How to back up locked iphone

As Bob stated; it seems like you have forgotten the passcode to your iPhone. Once it is locked completely, aka passcode lock, the only way to get into the device is to know the passcode. You cannot back it up once it is in this state.

The only way out is to restore the device to factory settings. You can use an iMac or any Macbook to do this. It will also update the device before it completely restores - if the device needs it. Restores do not work on Chromebooks or iPads. You can use a PC if you have iTunes installed on the PC.

This article explains how to restore successfully If you forgot your iPhone passcode - Apple Support

I wish I could be of more assistance. If you don't have a PC or Mac then you will have to make an appointment to go to your local Apple Store or Contact an Apple Authorized Service Provider because they can restore the device for you.

To back up the phone, you must first log on to the phone.

If you cannot log on to the phone, then it is not possible to back up the phone.

My guess here would be that you have forgotten your passcode and you do not have the data on the phone backed up.

Unfortunately, to reset the passcode, the phone must be erased and set up again. If you do not already have a current backup of the phone at this time, you will lose all of the data on the phone when it is erased and reset.

Another way to say the same thing........backups must occur....before...problems occur. If the phone is not backed, and a problem occurs......it is too late to back up the phone.

If your phone is set to do automatic backups to iCloud, and it has Wi-Fi turned on, there MAY be a way out of this trap.

Connect the phone to power and leave it overnight within range of a Wi-Fi network that it has joined before. With any luck, the phone will decide to do an automatic backup when it sees that it has a Wi-Fi connection to the Internet, and wall power.

Otherwise, I think you are out of luck if you have not already made a backup.

Servant of Cats wrote:

If your phone is set to do automatic backups to iCloud, and it has Wi-Fi turned on, there MAY be a way out of this trap.

Connect the phone to power and leave it overnight within range of a Wi-Fi network that it has joined before. With any luck, the phone will decide to do an automatic backup when it sees that it has a Wi-Fi connection to the Internet, and wall power.

Otherwise, I think you are out of luck if you have not already made a backup.

Don't you think if they already had it set to back up to iCloud automatically, when it is plugged in to power with Wifi, they'd already have a pretty recent backup?

Imran_Zaidi wrote:

Thanks, yes it is on auto back up, but limited items selected, photos are not synced. And i have checked on icloud that my phone has backed up last night as i connected it to power.

the problem is i want all data back up including photos, 2 years memory of my baby growing up, how can i just enable photos backup, so that phone can run backup automatically as it does now but also backs up photos and once i see that on i cloud i erase and reset my phone.

It's too late to enable iCloud Photos. You needed to do that while you still had access to the phone.

The good news is that since you do have a backup, your photos may be included in it. My understanding is that Apple has set up the system to avoid "duplicate" backups. That is, if iCloud Photos is turned on, and the master copies of your photos are stored in the "iCloud Photos" area of your iCloud storage, your iPhone will not include those photos in its backups, as well.

If you are doing backups, but do not have iCloud Photos enabled, I believe your iPhone would include the photos in its backups. I could be mistaken, but that's the impression I get from the Support article.

What does iCloud back up? - Apple Support

So, there's no way to copy photos off the phone now – but hopefully, they have already been copied off as part of that automatic backup, and will be copied back again when you restore the phone from it.

Servant of Cats wrote:

If you are doing backups, but do not have iCloud Photos enabled, I believe your iPhone would include the photos in its backups.

Assuming that you had not told it to exclude photos from backups …

Imran_Zaidi wrote:

Second why does not apple provide access to the phone after verification of the individual? They have my finger prints face pic etc

If these articles are accurate, Apple doesn't have your fingerprints or face picture. Your iPhone analyzes your fingerprint or your face – then locally stores something that might be just a hash of the information – and walls that off from the apps running on the phone.

E.g., "Face ID data doesn’t leave your device and is never backed up to iCloud or anywhere else"; "Apps are notified only as to whether the authentication is successful. Apps can’t access Face ID data associated with the enrolled face."

About Touch ID advanced security technology - Apple Support

About Face ID advanced technology - Apple Support

Imran_Zaidi wrote:

Second why does not apple provide access to the phone after verification of the individual? They have my finger prints face pic etc

My impression is that the passcode is the underlying authentication mechanism … and that the Touch ID or Face ID is something extra, layered over the top, for added convenience and security.

Most of the time, an iPhone will accept "the right fingerprint" or "the right face" as a proxy for entering the right passcode. Sometimes it will ask for a passcode, while still letting you retry Touch ID or Face ID.

Every now and then, it will want the passcode, and nothing else. For instance, if I turn my phone off, then back on, I can't start using Face ID again until I enter the passcode.

Back up is recent, but without photos as i have 30gb of photos but my total backup size is 5 gb

You need at least 50 GB of storage space to back up everything on your phone.

iCloud+ plans and pricing - Apple Support

Imran_Zaidi wrote:

I think i told to exclude photos because they were taking too much space. I have 30 gb of photos and my backup size is 4.5gb of everything except photos

The reality is if the photos were not backed up, you will lose them. This is an unfortunate lesson you'll learn here. Backups of important data, MUST happen before something goes wrong. I once lost thousands of photos from a trip of a lifetime to Paris, which were stored on a computer I never bothered to backup and the hard drive crashed. I paid a service to try to recover the photos, which was a waste of good money. As such I believe in redundant backup. I pay for 200GB of iCloud Storage. I store my photos on my MacBook Pro. I store my photos on Amazon Photo and have Carbonite backup service. Redundant backups are a good way to never lose precious memories. Not having any backup is a great way to lose precious memories.

You ask why Apple doesn't accept touch or face ID to validate it is you. This is by design and on purpose to ensure you're not being required to authenticate in a dangerous situation if the phone is locked, to make it impossible for someone else to get into your phone.

But this is a user to user only forum and we aren't Apple so we can't answer why questions with authority. You can let Apple know your thoughts about this here --> Feedback - iPhone - Apple

Providing feedback now, won't help you in this scenario however.