We turn to our phones and tablets for every question we have and for every boring minute we need to kill. More than a habit, such behavior has now become second nature to how we behave. We rely so much on our phone or our tablet because it is an extension of our memory. It is that which keeps us functioning and orderly, and without these gadgets we do feel lost.You can get logged out of your iOS device for two main reasons. You could forget your passcode and find it impossible to remember. In another scenario, you could have bought your device from someone else and the iCloud details of the previous owner would prevent you from setting up your iCloud account.When it comes to unlocking your device, you have a number of options. These however, depend on a number of things such as backups performed, iOS versions and more. Depending on your issue and iOS version, the following is a list of solutions you can try to unlock your iPhone or iPad.
According to Vulnerability Lab, a person can bypass a passcode. The scenarios disclosed by Vulnerability lab work on iPhones 5, 5s, 6 and 6s, and Mini iPad models 1 and 2, with iOS 9 versions — 9.0, 9.1 and 9.2.1 but not for the new iOS 10. Vulnerability lab delineates the following solutions, one of which could help you to unlock your device.
Use Siri and ask her to open an app you don’t actually have on your phone. Siri will tell you that you don’t have such an app and it will offer to search for it on the App store by bringing up the icon on your screen. When you tap on the App store icon, “a new restricted browser window” will open where you can either “select update and open the last app, or ‘push twice on the Home button’ for the task slide preview to appear.” Once you “swipe over the active front screen task” then you have accessed your device again.
Similar to the former option, push the home button to ask Siri to open the Clock app. Once opened, click on the world clock “and tap the image for the Weather Channel LLC network; if the weather app is deactivated by default, then a new restricted browser window will open which has App Store menu links.” Click on update to open the latest app. You could also tap twice on the Home button for multiple slides to open. Click on the active screen and you will have bypassed the password.
In this option, turn to Siri again and ask to open the Calendar app. If you see the “Information of Weather Channel” link next to the “Tomorrow module,” and if the weather app was “deactivated by default,” then you can click on this link and open a “restricted browser window...with App store links.”If you click update to open the latest version of the app or you push twice to open the slide preview, then you can “swipe over to select the active front screen,” and get access back into your phone.
When you have given up on remembering your passcode and the above three options are not working for you, then you can move on to the next option.
If you are in the habit of doing backups, then you can reset your iPhone through restoration. Restoration is ideal because it will delete all of the data on your device — even your passcode — but then you have the option to replace your data with the backup you prefer.
Use iTunes – When you connect your device to a computer, iTunes will open if you are synced. Try another computer you are synced with or try recovery mode if it asks you for a password. iTunes should “sync your device and make a backup.” Try syncing with a USB if it fails to do this. Once backup is completed, erase your device and restore the data.Use iCloud – If the ‘Find My iPhone’ app is working on your device, then you can erase and restore your device and the data through iCloud. Visit icloud.com and log in with your iCloud details. Then, go to ‘All Devices’ and erase the device. Once you have erased everything, even the passcode, then you can restore the data from your latest backup.Use recovery mode – If you have never used iCloud nor set up ‘Find My iPhone’ then you will have to use recovery mode. This means that you will gain access to your device again but you will lose your data because you don’t have any backups. Start by connecting your device to your computer and open iTunes. During this time, force a restart by pressing the Sleep/Wake and Home buttons at the same time. Keep pressing until you see the Apple logo on the screen. When the option to Restore or Update comes up, choose Restore and then you can set up your device.
You can also find yourself locked out of an iCloud account. Maybe because you forgot your password or because you bought it from someone else and the password of the previous owner is limiting the iCloud feature on your iOS device. When this is the case, then you can try the following option.Start by going to Settings and tap on iCloud which when prompted will ask you for your password. Simply give it a random number and tap on ‘Done.’ This action will prompt iCloud to tell you that your username or password are incorrect. Click ‘Ok’ then ‘Cancel’ and go back to iCloud’s main page.Tap on the Account page again, remove the description, click on ‘Done’ and you will find yourself back on the main iCloud page without having to enter your password. Scroll down and tap on delete to erase the iCloud data of the previous owner. After that, you can set up your own personal iCloud account.
Although both involve the unlocking of an iOS device, there is a difference between jailbreaking and unlocking your device when you have forgotten your password. Jailbreaking is defined as “the process of removing restrictions in iOS, and allowing root access to the iOS file system so that it can run software that has not been approved by Apple.” This means that iOS users can customize their device with software that is not conventionally accepted by Apple through jailbreaking. There are pros to jailbreaking, but it also comes with a number of cons.
Once you manage to log in back to your iOS device, then you can consider giving Siri more access without the use of a passcode. This is especially useful if this has happened to you more than once. An option called “Allow access to Siri when locked with a passcode” will enable a number of functions so that you can log into your phone without a passcode. Although this is ideal if you are one to forget those four numbers easily, this feature does have its risks because if your device is stolen, the thief will have an easier time accessing it and all of your data.
