How did my toddler reset my iPhone from the lock screen?
My toddler has reset my phone (iPhone 16 Pro Max) twice in the last half year or so and I have no idea how he did it.
When it resets, it comes back on the “Hello” initial screen, but the phone is still locked to my Apple ID and the eSIM has been wiped.
Sometimes he grabs my phone and plays with the lock screen (there are pictures of him on it). My phone is locked with Face ID and a passcode. I know the phone will reset if you fail the passcode too many times. However, having tested this, I know there are at least 1 minute and 5 minute lockout periods built in. In the recent incident I know he did not have my phone longer than 5 minutes.
Can anyone think of how he did it? I’ve hit the “Forgot Passcode” button on the too-many-attempts wait screens, but to reset requires my Apple ID password which there’s no way he randomly guessed (it’s 32 characters long and it’s random). And when I try to fail that more than twice the dialog box locks up and I have to go back to the wait screen to do anything.
I’d like to know how he did it so I can prevent it. When the last incident occurred we were traveling and weren’t on WiFi for a while so I lost a bunch of pictures that didn’t sync to the cloud.
iPhone 16 Pro Max, iOS 26
