My brother recently passed away and his iPad and iPhone were among his belongings. Was wondering if I take his death certificate with me to an Apple Store would someone be able to reset the passcode so I can gain access to the devices?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iPad Pro (4th generation)
A close Family member or Executor, with the required supporting paperwork, can make application to Apple to be granted access to the Apple accounts of the deceased:
How to request access to a deceased family member's Apple accounts - Apple Support
You should note that if successful, this process will grant access to some information stored in iCloud - but will not, of itself, resolve access to the iPad.
Quite often, close family also have sufficient knowledge - and access to likely recovery paths - that access to the AppleID account of the deceased family member can be recovered. Having done so, it is then possible to release the Activation Lock that prevents reuse of an iPad/iPhone.
The following guidance is written from the perspective of the owner - but a family member will get the idea as they run through the process.
—
If your device is Activation Locked, this help page will provide most of the information that you’ll need:
Activation Lock for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support
If you have forgotten your AppleID or associated password, these can be recovered here:
To recover your credentials, you’ll need access to any one of the following:
Unless you AppleID account has not been fully/correctly configured, or has been seriously neglected, recovery of the AppleID and password should not be difficult.
More information about recovery of your AppleID:
If you forgot your Apple ID - Apple Support
More information about recovery of your AppleID password:
If you forgot your Apple ID password - Apple Support
When you recover access to your credentials, you would be well advised to log-in to your AppleID account from a web browser - and verify/update any email addresses and trusted telephone numbers:
Having recovered access to the AppleID account (and therefore the AppleID username and associated Password), Activation Locks can be removed. There are several routes to this, but for brevity, I’ll refer you to this support page:
Turn off Activation Lock – Apple Support
If the passcodes of any devices are unknown, the data stored on the device is beyond reach. That said, if the device(s) have an associated iCloud backup, you can restore the backup data to the device. To do so, you would need to follow this procedure:
If you’ve forgotten the passcode on your iPad, or your iPad is disabled – Apple Support
You’ll need access to either a Windows PC (with iTunes for Windows installed) or a Mac (with iTunes or Finder - as appropriate for the installed version of MacOS). At the end of the process, you’ll have the option to restore data from the backup.
A close Family member or Executor, with the required supporting paperwork, can make application to Apple to be granted access to the Apple accounts of the deceased:
How to request access to a deceased family member's Apple accounts - Apple Support
You should note that if successful, this process will grant access to some information stored in iCloud - but will not, of itself, resolve access to the iPad.
Quite often, close family also have sufficient knowledge - and access to likely recovery paths - that access to the AppleID account of the deceased family member can be recovered. Having done so, it is then possible to release the Activation Lock that prevents reuse of an iPad/iPhone.
The following guidance is written from the perspective of the owner - but a family member will get the idea as they run through the process.
—
If your device is Activation Locked, this help page will provide most of the information that you’ll need:
Activation Lock for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support
If you have forgotten your AppleID or associated password, these can be recovered here:
To recover your credentials, you’ll need access to any one of the following:
Unless you AppleID account has not been fully/correctly configured, or has been seriously neglected, recovery of the AppleID and password should not be difficult.
More information about recovery of your AppleID:
If you forgot your Apple ID - Apple Support
More information about recovery of your AppleID password:
If you forgot your Apple ID password - Apple Support
When you recover access to your credentials, you would be well advised to log-in to your AppleID account from a web browser - and verify/update any email addresses and trusted telephone numbers:
Having recovered access to the AppleID account (and therefore the AppleID username and associated Password), Activation Locks can be removed. There are several routes to this, but for brevity, I’ll refer you to this support page:
Turn off Activation Lock – Apple Support
If the passcodes of any devices are unknown, the data stored on the device is beyond reach. That said, if the device(s) have an associated iCloud backup, you can restore the backup data to the device. To do so, you would need to follow this procedure:
If you’ve forgotten the passcode on your iPad, or your iPad is disabled – Apple Support
You’ll need access to either a Windows PC (with iTunes for Windows installed) or a Mac (with iTunes or Finder - as appropriate for the installed version of MacOS). At the end of the process, you’ll have the option to restore data from the backup.
I don’t have the passcode for an iPad and iPhone
