stuck in guided access mode ( ios 11)

please help me got stuck in guided access of ios 11.

Forgotten its password.

1- Find my phone (turned off)

2- No ‘unlock passcode’ or ‘finger touch unlock’ was setup on my iphone. Help me please! i strongly recommend to apple there should be some ways to get out of this mess .. they should have given some sort of email type recovery option! This really is making me frustated.

iPhone 6s, iOS 11.2.2, null

Posted on Jan 13, 2018 11:51 AM

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Posted on Jan 13, 2018 12:00 PM

Apple does not know what your password is, so there is no way for email recovery to work. Any way to recover the password would defeat the entire purpose of Guided Access, to limit a user to only one app; if there was a way to bypass it the user in question could easily defeat it. All you can do now is restore iOS and set the phone up as a new phone: If you forgot the passcode for your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, or your device is disabled - Apple Support

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Jan 13, 2018 12:00 PM in response to deipbatra

Apple does not know what your password is, so there is no way for email recovery to work. Any way to recover the password would defeat the entire purpose of Guided Access, to limit a user to only one app; if there was a way to bypass it the user in question could easily defeat it. All you can do now is restore iOS and set the phone up as a new phone: If you forgot the passcode for your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, or your device is disabled - Apple Support

Feb 9, 2018 12:23 PM in response to deipbatra

Reading another thread, they said that I could wait until the phone powered off due to dead battery. That gave me the idea to force a rebook with ReiBoot, a MacOS application that forces your iPhone to restart into Recovery mode when completely hung. (You have to connect your phone to your computer with a USB cable.) After Recovery mode, I booted the computer up normally and Guided Access was no longer active. HOWEVER, Guided Access still had my bad access code so go into Settings->General->Accessibility->Guided Access->Passcode Settings->Set Guided Access Passcode to set a new code.

Apr 18, 2018 10:31 AM in response to deipbatra

Just happened this morning. It appeared to be in guided access mode from the lock screen. There have been a few suggestions, a hard reboot worked for me. I see some new features in Messages so I wonder if there was an upgrade last night?


To do a hard reboot: Hold the top power button AND home button for 10-15 seconds (until the Apple Logo over grey screen appears). When it rebooted it asked me for my passcode, at this point I actually did a soft reboot (hold the power button to turn off the iphone) this likely wasn't necessary but I figured why not. Seems to be working now.


Other mentions, in the order I'd try.

1. Log in iCloud, Find my iphone, enter lost mode. (This didn't work for me saying it was offline.)

2. Drain the battery. (Stick it in a freezer? or go to Minnesota. I would hit the Apple store at this point.)

3. Force a reBoot with ReiBoot. (Not entirely sure I'd do this, check RDStokes answer.)

4. Restore from backup.

5. Restore iOS and set up as new. (Lawrence's answer.)


Hope this is helpful. The thought of losing all my info/data/passwords... uggh.

Mar 19, 2018 10:54 PM in response to deipbatra

I got stuck in guided today as well... I have a passcode but it simply wouldn’t even let me type it in.. I could use the app I was on but couldn’t even get to the code entry screen. Instead of waiting for the battery to die “it wouldn’t soft reset and I didn’t have my computer handy” soooo (this might sound crazy) I put it in the freezer for ten minutes so it would force shut down because of the cold. don’t recommend it be your first option but it works lol. No different than being a Minnesotan and forgetting your phone in your car over night :) hope this helps someone haha

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stuck in guided access mode ( ios 11)

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