Level 2

185 points

How to reset forgotten Restrictions password with iPhone restore?

Hi,

I set restrictions on my iphone to disable in-app purchases so that my children don't rack up a bill on my account. Unfortunately I've forgotten the password and now I need an in-app purchase for CoPilot navigation app.

Can I reset my iPhone and then restore from a backup to clear the restrictions password? If so, is there a step by step guide to do this? Much appreciate any help.

Boz

iPhone 3GS, iOS 4, Windows 7 (rocks)

Posted on Nov 30, 2010 9:49 AM

316 replies

Nov 30, 2010 12:48 PM in response to jjkboswell

Not trying to sound snarky here. It's a four digit code. I'm guessing you would have picked a combination of numbers that had some meaning. You need to just try every combination you think you might have used.

jjkboswell Author

Level 2

185 points

Nov 30, 2010 1:50 PM in response to Grant Greene

You're right, there's 4 digit codes for many things in life, the iPhone passcode, restrictions passcode, my credit card pin, my access codes for work, ebay pin, paypal pin etc.

I'm not stupid enough to use a single 4 digit passcode for everything and so I did the correct thing and I have different codes. This particular one I didn't have recorded anywhere it seems. So I could try all my codes, but Apple decided that I must wait 1, 5, 15 and then 60 minutes between each attempt. Thanks Apple. So I could go through the rest of my codes, one every hour, or I could try and work out how to restore my phone.

I know, I'll use 1 code for all, and write it down somewhere safe, like on my iPhone case.

Boz

Nov 30, 2010 1:46 PM in response to jjkboswell

jjkboswell wrote:
But, it can be easily defeated! Just restore the iPhone and don't restore from a backup. Then sync apps, music and photos and you're away again, minus settings (and possibly other stuff, but I've yet to find out what).

Not so easily defeated - now the person needs the phone and the original laptop (which will probably be password protected) so its not an issue when most losses occur just by people losing a phone.

jjkboswell Author

Level 2

185 points

Nov 30, 2010 1:53 PM in response to Graham Outterside

This is not a loss issue, the iPhone passcode is for protecting against loss and theft. This is the Restrictions passcode, which like I said is a parental control to stop kids or other users of the phone access skin pics and in-app purchases. Therefore the people who might want to bypass the Restriction are the people who live with the person who owns the iPhone, and hence is likely to have access to the same computer.

Like I said, be realistic, this is a parental control only, not fort knox.

Nov 30, 2010 1:56 PM in response to jjkboswell

jjkboswell wrote:
Therefore the people who might want to bypass the Restriction are the people who live with the person who owns the iPhone, and hence is likely to have access to the same computer......

Like I said, be realistic, .......

If thats what you think you are protecting against, you should have the computer passcode protected to prevent inappropriate surfing in which case the iTunes account for the iPhone should be locked out.

So if true you would have much bigger problems than a passcode on a phone.

jjkboswell Author

Level 2

185 points

Nov 30, 2010 2:25 PM in response to Graham Outterside

Um, I think you've gone slightly off track here. My PC's parental controls for internet access (the rather excellent BlueCoat K9) are nothing to do with accessing iTunes. And as far as I'm aware, there isn't a straight forward way to limit access to iTunes so that my family can play music, watch podcasts browse the store and prevent access to iPhone backups.

And the whole point of this is, I just turned off the in-app purchases! I don't need to convince my children not to reset my iPhone, they wouldn't do that and besides it takes too **** long! (nearly done now)

So I appreciate what you're saying about security, but this is just parental control on the iPhone we're talking about, nothing else. And hence a simple "enter your iTunes password here to recover your Restrictions passcode" would be entirely sufficient.

Boz

jjkboswell Author

Level 2

185 points

Nov 30, 2010 3:19 PM in response to jjkboswell

Thanks again to the guys who posted the restore details. I got around my problem by:
- backup
- take copy of backup (just in case!)
- restore (wipe iPhone)
- create new iPhone
- sync apps to iPhone
- open app and do in-app purchase that I needed
- restore (wipe iPhone again)
- restore from backup

Massive inconvenience to me as the owner, but a worthwhile tradeoff if a kid wanted to bypass parental controls on an iPhone.

Now to write all my pin codes down so I can't forget them (face palm)

Boz

Nov 30, 2010 5:10 PM in response to jjkboswell

There's an app for that. Actually, quite a few of them: 1password, splashid, ewallet, etc. Weel worth having; with any of these you only have to remember one password.

jjkboswell Author

Level 2

185 points

Dec 1, 2010 12:13 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

Sorry, was being sarcastic.

That's right, I have all my pins in Keeper Mobile v4. However, this particular one I didn't seem to put in it, perhaps I reused one of my many other pins? But as I said, trying 1 pin combination every 60 minutes is a bit of a pain. I've taken security seriously, I just made one mistake to forget the least important pin I had, the parental conrol lock.

And the final insult to this Apple security system? When you restore from a backup, the main iPhone passcode is removed and the phone is unlocked, however the parental Restriction code is not removed.

Flawed.

Boz

Message was edited by: jjkboswell

Dec 1, 2010 12:26 AM in response to jjkboswell

jjkboswell wrote:
... I need an in-app purchase for CoPilot navigation app.

... clear the restrictions password? ...

Large apps, as navigation ones, can only be downloaded by local network or by iTunes sync.

If you lost the password and don't want lose everything on phone, I will suggest you to purchase the app by the store in iTunes, then sync it back to the iPhone.

jjkboswell Author

Level 2

185 points

Dec 1, 2010 12:45 AM in response to Andrea Rimicci

The CoPilot navigation app is very very big, and I downloaded it straight to my phone with a wifi connection, although you can do it the way you describe.

But the problem I had was I wanted an "in-app" purchase within CoPilot, which means the app does the purchase within the app. And with in-app purchases disabled within the parental Restrictions setting, unless I have the pass code I cannot do an in-app purchase.

But the process of restoring a new iPhone, doing the inapp purchase then restoring my backup works, albeit taking hours.

Boz

Dec 1, 2010 1:01 AM in response to jjkboswell

jjkboswell wrote:
..I wanted an "in-app" purchase...

My bad!
Try to guess your pass, hope you hadn't used real random numbers, but some pattern that has meaning to you and no one else.

Jul 20, 2011 12:08 PM in response to jjkboswell

Thank you!!! Finally!!

Same situation of icefall5.. the code I tried the first time was the right one!

And the phone gave it as wrong passcode.

I'm sure of it becouse I start writing the passcode I was trying (to not repeat the same code several times) and I went crazy... :-(

Anyway now everything is ok! Good!!

Aug 24, 2011 9:42 AM in response to jjkboswell

@ upload

I only get jargon in TextEdit. How do I get English.?

upload

Level 1

4 points

Aug 24, 2011 9:56 AM in response to Allebenfly

@ Marcin2011:

After opening the plist with textedit I see this:

'SBParentalControlsMCContentRestrictions_ DCFLastDirectoryNumber_ SBWiFiDontAskShownVSystem_ SBDeviceLockBlocked[lock-

Is there a hidden number somewhere? I don't see an app named property list editor? should it be in my computer?

Thanks in advance

I hope this is better?

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How to reset forgotten Restrictions password with iPhone restore?