Ive just been chatting with my sister and one of my nieces ‘mates’ has reset the password on her phone to something they now cant remember ‘for a joke’
They have been into a phone store (not apple) to get it sorted and the bloke wants £150 to do it, is he having a laugh?
Is there a way round this?

Ta in advance o IT gods 🙂

restore from backup?

its is backed up right?

I stand ready to be corrected on this, as I’m really not certain, but it might be possible to do a complete restore to factory settings, so the phone is then ‘box fresh’ as it were. Hopefully, the owner has a recent backup to then restore from, but if not, she still has the use of the phone. She can then set up a new password that her ‘mate’ has no knowledge of, and a passkey. Bitch-slapping the ‘mate’ responsible might be a good idea, too…

iPod rather than iPhone, but probably similar:

My daughter changed the PIN on her iPod, then forgot what she’d changed it to. I plugged it into my laptop and it backed up, via iTunes. Then I reset to factory settings and then set up as an existing iPod from the back-up. The PIN isn’t included in the back-up, so doesn’t get added to the reset iPod.

So long as it’s iOS, pod, pad or phone will be the same. I inadvertently put my pad into factory restore mode; my last backup had been six months previous. Bugger. Backup once a month, now… 😳
As miketually says, basically. If you really get stuck, get a Genius appointment at an Apple Store, they’re very helpful, and won’t charge you £150 for the privilege. Unless it’s actually broken, and needs replacing.

Excellent, she hasn’t backed it up but doesn’t care as long as she gets it working, they aren’t a tech savvy family so she’s been without her phone for more than a month, which for a 14 yr old girl is worse than being dead by all accounts.

So I talk her through putting it into recovery mode and restore to factory settings and that makes up for all the forgotten b’days over the years- excellent 🙂

Yup what Miketually says.

Next time she has a problem and can’t find a way ring Apple or call into a store they really are very helpful.

Yay! Glad she’s got her phone working, a happy ending is always good. 😀

Well i’m not counting my chickens till its done, but we should be OK. Thanks all 🙂

Do a DFU mode restore not a standard issue restore. This will mean she ends up on ios 7 though.

You’ll have to dumb that down a bit i’m afraid 🙂

Yeah, as above. Make a Genius Bar appointment at your local apple store.

I thought that phone shops weren’t allowed to ‘repair’ iPhones…some kind of apple policy.

Apple would like to make that the law but the truth is anyone can do anything to their stuff – it might just invalidate a warranty that’s all.

Google DFU. Basically plug it in, hold power and home til USB beeps, ten secs, it goes off, let go of power keep home held. Screen should be blank. iTunes will recognize. Away you go

a happy ending is always good.

That’s a bit much, she’s only 14!

I think a “thank you” will be fine.

The guy in the store is taking you for a ride ! As above you can reset the phone “stand alone” or do a reset/restore from iTunes.

The most you stand to lose is local data like contacts, sms history etc, assuming you have an apple id and account you can reload all the aps easily. You really should back the phone up to computer / iTunes regularly and with iCloud services your contacts should be backed up there anyway.

still working on it, wont work as itunes needs updating but cant connect to server. I dont think this thing has been updated since they got it.
Can we reset the phone independant of itunes and the pooter?

Nope

Well I think we might have it, Itunes updated and phone restoring, 83mins to go.

Good luck!

Ta, I think if this works I can afford to forget a few more birthdays 🙂

If it doesn’t work and the hive mind of STW can’t progress it (I believe we’ll sort it!), I can highly recommend http://www.mendmyi.com – I use them to repair my wife’s company’s iPhones (broken screens and water damage mostly!).

They’ve been very helpful giving costs to me over the phone – and I don’t believe they’d be anywhere near £150!

Well its unlocked the password, only problem now is she’s changed network in the interim and its locked to the old carrier, ive had enough for the night but if anyones got a way of unlocking this i’d love to hear it and i’ll have a go tomorrow. Thanks to everyone for the help.

Eh, if it’s unlocked its permanent, unless it ancient and using an old jailbreak hack which I very much doubt.

Sounds to me like someone’s found a phone and wants to know how to remove the password to me, has managed that but now it won’t work with their sim…

So you’re saying since having the password “changed” “she’s” changed network….

Contact the original phone network they will unlock it most do it for free.

What @wysiwyg says from both a technical perspective and a “sounds like” one

Legitimate possibility

Phone unlock was done unofficially at a dodgy back street store

Conspiracy theories

Phone lost, another acquired as a replacement.
“Friend” switched your daughters phone

Surely it’s more like, since first getting the phone she’s changed network but now that it’s had a factory reset it’s gone back to the oringal carrier settings.

Assuming this is the case, contact the old carrier. Oh and once all this is done set up a backup to icloud so that its automatic.

Well it was difficult to get the tone right here so bear with me.

I can understand your concerns here. Bear in mind that i’m getting this second hand from a sister who doesn’t even know what the ‘home’ button is.

I don’t know my niece that well but ive discussed this with my sister, and from knowing her, and from knowing how she raises her kids i’m satified they are not up to no good.

I dont like the idea that anyone would think i’m the sort of person that would do that. In my view theft by finding is theft, pure and simple, I wouldn’t do it myself, and I would’nt assist anyone that did. I appreciate it will be very difficult to convince someone who has never met me of my honesty, but if anyone is worried enough to be interested in the full convoluted story i’ll be happy to try to reassure them. I’ll also provide my personal details to a moderator, to be passed on to the police should you think it warranted.

Don’t want to sound defensive, and i’m certainly not going to take offence but once the suggestion is ‘out there’ it needs to be acknowledged. There are one or two people on here who’s posts I ignore because they have shown themselves to be untrustworthy in their dealings with others and I’d hate anyone to feel that way about me.

Oh and i’m also going to suggest she contact the original carrier rather than any kind of jailbreak, I assume that should the phone be lost or stolen either they or Apple will be aware?

The carrier would know, provided it had been reported – and surely anybody who had lost an iphone would report it?!

It can only be unlocked permanently, once unlocked a restore will not change this as the unlock is stored on apples servers. There’s afaik no back street way to unlock an iphone. Your options are contact the original supplier and pay, a phone direct from apple is unlocked or pay for an independent online to change the apple setting to unlocked on their server., short of the old jail break which was pretty much out phased 3 generations ago or a SIM card hack chip. Again outdated and v doubtful.

So I’m saying it’s never been unlocked?