My iPhone Is
Disabled. Connect To iTunes? Here’s The Fix!
iPhones
get disabled for all sorts of reasons, and most of the time it’s an accident.
You didn’t forget your iPhone passcode. Thieves usually won’t even
try to figure out your passcode — they’ll just erase your iPhone or
sell it for parts. That’s what makes this problem so frustrating. In
this article, I’ll explain why
your iPhone is disabled and says connect to iTunes, how to fix the problem, and explain the most common reasons why iPhones become disabled so
you can prevent it from happening again.
Why Do iPhones Become Disabled?
I saw a lot of disabled iPhones when I worked at Apple. Here are
two most common reasons why this happens:
1.
Kids. Kids
love iPhones and they love pushing buttons. Timmy gets upset when the buttons
stop working and Mommy isn’t happy that her iPhone is disabled.
2.
Snoopers. Friends
and family members don’t always realize they don’t have an unlimited
number of guesses to figure out your iPhone passcode.
How Many Guesses Do I Have Before My iPhone Becomes Disabled?
iPhones don’t become disabled on the first or second incorrect
passcode attempt. Here’s how many times you can enter an incorrect passcode
before your iPhone is disabled:
§ 1-5
incorrect passcode attempts: No problem.
§ 6
incorrect attempts: iPhone disabled for 1 minute.
§ 7
incorrect attempts: iPhone disabled for 5 minutes.
§ 8
incorrect attempts: iPhone disabled for 15 minutes.
§ 9
incorrect attempts: iPhone disabled for 60 minutes.
§ 10
incorrect attempts: “iPhone is disabled. Connect to iTunes” or iPhone is
completely erased if Erase
Data is turned on in Settings -> Touch ID & Passcode (or Settings -> Passcode for iPhones
without Touch ID).
I’m Not Good With The iPhone Keypad. Can I Disable My iPhone By Accident?
No.
It’s hard to accidentally disable an iPhone, and here’s why: You can enter the same incorrect passcode an unlimited number
of times and it only counts as 1 incorrect passcode attempt. Let’s
look at an example.
You’re
at a wedding and you really need
to know who won the football game, but your wife won’t be happy if
she discovers you care more about your fantasy football team than her second
cousin’s wedding vows. You try to enter your passcode without looking at your
iPhone, but it’s not working because you’re entering 1536 instead of 1539, over
and over again. Is your iPhone disabled? No. Your iPhone will only become disabled if you enter 6 different incorrect
passcodes.
Can I Unlock My iPhone After It
Is Disabled?
Unfortunately,
the answer is no. Once your iPhone says “iPhone is disabled. Connect to
iTunes”, there is nothing you
can do to unlock it. People sometimes think Apple Stores have special tools
that can unlock disabled iPhones, but they don’t. The only thing you can do is completely erase your iPhone and
start over.
The good news is that you can restore from the last backup your
made before your iPhone became disabled. If you’ve backed up your iPhone
to iTunes or iCloud, you’ll be able to restore your data after you erase
your iPhone. After your iPhone is disabled, however, there is no way to
back up the current data on the device. If you don’t have a backup, you’ll have
to set up your iPhone from scratch.
How Do I Erase My iPhone If It Is Disabled?
You can
erase your iPhone using iTunes or iCloud, but I recommend using iTunes because
it always works
if you do it the way I describe. If you use iCloud, you need to know your Apple
ID and password, and your iPhone has to be connected to the internet. Using
iTunes is the simplest, easiest way, but I’ll describe how to do both.
iTunes
Apple’s
support article recommends an unnecessary,
overcomplicated trial-and-error process of determining which restore
method to use based on the kind of relationship your iPhone had with your
computer before it was disabled. Just
move on if you didn’t understand that — that’s why I say it’s too complicated! There
is absolutely no downside (in fact, there may be benefits) to erasing your
iPhone the way I recommend, and it always works.
The
type of restore I recommend when your iPhone is disabled is called a DFU
restore. I wrote an article that describes exactly how to DFU restore your iPhone.
Follow the instructions in that article (it’s easy!) and come back here when
you’re done. Skip to the section called Set Your iPhone Up Again after
you use iTunes to begin the DFU restore.
iCloud
If your
iPhone was signed into iCloud and you had Find My iPhone turned on before
it was disabled, you can use Find
My iPhone to erase your iPhone. You need to sign in with your Apple
ID and password, choose your iPhone from the All My Devices dropdown menu, and
choose Erase iPhone.
Continue to the next section after your iPhone finishes erasing.
Set Your iPhone Up Again
After you restore your iPhone with iTunes or erase it using
iCloud, the way to proceed depends on whether you have an iTunes
backup, iCloud backup, or no backup. Follow these instructions after you see
the white Set Up screen on your iPhone. If the screen is dark and you’re
not sure if the restore is finished, press the Home button on your iPhone. If
you see the Set Up screen, move on.
§ If you backed up your iPhone to iCloud before
it was disabled and you used iTunes to DFU restore your iPhone, unplug your
iPhone from your computer. (It’s already unplugged if you used iCloud to
erase your iPhone). Choose Restore
from iCloud Backup during the setup process on your
iPhone.
§ If you backed up your iPhone to iTunes before
it was disabled and erased it using iCloud.com, choose Restore from iTunes backup during the setup
process. If you restored your iPhone using iTunes, choose to restore from your
iTunes backup using the Set Up screen in iTunes.
§ If you don’t have a backup, I recommend you unplug
your iPhone from your computer (it already is if you used iCloud.com to erase
your iPhone) and set up your iPhone while it’s disconnected from iTunes.
You can sync your iPhone with iTunes after you set it up, if that’s
what you want to do. (I don’t.)
iPhone is Enabled!
Your iPhone is up and running and you’ve learned the common
reasons why iPhones get disabled in the first place. If your iPhone
is disabled again, you know exactly how to fix it. If you’d like to leave
a comment, I’m interested to how your iPhone was disabled in the comments
section below.