Forgetting passcodes happens even to the best of us, but there are ways you can bypass it and “hack” your way back in. If you’ve forgotten your iPhone passcode, its not a disastrous situation however serious it looks.
You can restore your device, wipe its contents and be able to use your phone again as usual. If you’re more confident, you can even use sophisticated software to recover your passcode and access your ios device again.
Generally speaking, bypassing passcodes veers towards the “black hat” kind of tech that leaves some legality questions hanging, but with such a problem being commonplace, you need a way of getting around it.
What to do if you’ve forgotten your iPhone passcode
Restore your device with Recovery Mode
This is the best and simplest solution if you forgot your passcode. It removes all your personal data but if you had backed it up, you can restore it and it’ll be just as new but without passcode protection.
You can restore it from iTunes, but you’ll need a passcode too, but using Recovery Mode, you can restore your iPhone without a passcode. It’ll completely wipe out your device and install the latest ios version from scratch.
You’ll need an Apple ID and password used to set up the device originally. That’s the Apple ID password, and not the device’s passcode – these are separate things.
To do this:
· Charge the device to 20 percent
· Close iTunes on your computer, it it’s open and connect your iPhone and reopen iTunes so it doesn’t do this automatically
· Force restart your iPhone
· You’ll get the Restore or Update option, you can choose either, though with Update option, it’ll be longer because it’ll download the latest ios version
· Set up your iPhone and it’ll be back up without a passcode
· Enter your Apple ID depending on the ios version
If you set a passcode and want to remove it completely after accessing your iPhone, you can go to Settings>Touch ID & Passcode and tap Turn passcode off.
Forensics software
Forensics software is used by law enforcement agencies to analyse mobile phones. You can find one, though most aren’t available to the general public, but you’ll need to apply for a licence to use it.
Such tools can enable you to extract a passcode from your iPhone but with a good computer.
Apple is determined to protect the privacy of iPhone owners, which is why the later models from iPhone 5s or newer have superior security features that even they claim can’t break into even if they wanted to.
Elsie is a tech writer with 8+ years professional experience. For Tech News Watch, she brings rich experience contributing to topics such as Windows, MacOS, Android, and iOS among others. In her spare time, she loves checking out the latest tech trends, gadgets, and news, listening to music and cars.