anything, but the MDM part of the OS was still linked. I understood that it was possible to remove the machine from the network from Apple Business Manager, and this would allow it to be reset, so I asked my old boss. Unfortunately, whoever originally ordered the machine from Apple had left, and they didn't know the info/passwords required. This was hardly a top priority for them so while they said they'd look into it and I chased a couple of times, nothing further happened and I eventually stopped using it.
Today I tried to delete my personal information from the machine so I could get rid of it, but since I don't know the firmware password, I can't even factory reset it. I had a “bright” idea to try to remotely erase the machine using Find My from my phone. I hit erase, the machine restarted, and the firmware password field showed up. I restarted the machine from the power button, and my account is still there. When I logged in it connected to the internet and tried to remote-erase again, but that just went back to the firmware password screen.
Do I have any options now that don't require a firmware password? To be clear I'm not asking to remove the supervision/MDM profiles, I'm asking to remove my personal information, Apple ID, etc. Then I can hand it over to someone from the university, and if someone wants to use it they will have to go dig out that password (or more likely it will end up properly disposed – a shame for a machine which is still plenty powerful, but hard to get people to jump through hoops for ex-property!).
