My sister-in-law is incarcerated for the next six years and wanted her father to use her iPhone. The phone has Stolen Device Protection enabled, so it requires Face ID for important actions, including disabling the protection and erasing the device. We know the passcode, have access to her Apple Account and passwords, and have the original box and purchase receipt. The phone is also on her family's account, and Apple approved our Activation Lock removal request after reviewing the proof of purchase.
However, we still can't erase or reset the phone through Settings because it insists on Face ID and doesn't offer a passcode fallback. Find My also appears to require Face ID. When connected to a computer, the phone asks us to trust the device, then attempts Face ID and disconnects when it fails. We don't currently have a Mac, though we could use a Windows PC if that would help.
Is there a legitimate way to completely erase and restore the phone without the owner being physically present for Face ID? Would restoring it through Apple Devices or iTunes allow us to set it up afterward using the Apple Account credentials, or does Stolen Device Protection make the phone unusable in this situation?
3 Answers
The practical route is to restore the iPhone from a computer rather than trying to erase it from Settings. On Windows, Apple’s Apple Devices app can put the phone into recovery mode and reinstall iOS; on a Mac, Finder does the same thing. This bypasses the on-device Face ID requirement because the erase is initiated externally. Afterward, the phone may still show Activation Lock, but you should be able to complete setup with the owner’s Apple Account credentials, assuming Apple’s removal approval has been processed.
The Find My erase option normally sounds like the easiest solution, but Stolen Device Protection can still require Face ID for actions that would remove the device’s security safeguards. If it asks for both Face ID and the password, there probably isn’t a way to force that erase from the phone itself. A recovery-mode restore through Apple Devices on Windows is the better option to try.
Make sure the Apple Account credentials being used are for the account currently associated with the phone. After the restore, Activation Lock can remain until that account is accepted or Apple finishes removing it.
The fact that Apple approved the Activation Lock request doesn’t necessarily disable Stolen Device Protection while the phone is still running. Those are separate safeguards. The original receipt and account access help establish ownership, but they don’t create a passcode-only override for Face ID. If recovery mode still fails, contact Apple again and explain that the device is approved for Activation Lock removal but cannot be erased because Stolen Device Protection requires unavailable Face ID.
A computer may be necessary because the phone won’t stay trusted while it is booted normally. If it disconnects after the Face ID prompt, use recovery mode instead of attempting the restore from the unlocked device.