Hey everyone! I could really use some help here. My brother-in-law recently had a terrible car accident and, unfortunately, while he was trying to access his iPhone after the incident, he ended up locking himself out. Now, his phone is showing 'iPhone unavailable' and the only options visible are 'Emergency' and 'Erase Phone'. The tricky part is he can't remember his Apple ID or email password, making it tough for us to retrieve a recovery code. We're trying to figure out if there's any way to get him back into his phone and make it usable again. I've tried various methods, but I'm not optimistic about our chances! Any suggestions?
3 Answers
If he doesn't remember any passwords, then getting into the phone will be very difficult. What I suggest is getting someone to help with proof of purchase if he has it, and Apple support might be able to remove the lock and allow him to factory reset the device.
It sounds like he really tried to unlock it multiple times, which locked him out for sure. Just to clarify, there’s no way to bypass the passcode unless it's jailbroken, and with the phone showing that 'Security Lockout' message, the only option might be to erase it completely.
Unfortunately, if he can't get his phone reset with proof of purchase, it's going to be really hard to access it again. There's a chance he could reset his Apple ID by going to iforgot.apple.com, but that would only work if he can verify both his email and Apple ID. Too bad about losing the data if he has to wipe the phone, but at least he could start fresh.
Thanks for the clarification! I appreciate it. I found a temporary fix to get the recovery code, so we're hopeful to at least start the Apple account recovery process.