My brother passed away last month, can we access the memories on his phone?

So my brother & I had an open policy with each other & we always knew each others passcodes. His ex girlfriend figured out his passcode so he said he was going to change it & told me what he was changing it to but I didn’t write it down & I have forgotten. Well, he died 3 weeks ago in a car accident & I would love to access the family pictures and memories on it. I have tried a dozen or so passcodes & they aren’t right. Now the phone just says “unavailable” is there any way to access the phone without erasing it? We are all in search of any additional memories of him. Thanks.

iPhone 14 Pro Max, iOS 18

Posted on Nov 17, 2024 10:31 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 18, 2024 1:28 AM

The phone will need to be reset – which will wipe out all of the data on the phone, as muguy said. However, there might still be a possibility for saving photos and other data. This depends on them existing in some location other than just the phone.


The greatest chance of there being up-to-date data to recover would be if your brother had automatic backups to iCloud enabled, and/or was synchronizing some kinds of data (like photos) to iCloud. Then the phone would have been automatically copying data to iCloud, and there might be fairly up-to-date data in iCloud that would survive the reset of the phone.


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If your brother was using iCloud Photos, many or all of the photos and videos on his phone might also be in iCloud. They could be accessed by synchronizing another device to iCloud Photos (with his Apple ID and password) or by logging into the iCloud Web interface (https://www.icloud.com/) with his Apple ID and password.


If your brother was not using iCloud Photos, the photos and videos might be in a backup of his phone. There is no good way to see what is in an iPhone backup without restoring it.


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You will probably need to gain access to your brother's Apple Account. The steps for doing that are outlined here.

How to request access to a deceased family member’s Apple Account - Apple Support

The person who makes the request might need to be the court-appointed executor or administrator.

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 18, 2024 1:28 AM in response to AcmFromOhio

The phone will need to be reset – which will wipe out all of the data on the phone, as muguy said. However, there might still be a possibility for saving photos and other data. This depends on them existing in some location other than just the phone.


The greatest chance of there being up-to-date data to recover would be if your brother had automatic backups to iCloud enabled, and/or was synchronizing some kinds of data (like photos) to iCloud. Then the phone would have been automatically copying data to iCloud, and there might be fairly up-to-date data in iCloud that would survive the reset of the phone.


----------


If your brother was using iCloud Photos, many or all of the photos and videos on his phone might also be in iCloud. They could be accessed by synchronizing another device to iCloud Photos (with his Apple ID and password) or by logging into the iCloud Web interface (https://www.icloud.com/) with his Apple ID and password.


If your brother was not using iCloud Photos, the photos and videos might be in a backup of his phone. There is no good way to see what is in an iPhone backup without restoring it.


----------


You will probably need to gain access to your brother's Apple Account. The steps for doing that are outlined here.

How to request access to a deceased family member’s Apple Account - Apple Support

The person who makes the request might need to be the court-appointed executor or administrator.

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My brother passed away last month, can we access the memories on his phone?

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