Do you know that if you wrongly enter your iPhone or iPad password will get it disabled temporally? Well, if the answer is no, then doing this repeatedly will get it permanently disabled and this is exactly what happened to my friends iPad a couple of months ago when a friend of hers came visiting.
This made the iPad to be disabled completely and there was no given option to enter the correct password anymore. If you’re facing this same problem with your iPad or iPhone and need to know how to unlock a disabled iPhone or iPad, this piece of article written will provide two different solutions for you to fix it:
- By unlocking the disabled iPhone/iPad via iTunes
- By unlocking the disabled iPhone/iPad without making use of iTunes
While both mentioned methods work perfectly, whichever you prefer greatly depends on the one you find easier and convenient.
How to Unlock a disabled iPhone or iPad Without iTunes
For the first method which I’ll be talking about, it will require a third-party program like dr.fone. This program is actually a very great toolbox if you make use of an iOS device.
To unlock your disabled phone with without iTunes, you need to follow these steps:
1. First, Download the dr.phone program and launch the app. From the welcome page, select the option that says Unlock to get started.
2. Connect your device either iPad or iPhone through a good and working USB and wait for the program to detect it. Click Start and you’ll be shown a screen with a little instruction on how to put your device to DFU mode.
3. Your phone should be in DFU mode by now, you should check to see that the correct model and iOS version of your device is automatically chosen. If it shows you wrong information, be sure to select the right options.
4. Click on the download button shown and the right firmware will be downloaded automatically. This might take a couple of time and greatly depends on the speed of your internet connection.
5. After it has finished downloading, click on the button that says Unlock Now. Please note that this process will completely erase your device.
A confirmation code will be shown, simply type in the code to continue.
6. You will get a confirmation message after everything is done. Turn on the device and your iPhone or iPad should be unlocked by now.
You can then follow the on-screen instructions to set up your device.
How to Unlock a disabled iPhone or iPad Via iTunes
1. First, you will need to download the latest firmware for your iPhone or iPad, to do this go to ipsw.me. Make sure to download the firmware it is very important.
2. Get a good USB and Plug in your iPhone or iPad to the computer and put the device to DFU mode.
For iPhone 8, X, Xs etc
- Quickly press the volume up button.
- Quickly press the volume down button.
- You have to press and hold the sleep/wake button until the screen goes black.
- Release the side button as soon as the screen blacks out.
- Now, quickly press and hold both the sleep/wake and volume down buttons altogether for 5 seconds.
- After 5 seconds, you can release the side button while still holding the volume down button.
- You should continue holding the volume down button for at least 5 seconds.
- Keep your eyes on iTunes, you should see a message saying your device is in recovery mode.
For iPhone 7
- Simply Press and hold the volume down button and sleep/wake button for exactly 10 seconds
- Now, Release the sleep/wake button but continue pressing the volume down button
- You will see a message on iTunes telling you your phone is in recovery mode.
For older iPhones (6, 5, etc) with a physical home button
- Simply Press and hold the power button and home button for a period of 10 seconds
- After 10 seconds, release only the power button and keep holding the home button.
- You will see a message on iTunes telling you your phone is in recovery mode.
3. Now, for Windows users, all you have to do is simply press SHIFT + Restore button to select the downloaded firmware. If you’re on Mac, simply click OPTION + Restore button together.
4. Again, you should note that this process will completely erase your device but after it completes the erasing process, your iPhone or iPad should be unlocked by now.
After the whole process, if you did a backup of your device before now you can go ahead and restore your backup through iTunes or iCloud.
