how do you bypass a disabled phone?

Question

Level 1

8 points

how do you bypass a disabled phone?

My phone disabled itself in middle of my attempting to delete old photos (it was supposed to be deleting pictures and instead shut itself off and came back on with the iPhone Disabled, Connect to iTunes" screen?! The phone was still accepting incoming calls, incoming texts and alerts ( Could hear the tonal notifications and could answer calls, but nothing else) I want to retrieve my pictures somehow and move them to my computer but can not figure out how to bypass the inaccurate disabling of the phone. Nothing is in iCloud. I already attempted the "Update" in Restore mood and it could not complete an update.... Now the phone seems stuck in limbo?

iPhone 7, iOS 11

Posted on Nov 3, 2020 11:12 AM

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Answer 1

ChrisJ4203

Level 10

231,338 points

Nov 3, 2020 12:02 PM in response to Tlreeser

I'm sorry this happened, but you cannot determine there was no reason for it to happen. Otherwise, it wouldn't have happened. Remember, the smartphone is a small computer, and at times, things happen, especially as it is doing operations. The phone did not disable due to passcode attempts, it was something else that none of us would be able to explain.

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Answer 2

KiltedTim

Level 10

205,764 points

Nov 3, 2020 12:03 PM in response to Tlreeser

If you had been backing up your phone on a regular basis, you would not have lost data.

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Answer 3

Tlreeser Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 3, 2020 11:27 AM in response to Rudegar

I have already attempted the update through this exact restore mode... It was unable to succeed. Only option is to fully restore, which will erase all my contents on the phone. I want to attempt retrieving my pictures so this restore is not an option, but thank you... I am asking if anyone knows how to retrieve the pictures on the phone while it is disabled/in restore mode

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Answer 4

ChrisJ4203

Level 10

231,338 points

Nov 3, 2020 11:42 AM in response to Tlreeser

There is no way to retrieve the photos while the iPhone is disabled. The only course of action to be able to access the iPhone again is to wipe the device to get it back into working mode. If you were deleting pictures, did you not move them all to the computer before doing that? Do you have a backup of the iPhone when the photos were on it? If so, you will be able to restore to that backup to get your photos back.

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Answer 5

Nov 3, 2020 11:44 AM in response to Tlreeser

iOS and iPadOs, by design, cannot be reset from disabled without erasing all data and settings. Once disabled, there is no mechanism to reset the device without erasing it completely. That is intended to ensure that nobody can reset a disabled device and keep the data intact.

It is assumed that owners will be keeping their data backups current so they can then restore the data after resetting the device.

But once disabled, there is no way to save any data on that device that is not already backed up somewhere.

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Answer 6

Tlreeser Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 3, 2020 11:58 AM in response to ChrisJ4203

Unfortunately I was unable to move the newest pictures onto any external drive without first erasing older ones (phone was not operating as it should) and I was trying to remove the older ones so I could save the newest (pictures of a now deceased pet, that can not be replicated) So... I guess I am just outta luck. What really upsets me is that the feature to "Disable" the phone after passcode attempts firstly: was disabled/turned off and secondly: no passcode was being attempted at the time the phone shut itself off and restarted.... There was simply no reason at all for this to have happened. Upsetting!

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Answer 7

Nov 3, 2020 4:31 PM in response to Tlreeser

You cannot turn off the function that disables the device after the default number of passcode attempts. That is not a feature of iOS nor iPadOS. After ten attempts, the device is disabled. You can enable the feature to not auto-erase it self at that point, but that is all.

But every device will always become disabled after the default number of passcode attempts (10 I think it is?). That is hard baked into iOS and iPadOS and is not adjustable by the user.

If you’re phones storage was nearing full, then the operating system will indeed start getting flaky with operations. Just like your laptop or desktop will when storage is full. When the storage gets full, there is no room for temp files and caches and data can become corrupted, operations will crash or not function normally. All sorts of things get flaky when storage is full or very near full.

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