"iPhone unavailable" message on lock screen

One of the phones in my account apparently has a malfunctioning screen due to no fault of ours. It's an iPhone 13 and has been security locked after being in my husbands shirt pocket where one would normally carry a phone. We have spent literally hours on the phone and online trying to correct this without success. At this point we are resigned to the fact that our data cannot be recovered. That is our fault, we did not back it up nor sync it to our computer. We would just like to be able to use this thing. Our last attempt without being able to talk to a real live, service associate, led to receiving an email which said we had to wait till 10 days away to receive an email telling us how to restore our forgotten Apple password which is not the problem. This phone is used for business we can't wait 10 days for help. Am I considering switching my iPhone and carrier? yes!

To Lawrence Fish-no none of the videos in this thread or solutions helped with my phone. Don’t bother scolding me for not backing up or miss using my phone. I am over the fact that I’ve lost all the data and just want to get the phone back into use. Calling Apple, AT&T and our local (3 hrs away) Apple Store does not provide us with any information only recorded voices giving us any help. I can only get as far as the recovery screen if I try one of those video methods. The phone does not respond there is nothing on the screen except for the phone unavailable or a security lock is on your phone. Pressing erase phone does not elicit anything.

This is the most useless feature on a phone I have ever heard of. Mine got to this screen because while the phone was in my pocket on a hike, the phone tried to unlock too many times.

I can't believe there's no fix for this from apple. I can't understand how they didn't think it would be a good idea for them to have a way to unlock the phone on their end. There are so many situations where a wrong passcode could be put into the phone too many times. I read it can happen when it's charging. Why didn't they write an update where they could unlock it? Now I have to get rid of months of data to unlock my phone. Do other types of phones do this? It might be time to start looking into Androids if Apple can't think ahead far enough to see how their "security" measures will inconvenience their users.

Woke up to this no one was here to try to get into my phone i know my passcode nor tried entering it only woke up to error then just waited and it went back into mode without asking for a passcode strange iphone 13max problem

I had my phone as usual in a coat pocket while walking. When I went to use it, screen said “phone unavailable; try in 15 minutes”. I turned the phone off after a few minutes passed, waited a minute or so, and the same message popped up, re-starting the 15 minutes. No other message on the screen except a button for emergency call. Is something wrong w the update? Just updated earlier this week-Nov 16th

Dear Apple Support,

I just had my iPhone in my pocket and when I needed it and took it to my hand I’ve suddenly got message “IPhone Unavailable, try again in 5 minutes”.

As you can imagine there are the situations when you need your phone urgently, right now, not in 5 minutes.

Please switch off this functionality for me, it’s useless and got me into trouble.

I didn’t pay for this discomfort when purchasing an iPhone.

I had the exact same issue. Over six months ago, I woke up to my XR iphone saying "iphone unvailable" out of the blue. I have absolutely no idea what happened. It forced me to have to buy a new iphone. Went to Apple three times about this in the past half year and they give the same drill and the woman working there was practically shaming me for not knowing if it was linked to the my icloud or not. I mean, we become slaves to a cloud instead of basic common sense in this regard such as security questions, finger prints, face recognition, etc. They make it impossible and all I have learned from this experience is that nothing in technology is safe nowadays, the next new model that comes on the market seems to be more of an experiment that we get hooked on and then risk losing all of our information with a click of a button (which is what they proposed 3 times now because they couldn't guarentee it would be lost so I declined). I thought for sure a half a year later they would have something figured out! Radio silence, crickets. An outsourced company told me this is Apples error because they lock if for security purposes. Another company I went to said I need to prove the phone is mine, need to have serial #, receipt of purchase which I have, etc. so I have all of that from t mobile, useless so far. I am upset because all of my text and voice messages with family are in whataspp in that phone and yet it's like speaking to the abyss to get any assistance or a solid company who can get this figured out. I had another company say I could try to hire a forensics data retrival specialist so I guess l'll try that next. Apple, step up your game! :Z

I have Iphone 11 & my phone turned out to be on an "iphone unavailable" screen. Whereas the phone was in my pocket and I didn't have access to type my passcode. I called Apple support and they gave me a solution to reset my phone where my data will be loose. Like seriously!?? There should be some solution to this matter, as many cases the phone will turn out to be the same like me,? Will everyone be ready to factory reset their phone? It's ridiculous.. The same issue has happened with me. I don't know what's wrong with Apple support, they can't fix one problem and just give a solution to factory reset, which is so unfair. I can't access my phone now and need a solution to open it. My data is very important to me. Please, if there is some way to help me out.

Regret buying an Iphone.. where you pay a high amount for the phone + later pay for iCloud to save the data, where again every month you have to recharge it like seriously!?? Buy Apple cod to charge your phone + headphones. You guys are just looting people & when we end up in problem, you guys give a solution for a factory reset. 

[Email Edited by Moderator]

I have exactly the same problem

Yup same here. Anyone have a fix?

my iphone is lock

what did u do?

If you forgot your iPhone passcode

yes thats what it is saying

Thank myself that I kept my Iphone pro 13 which did not update yet...I am on step 5 - have a great day, ya'all GoldFish007