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How to unlock a disabled iPhone: Unlocking a disabled phone: Have you tried typing in your forgotten passcode and ended up with a locked Apple device? It happens all the time, especially if there are kids involved. When faced with a disabled iPhone, the only way to save the device is to factory restore it to its original factory condition. This means everything on the phone will be erased and, if you’ve activated the device previously, you might need to approve a reboot and reinstall from a different device.
If you’ve purchased or found an iPhone that is disabled, please keep in mind that it still might be activated on another person’s account. Make sure that the original users have disabled Find My iPhone and logged out of their Apple account on the phone before passing it to you. If you don’t have access the the owner’s activation account, you might be stuck.
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Unlock a disabled iPhone
If your iPhone is disabled, you can try the following steps to unlock it:
- Connect your iPhone to a computer that you have previously synced with. This could be a Mac or a PC.
- Launch iTunes or Finder on your computer. If you have a Mac running macOS Catalina or later, use Finder. If you have a Windows PC or a Mac running an older version of macOS, use iTunes.
- Put your iPhone into recovery mode. The method varies depending on the iPhone model:
- For iPhone 8 or later: Press and quickly release the volume up button, then press and quickly release the volume down button. Finally, press and hold the side (or top) button until you see the recovery mode screen.
- For iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus: Press and hold the volume down button and the side (or top) button together until the recovery mode screen appears.
- For iPhone 6s and earlier, as well as iPad with a home button or iPod Touch: Press and hold the home button and the side (or top) button together until the recovery mode screen appears.
- You should see an option to restore or update your iPhone in iTunes or Finder. Choose the “Restore” option. This will erase all data on your iPhone and install the latest version of iOS.
- Wait for the restore process to complete. This may take some time, as your iPhone will download the necessary software from Apple’s servers.
- Once the restore is finished, you can set up your iPhone as new or restore from a backup if you have one.
Please note that this method will erase all data on your iPhone. If you have a recent backup, you can restore your data after unlocking your iPhone. If you don’t have a backup, you may lose your data permanently.
