My daughters locked her phone but the laptop its synced too is broken and she hasn't set up find my phone how do we unlock????
iPhone 4S
The only way to unlock it is to restore it as new through itunes. It doesn't really matter which computer it's done with - any will do the job. that will at least get the phone working. she'll have access to itunes and app store purcases after the fact as well as any information in icloud, but in order to access a backup that was made in itunes on that computer, the computer she normally syncs with would definitely need to be working. It's also important to note that if she does restore from a backup of any kind, if it's got that passcode lock on it and she doesn't know what it is, you'll wind up in the same situation
So I'm guessing here, they forgot the passcode? Find My iPhone has nothing to do with forgotten passcode or accessing the phone.
The only way to bypass the passcode it to restore the phone on the computer you normally sync to and restore the backup. However, it appears from what you have typed here, that the computer your normally sync to is broken. The only thing you can do is to use another computer to restore, however you will restore as a new device, since you cannot access the old one. Also, since it is locked, you cannot create a backup either. Not a good situation to be in.
To get the device back to usable, just connect it to any computer with iTunes to restore to factory settings. The only reason to use the original computer is to be able to backup and restore your data. If you just need the phone unlocked (passcode removed), any computer can be used. If she has an iCloud backup, she can restore from that.
HTH
We tried syncing it on my mac and iTunes and keeps coming up cannot find device ??
You have to restore it first, and restore from the backup. Hooking up to your Mac, the only choice you would have there is to restore as a new phone, not a sync. The support article that you came to this from explains what to do. You will need to follow the instructions for what to do if you have never synced to iTunes, since the computer you are using is not the one you normally sync to.
That's what we tried when you unplug the phone shut it down and open it again whilst plugging in it then asks you to restore goes through the motions for about 9 mins and then says cannot locate device -
I'll assume that your Mac is up to date and you are using the latest version of iTunes on it as well. Try this support document for help http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1808.
what happens if your iPhone shows iphone is disabled connect to iTunes and the computer your iPhone is synced with is broken
