Does anyone know what triggers this message. This is NOT the iPhone is Disabled message. The screen simply says iPhone Not Available Please Try Again In X Minutes. There is no countdown and restarting the phone did not change anything. After about 20 minutes the Home Screen became available again.
Was there a larger system failure? What’s up with this message?
PS - current on iOS version - no problem there.
Is is possible that the iPhone was in your pocket or purse for some time, and the contact with the screen entered the wrong passcode a number of times.......likely without you knowing it at the time?
That would result in the iPhone Unavailable message that you have seen. If the wrong passcode is entered too many times, the iPhone will be locked, and you will have to reset it and restore from a backup.
Is is possible that the iPhone was in your pocket or purse for some time, and the contact with the screen entered the wrong passcode a number of times.......likely without you knowing it at the time?
That would result in the iPhone Unavailable message that you have seen. If the wrong passcode is entered too many times, the iPhone will be locked, and you will have to reset it and restore from a backup.
It has nothing to do with jiggling. If you have Raise to Wake enabled, the phone is vertical in your pocket and the screen is against your skin (even through lightweight clothing) the vertical position enables Raise to Wake, which turns on the screen to allow entry of your passcode. Your’s is not the first case of this that I have encountered. And it has always been with a phone kept in a pocket without a case that covers the screen.
But regardless of how it happened, iPhone Not Available means that the passcode was entered too many times. That is the ONLY thing that can trigger that message. And not all Apple employees realize that; many have not kept up with changing messages.
I’m sticking with the mathematical impossibility of random screen taps being able to enter a correct 6 character alphanumeric passcode not just once but seven times?
No one is suggesting that random taps entered the correct code. We've suggested the possibility of random taps resulting in an incorrect code that was entered multiple times.
Depending on the frequency of the random taps and incorrect passcode entries, the delay might be a minute, 5 minutes, or longer.
And, for what it's worth, I've had this issue myself. The first question that the Genius guys asked when I visited the Apple Store in Fort Worth TX was......"do you keep the phone in your pocket most of the time"?
So, please spend a few minutes to review the posts of other users who are trying to help. No one ever suggested that random taps, or rubs, or whatever you want to call them resulted in the correct passcode being entered.
Here is what I said.......Is it possible that the iPhone was in your pocket or purse for some time, and the contact with the screen entered the wrong passcode a number of times.......likely without you knowing it at the time?
Not sure how you derived all your mathematical possibilities of correct codes being entered by reading this.
I assume you can enter the Passcode when you turn on your phone, right?
Then you get that "warning" (iPhone Not Available Please Try Again In X Minutes) on the screen which then disappeared after about 20 minutes.
To test you could try this: -> (1) Turn Passcode Off or (2) Change the passcode
To see if you get that warning again.
For sure write the 'new' passcode down.
Before you do the test, for sure make a back up, see -> How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support
Have you try this? -> Force restart iPhone - Apple Support (IE)
May be visit an Apple Store or an Apple Authorized Reseller in your region and ask them about it.
Yes, you are right on the probabilities. My mistake. I still don’t understand how it could take around 20 minutes when the message said to wait 5 minutes while it was in my hand the whole time.
i know it was about 20 minutes because I was out walking and it lasted about a mile.
There are other users who have posted with this issue of the time stated having passed with no result so perhaps there is an issue with the delay function after a passcode was entered too many times.
As it happens I am going to an Apple Store today with an AirPods Pro problem and I’m going to ask about the strange phone behavior. If it was a wrong passcode being entered multiple times the phone would say iPhone Disabled so I suspect it is something else.
If I learn anything I’ll post it here.
If it was a wrong passcode being entered multiple times the phone would say iPhone Disabled so I suspect it is something else.
An iPhone will disable for 1 minute after six failed passcode attempts in a row. The seventh incorrect passcode attempt will lock you out for 5 minutes, the eighth attempt for 15, and the tenth for an hour.
Well, the Apple Store has a theory but no concrete answer on what happened. One possibility is the available storage is too small and it created some buffering issue that caused the problem. On the other hand, the original issue I went to the store for is suspected to be an undocumented bug in the iOS v15.5. So, it’s possible it was related to that.
So, no answers for either issue, just more questions. Hopefully the next version of iOS will help me out.
If by the same situation you believe the passcode was erroneously entered multiple times I have to respectively disagree. I suspect the odds of the jiggles in my pocket entering the correct passcode multiple times is about the same as a thousand monkeys correctly typing the complete works of Shakespeare in my lifetime. Besides, once I saw the initial message the phone remained in my hand while I waited for the time to pass. Even when it did, the message remained. It remained about 15 minutes past the time it recommended that I try again.
In addition to the extreme mathematical improbability of that possibility, it was not a possibility offered by the Apple Store.
Well, that’s your belief and I appreciate you’re trying to help. I’m sticking with the mathematical impossibility of random screen taps being able to enter a correct 6 character alphanumeric passcode not just once but seven times? Calculate the probability.
Yes, the message is the same used after the incorrect mulitple entries of a passcode. However, two other factors rule against the random entry of seven passcodes being correct in a row. The first time the screen appeared it said to try again in 3 minutes. I turned off the phone and left it off. After turning it back on the screen said to wait 5 minutes. I don’t think there is a 3 minute time out for incorrect passcodes. When the 5 minute message appeared I held it in my hand and it took about 20 minutes before the Home Screen reappeared. There was no possibility of random entries while it was in my hand.
kgrass wrote:
Well, that’s your belief and I appreciate you’re trying to help. I’m sticking with the mathematical impossibility of random screen taps being able to enter a correct 6 character alphanumeric passcode not just once but seven times? Calculate the probability.
I'm not following your logic.. the probability of random screen taps entering the correct passcode? Sure, I'm with you.. Not likely to happen.
But you are dealing with iPhone Unavailable/Disabled situation.. and the suggestion is that while in your pocket, the screen awakens and the screen detects random touches.. Which is a legit theory, it's happened to me multiple times before. When this happens, the passcode is entered incorrectly a certain number of times.. resulting in iPhone Unavailable/Disabled.
So why are you talking about the statistics of a correctly entered passcode?
Yes, I did - it did not have any effect. When the phone restarted the same message appeared.
Thanks but the iPhone was already on when the message appeared. After the Home Screen finally reappeared there were no passcode problems.
IPhone Not Available
