My sister has an iPhone that her roommate is using, but she forgot the device passcode and nobody can unlock it. I have a background in computer repair and digital forensics, and the tools I tried were unsuccessful. T-Mobile mentioned a non-Apple shop that could wipe the phone for about $50. Is this likely to involve specialized law-enforcement-grade equipment, or are they simply using Apple's normal recovery process? Would doing this violate Apple's terms, and what happens to Activation Lock and the data afterward?
3 Answers
A factory restore will permanently erase the data stored on the phone, but it won’t give access to the Apple Account or its iCloud data. If the owner can provide valid proof of purchase, Apple may be able to help with Activation Lock, but forgotten account credentials still have to be recovered through Apple’s account-recovery process, a trusted signed-in device, or a previously configured recovery contact.
They probably aren’t using anything exotic. The standard process is to put the iPhone into recovery mode or DFU mode and restore it through Finder or iTunes. That erases the local contents and reinstalls iOS, but it does not remove Activation Lock. Afterward, the phone will still require the Apple Account credentials previously associated with it.
The $50 service may simply be charging for something the owner can do at home with the correct recovery-mode steps for that iPhone model. If the shop claims it can remove Activation Lock or recover the existing data without the passcode and account access, be skeptical—ordinary repair tools cannot legitimately bypass those protections.
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