{"id":17544,"date":"2024-07-16T14:50:51","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T13:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/?p=17544"},"modified":"2026-07-01T16:21:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T15:21:45","slug":"how-to-unlock-a-disabled-iphone-a-step-by-step-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/07\/16\/how-to-unlock-a-disabled-iphone-a-step-by-step-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"How to unlock a disabled iPhone: a step-by-step guide"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Have you found yourself staring at the dreaded &#8220;iPhone is disabled&#8221; message? It\u2019s surprisingly easy to disable your iPhone &#8211; maybe you\u2019ve accidentally entered the wrong passcode too many times, or a child has had a bit too much fun with your touch screen. Whatever the reason, knowing how to unlock a disabled iPhone can be a real lifesaver.<\/p>\n<p>In this guide, we&#8217;ll walk you through the steps on how to fix a disabled iPhone, including how to unlock a disabled iPhone without a computer. Keep reading to get your iPhone back up and running!<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>In this blog:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Reason for Disabled Message: Occurs after multiple incorrect passcode attempts.<\/li>\n<li>Unlocking Methods:\n<ul>\n<li>iCloud: Sign in and erase your iPhone via &#8216;Find iPhone&#8217;.<\/li>\n<li>Finder: Connect your iPhone to a Mac, enter recovery mode, and restore.<\/li>\n<li>Find My App: Use another device to erase the disabled iPhone.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Data Erasure Warning: These methods will erase your data, so regular backups are essential.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h2 id=\"1\">Why is my iPhone disabled?<\/h2>\n<p>Your iPhone typically disables itself after multiple incorrect passcode attempts. Usually, your iPhone will lock for a set time before letting you try your passcode again, and this happens several times before your iPhone is completely disabled.<\/p>\n<p>If your iPhone isn\u2019t completely disabled at this point and you\u2019re wondering how many passcode attempts you have left, here are all the lock times and passcode attempts you have:<\/p>\n<table style=\"height: 184px;\" width=\"691\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Number of incorrect passcode attempts<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>Lock time<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>5 times in a row<\/td>\n<td>iPhone is disabled for 1 minute<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>7 times in a row<\/td>\n<td>iPhone is disabled for 5 minutes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>8 times in a row<\/td>\n<td>iPhone is disabled for 15 minutes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>9 times in a row<\/td>\n<td>iPhone is disabled for 60 minutes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>10 times in a row<\/td>\n<td>iPhone is completely disabled<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h2 id=\"2\">How to unlock a disabled iPhone<\/h2>\n<h4 id=\"3\">Using iCloud<\/h4>\n<p>Here\u2019s how to unlock a disabled iPhone using iCloud:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Open your web browser and go to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.icloud.com\/\">icloud.com<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Sign in to your iCloud account with your Apple ID and password.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Go to \u2018Find iPhone\u2019 and click on \u2018All Devices\u2019 to see the disabled iPhone.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Tap \u2018Erase iPhone\u2019.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">This will erase your iPhone, unlocking it so you can create a new passcode.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h4 id=\"4\">Using Finder<\/h4>\n<p>For those who don\u2019t use iCloud but have a Mac, here\u2019s how to unlock a disabled iPhone using Finder:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Connect your iPhone to a Mac with a USB cable.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Open Finder on your Mac.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Put your iPhone into recovery mode.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Click \u2018Restore iPhone\u2019 to set up your iPhone.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">This will restore your iPhone back to factory settings, unlocking it so you can create a new passcode.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h4 id=\"5\">Using Find My<\/h4>\n<p>If you don\u2019t have a Mac but you use the Find My app on your iPhone, you should be able to use another iPhone or an iPad to unlock your disabled iPhone. Here\u2019s how to use Find My to unlock disabled iPhone devices:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Open the Find My app or Find My iPhone app on another iPhone or iPad.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Sign into your iCloud account in the app.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Click \u2018Devices\u2019 and find the disabled iPhone.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Tap \u2018Erase This Device\u2019.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">This will erase your iPhone, unlocking it so you can create a new passcode.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2 id=\"6\">Can you unlock a disabled iPhone without erasing data?<\/h2>\n<p>If you\u2019ve already disabled your iPhone, then you\u2019ll need to follow one of the steps outlined above. However, you may have noticed a pattern between them all &#8211; they all require you to erase your device.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, there is no way around this, and so it\u2019s extremely important that you keep regular backups of your iPhone to ensure none of your data is lost if you should accidentally disable your device. For more information on backing up your device, check out our \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/01\/12\/how-to-backup-your-iphone-a-step-by-step-guide\/\">How to backup your iPhone<\/a>\u2019 blog.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Looking to upgrade? Get your next iPhone for less when you <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/store\/apple-iphone-store\/\">buy refurbished iPhone<\/a> models with musicMagpie! You can also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/sell-mobile-phones\/sell-my-iphone\/\">trade in iPhone<\/a> models with us for cash, making your upgrade even cheaper.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you found yourself staring at the dreaded &#8220;iPhone is disabled&#8221; message? It\u2019s surprisingly easy to disable your iPhone &#8211; maybe you\u2019ve accidentally entered the wrong passcode too many times, or a child has had a bit too much fun with your touch screen. Whatever the reason, knowing how to &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":17545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2244,2154,2168],"tags":[2396,2395,2394],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17544"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17544"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18482,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17544\/revisions\/18482"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}