iPhone is Disabled? How to Unlock Disabled iPhone

Your iPhone is locked when you see on the lockscreen this message: iPhone is disabled. In some cases, the message says:"iPhone is disabled, try again in 1/5/15/60 minutes." And some people even see the crazy "iPhone is disabled for 24 million minutes"! And in other cases, you see "iPhone is disabled, connect to iTunes." So why is your iPhone disabled? And how to unlock disabled iPhone X/8/7/6/5/4 so that you can access to your phone again. Here are the answers.

Why My iPhone is Disabled?

Your iPhone is disabled because of too many wrong passcode entries. Normally, if you enter 5 incorrect passcode in a row, the iPhone will be disabled for 1 minute. And for 7 incorrect entries, 5 minutes; 8 incorrect entries, 15 minutes; 9 incorrect entries, 60 minutes. And for 10 incorrect passcode entries at a time, iPhone is disabled and asks you to connect to iTunes.

Tips: If you have enabled Erase Data in Touch ID & Passcode, it will delete all data on the iPhone after entering wrong passcode for 10 times.  

There are many situations that your iPhone has been tried with wrong passcodes and disabed. For example:

• You forget iPhone passcode and enter different incorrect passcodes up to 6 times.
• You leave your iPhone to your kid and she/he pushes the buttons of the locked screen randomly for lots of times.
• Someone tries to guess your iPhone passcode and unlock your phone

Solution 1: iPhone is Disabled, Try Again in XX Minutes?

When you see iPhone is disabled, try again in 5, 15, 60 minutes, you can simply wait for 5/15/60 minutes and then unlock your iPhone with correct passcode or Touch ID. If you have forgoten the passcode, you can bypass the locked iPhone with following methods.

In those extreme cases when iPhone is diabled for 23/24/25 millions minutes, the iPhone usually had a broken screen or had been jailbreak. You can fix it with Solution 2 and Solution 3.

 

Solution 2: iPhone is Disabled; Connect to iTunes, How to Bypass?

If iPhone  X, 8/8 Plus, 7/7 Plus, SE/6s/6/5s says: iPhone is diabled, connect to iTunes, you should connect the iPhone to iTunes and restore the device. A restore will erase everything on the iPhone, including its passcode. Since restoring iPhone with iTunes will delete all data, you should connect the phone to a Mac or PC that you have previously synced your iPhone with and make a backup before restore.

Step 1; Connect the device to computer (the one you've previously synced the device to). Then, open iTunes.

Step 2; Click your iPhone icon, then tap "Summary" at the left pane and click Back Up Now to create a iTunes backup.

Step 3; Click "Restore iPhone". Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the restore process.

Step 4; After restoring, your device will be wiped clean and restored as a new device. When iOS Setup Assistant asks to set up your iPhone, choose "Restore from iTunes backup." Just select your device in iTunes and choose the most recent backup of your iPhone.

 If you've never synced your iPhone with iTunes,you're going to see some errors:  "iTunes can't connect to the device because it has a passcode applied. Enter the passcode before it can connect to iTunes". If so, you can bypass the disabled screen with iTunes in these steps.

Step 1; Turn off iPhone.

Step 2; Connect the USB cable to iPhone but don't connect it to computer. Launch iTunes.

Step 3; Then put the disabled iPhone in recovery mode: press and hold the Power + Home buttons while plugging iDevice back into the computer (make sure iTunes is open).

Step 4; Release the power button and keep holding the home button until you see the "connect to iTunes" screen like this:

Step 5; When you see the option to Restore or Update, choose Restore.

Solution 3: iPhone is Disabled, How to Fix Without iTunes?

If you can't use iTunes to unlock iPhone, you can use iOS System Recovery to fix your iPhone/iPad's disabled error.

Note: This method works for those who don't need the data any more since it may erase you phone contents.

1. Get iOS System Recovery on PC/Mac

Click the following button to get the program on your PC/Mac and move to "iOS System Recovery" interface. 

• Download (Window)
• Download (MAC)

2. Detect iPhone/iPad

When you connect the device into the PC, the program wii detect it with ease. Thus, click "Advanced mode" to fix the  disabled iPhone.

3. Put Your Device into DFU Mode

To get started with this way, it is in need to get your iPhone into DFU mode so that the program will go on fixing your case.

4. Select Device's Info

After detecting, the program will show your device information. Double check the details and confirm whether it is correct. Once it shows any wrong info, please select manually.

Tip: There is a guide for you to check the model details if you click the question mark next to "Device model".

5. Fixing Your iPhone Back to Nomal Status.

In this step, you have to keep the mobile connected to the computer. The screen will display the repairing process. As "Repair completed" comes, you can now access your iPhone

Tip: If your device is set with iCloud activation lock, this guide cannot deal with this but you could refer to How to Bypass iCloud Activation Lock.
 

Solution 4: How to Unlock Disabled iPhone without Computer

If you have "Find My iPhone" enabled on your iPhone, you can use "Remote Wipe" to erase the contents and passcode of your device. Then you can unlock the iPhone.

Step 1. Go to icloud.com with your Apple ID and passcode (the one you use with iCloud rather than your iPhone passcode that you do not remember).

Step 2. Click "Find My iPhone", then "All Devices" at the top of your browser window. Then, select the device you want to erase.

Step 3. Click "Erase iPhone" to remote wipe the device and its password.

Step 4. When iOS Setup Assistant on your iPhone asks to set up your iPhone, choose "Restore from iCloud backup" or "Restore from iTunes backup."
 

Note: If you tend to recover data on disabled iPhone 6/6s/7, you are allowed to use iPhone Data Recovery to regain the deleted data and existing files from iCloud/iTunes backups.

iPhone is Enabled!

Now iPhone is unlocked. Nevertheless, if you don't want your iPhone get disabled after you forgot iPhone passcode, you should either 1)enable Touch ID on your iPhone 8/8 Plus/7/7 Plus/SE/6s/6/5s ; 2) be sure backup your iPhone with iTunes or iCloud.