Locked Out of iPhone? 4 Ways to Unlock Your iPhone
Apple provides a series of security functions to protect your iPhone or iPad. One of the most common ways to ensure the safety of your iPhone is to lock it with a passcode of your choice.
What if you forgot your passcode for some reason and were locked out of your iPhone? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.
Here this guide will include the reasons why you may be locked out of your iPhone and 4 methods you can employ to unlock your iPhone and regain access to the device.
Part 1. Locked Out of iPhone, Why?
In order to unlock your iPhone, you should know why you may get locked off your iPhone.
- To keep your iPhone/iPad protected, entering the wrong password too many times will lock the device. This security measure is helpful but sometimes causes trouble.
- The device screen is broken or unresponsive.
- You don’t know what the security question is when you unlock the device.
Part 2. How Long Can Your iPhone Be Locked out
It’s not a problem if you enter the wrong passcode less than 5 times. After attempting 6 times, you will receive a notification that “iPhone is Disabled”. You can enter the passcode again after 1 minute. The 7th incorrect passcode will get you locked out of your iPhone for 5 minutes, the 8th is for 15 minutes, and the 10th is for 1 hour. If you try again, the iPhone will be disabled and you’ll need to connect to iTunes to restore the disabled iPhone.
Part 3. How to Get Into A Locked iPhone Without Password
All these methods given below will help you get out of a locked iPhone or iPad, however, each method has its own strong and weak points. Before unlocking your iPhone, let’s first look at some limitations of each method.
- Solution: The iPhone Unlocker tool is not free to use, you need to make a payment to unlock your iPhone screen.
- iTunes Solution: This way is workable only if you’ve previously synced your iPhone with iTunes and the Find My iPhone should be disabled.
- iCloud Solution: You’ve signed into iCloud before and Find My iPhone is enabled on the locked iPhone. And your Apple ID and password are required.
- Recovery Mode Solution: The whole process is a bit complicated, and you may end up with your iPhone stuck in recovery mode and won’t restore.
Now, let’s dive into the solutions.
Way 1: Use the Quickest Way to Unlock Disabled iPhone
Let’s start with the easiest and hassle-free method you can use to reset your iPhone when locked out of it. iPhone Unlocker is a powerful tool that can help you reset and unlock your iPhone or iPad, then you’re able to access the locked device without knowing the passcode. It is available for both Windows and Mac computers, just download the right version and have a try.
Key Features of iPhone Unlocker
- Unlock iPhone and regain access to the device without iTunes or iCloud.
- Remove various types of screen locks from iPhone like 4-digit/6-digit passcode, Touch ID, Face ID, etc.
- Very simple to use, and no special knowledge requires to get into a locked iPhone.
- Secure and reliable to use ensures a high success rate.
- Works well with almost all iOS devices, even the newest iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, and iPhone 14 Pro/14 Pro Max running iOS 16/15.
Here’s how to unlock a disabled iPhone or iPad without a password:
Step 1: Download iPhone Passcode Unlocker and install the software on your computer. Launch it and then click on “Unlock iOS Screen”.
Step 2: Connect your locked iPhone or iPad to the computer and wait for the software to detect it automatically, then click “Next” to continue. If your device can’t be detected, you should follow the onscreen steps to put it into Recovery/DFU mode.
Step 3: Now this tool will prompt you to download the latest firmware package, just choose a save location and click “Download”. When the download process is complete, click on “Start Unlock” to reset the locked iPhone.
Way 2: Access Locked iPhone by Restoring iPhone System
iTunes is not only useful for music and media activities but also comes in handy when you’re locked out of your iPhone or iPad. If you used iTunes to sync and back up your iPhone, you can also use it to ditch the passcode and unlock the device.
- Connect your locked iPhone or iPad to the computer you’ve previously synced it with, then launch iTunes.
- Wait for the device to automatically sync and back up. If however, it requires a passcode, try another computer you’ve synced with, or skip to the Recovery Mode solution described in the latter part of this post.
- When the syncing is done, you can click on “Restore iPhone” to reset and unlock your device. If you’re notified that Find My iPhone should be disabled first, then skip to the iCloud Method below.
- Once the restore process is complete, you can set up your iPhone/iPad like a new device or restore from a backup.
Way 3: Remotely Unlock Disabled iPhone without Computer
You can also use iCloud to unlock your iPhone when you’re unfortunately locked out of it. Please note that this method only works if you’ve signed into iCloud before and Find My iPhone is activated on your locked iPhone.
- Go to the iCloud official website on another iDevice if available.
- Sign in to iCloud with your Apple ID and password, then click on “Find iPhone”.
- Click on “All Devices” at the top corner of the window and select the device you want to reset.
- Click on “Erase iPhone”, then enter your Apple ID password to confirm your choice and wait for the process to finish.
Way 4: Get Back into iPhone with Apple’s Official Recovery Mode
If you’ve never backed up your iPhone with iTunes and don’t have Find My iPhone enabled, you can force your locked iPhone into Recovery mode and restore it to its factory default settings, then erase data on the device including the lock screen password. You can still use iTunes to regain access to the device. However, you will need to first erase the iPhone by entering into Recovery mode.
- Use a USB cable to connect your locked iPhone/iPad to a computer and open iTunes.
- Pressing and holding down a combination of buttons on the device until the recovery mode screen with an iTunes icon appears.
- When your phone is in recovery mode, you will see an iTunes prompt on your computer providing the option to Restore or Update the device.
- Click on the “Restore” option and wait for iTunes to download the necessary software, then follow the onscreen instructions to restore the device.
Part 4. How to Avoid Being Locked out of iPhone
The most convenient way to prevent iPhone lockouts is to set security features such as Face ID. If you set Face ID before, you can unlock your iPhone even if you cannot remember the password. When Face ID recognizes your face, the iPhone will be unlocked automatically.
Conclusion
Getting locked out of your iPhone can be infuriating and can practically grind your activities to a halt. Luckily, that won’t be the case with you thanks to this post. When next you’ve been locked out of your iDevice, you can confidently employ any of the methods above to reset your locked iPhone/iPad and regain access to your device ASAP! We recommend using iPhone Unlocker to enjoy an easy fix to the locked-out of iPhone problem.
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