Inability of the owner of an iPhone or his legal representative to find the passcode or to provide information to support that they require to assist in opening the iPhone

If the owner does not know their passcode, they will be locked out after numerous attempts as a security feature. The passcode can be reset by connecting to a computer. If you forgot your iPhone passcode - Apple Support

If the device is activation locked, then it can only be unlocked by the owner entering their password for their iCloud account. How to remove Activation Lock - Apple Support

Anyone can set up a legacy contact How to add a Legacy Contact for your Apple ID - Apple Support or recovery contact Set up an account recovery contact - Apple Support

An iPhone has a programmed security feature that disables the ability to open an iPhone for progressively longer periods after successive failed attempts. As I understand it, after 10 failed attempts, an iPhone will not open thereafter even if the correct passcode is entered on the next attempt or on any subsequent attempts.

Correct

The site information says after that, one must call Apple Support. My first question is this: what information must the caller then provide to Apple Support that will result in Support informing the caller what they can then do that will result in the successful opening of the iPhone?

Apple Support will help you work through the process to erase / reset the phone and then set it up again. They will likely provide with you this support document as well.

If you forgot your iPhone passcode - Apple Support

If you have a newer iPhone running a newer operating system that this iOS 15.2 or higher, you have the option to use this support document:

How to reset your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch when you forgot your passcode - Apple Support

Either process will erase the current data on your phone and then ask you to set up the phone again, just like you did when it was new. If you have a current backup of the phone, you can use that to restore the phone so it will look exactly like it did before. Smart users back up daily.

And what if for any reason the caller is not able to provide one or more pieces of information that Support requests?

You will need to take the phone to an Apple Store or authorized Apple Service shop.

The serious fault that I find with this feature is sometimes a person suffers a catastrophic brain trauma from an accident, or moderate to severe memory loss from dementia. If neither the owner nor is or her representative can ever open the iPhone again because they have become incapable of remembering their passcode and any item of information that Support may require, that iPhone has become no more useful than a paperweight of equal weight.

Call Apple Support and they will review the options available to you. For example, if a person has died or is incapable of accessing the phone, there are methods to reset the phone for a family member. Examples:

How to add a Legacy Contact for your Apple ID - Apple Support

Set up an account recovery contact - Apple Support

If the phone will not be leaving home, you might want to pass on setting up a passcode. That way, a person will never be locked out of the phone.

An iPhone is far too expensive for an owner or their legal representative to be permanently deprived of the right to use this expensive piece of equipment that is the property of its owner.

You agreed to Apple's policies when you set up the phone. I doubt that they will change them, but you can always request this if you wish.

Feedback - iPhone - AppleApple › feedback › iphone

The short answer is that if you are locked out of the phone because of 2 many passcode attempts the only solution is to reset the phone to factory settings. There is NO WAY AROUND THIS, as the FBI discovered. In spite of a court order to Apple to unlock a terrorist’s phone Apple explained that it was technically impossible.

The FBI then went to an independent cybersecurity firm, who were able to recover contents from the phone. It cost the FBI $980,000. Apple fixed the vulnerability that allowed this bypass of their security, and today it is not possible for even the FBI to get data from a disabled phone at any price.

To prevent this from being a hardship to owners who forget their password, Apple provides 2 ways of backing up a phone, to a computer and to iCloud. And it is possible to make this happen automatically every night, so virtually no data other than from the current day will ever be lost. And Apple also makes it possible to sync data to iCloud (separately from backing up), and there are 3rd party data archiving services (Dropbox, box.com, Google Drive, etc) that can also automatically back up iOS devices in near real time. But Apple can only provide the tools for users, Apple has no way to force anyone to protect their data. Just like you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.