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User profile for user: CarboyMiller
CarboyMiller Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

iPhone disabled, can’t restore it

I accidentally broke my screen and it started typing a whole bunch of numbers in the passcode by itself and it disabled my iPhone, telling me to connect to iTunes. I’ve tried doing this on two different computers, I first tried my MacBook Pro (2017, touchbar model) and got myself to the recovery screen (holding down power and volume up while connected to MacBook Pro) so I could restore it, and I came to the screen that let me update/restore it, so I tried updating it, and my iPhone eventually restarted, but it still came back to the iPhone disabled screen. I tried this several times until I gave up on my MacBook Pro and tried again on my Windows PC with iTunes, but it yielded the same result. I can’t send it in to Apple for them to fix it, so I’m not sure what to do from this point.

iPhone X

Posted on Jul 19, 2020 3:04 PM

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User profile for user: CarboyMiller
CarboyMiller Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Posted on Jul 20, 2020 12:21 PM

I’ve already tried to restore it as a new device, but after 15 minutes the phone just restarts and goes back to the iPhone disabled screen

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5 replies
User profile for user: Ahmed_Al-Sharif
Ahmed_Al-Sharif
User level: Level 1
14 points

Jul 19, 2020 3:15 PM in response to CarboyMiller

You have to backup your iPhone first using iTunes. Then, go on the web and download the os that your phone supports (latest OS is suggested) then get your phone to recovery mode and apply the OS you downloaded via iTunes. Your phone will factory reset (I think) but will ask you to enter your iCloud and it’s password. And if you wish, you can apply the back up to your phone to get it back to its normal state. This happened to me once and I’m pleased to answer question regarding your issue.

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User profile for user: Michael Black
Michael Black
User level: Level 10
80,448 points

Jul 19, 2020 4:44 PM in response to CarboyMiller

If it is disabled, you must erase it by restoring it as a new device in iTunes. You cannot update as that will not reset the disabled screen lock code.


If you don’t have a backup in iTunes or iCloud to restore from after doing that, then you’re going to loose your data. There is no way around that as the one and only means of resetting a disabled device is to erase it with restore as new in iTunes.

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iPhone disabled, can’t restore it

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