IOS 16.2 Passcode lockout - Security Lockout - Recover Data

Apple gave you multiple ways to “rectify the issue” before it happened, including manual backups to iCloud and your computer, automatic nightly backups, syncing important data to iCloud or 3rd party archiving services (Google One, Dropbox, Box.com, Microsoft OneDrive, Livedrive…). And Apple also recommended backing up your phone before you updated. Backups have to happen before disaster strikes, after is too late. There is no way to recover the data that had been on your phone (it’s already gone) at this point.

The missing passcode is the data decryption key.

Without that passcode, there is no data access.

Claims of data value to the contrary, backups are about the only way to mark data as being valuable.

Without backups, there can be no data recovery, whether the iPhone lost or stolen or dunked or dropped or damaged, or the passcode forgotten.

Same issue with my wife's phone. Never had a passcode before cause she didn't want one. I finally convince her the benefits of securing her data and her device, she creates a passcode, saves it, does the 16.2 update, and gets immediately locked out of her phone during the restart after the update. The passcode she had created 5 minutes earlier is now not working. Regardless of getting your data back or not the phone should not be locking you out when you do their recommended bug fix update, and saying your correct passcode is incorrect. That's unacceptable.