Phone locked to owner. Email displayed does not match owned I’d

[IntoTheRed]

My daughter’s old iPhone8 is locked & now timed out for 8 hours. She changed her Apple ID when she got a new phone. The phone says it’s locked to account b****@icloud.com but that doesn’t have enough characters for the old or new ID.

Q. Does the number of stars match the actual hidden characters ? So is this looking for a 5 char name, or could it be any length?

Thanks, Simon

nb. I did try searching but couldn’t filter to anything relevant.

 

[ThatTechyGuy]

To answer your Q, no the number of stars does not correspond to the amount of characters in the email address.

She got a new iPhone and then changed the email address on her Apple ID?

Or she got a new iPhone and made a new Apple ID?

 

[scifan57]

I’m assuming she’s forgotten her old AppleID and password?

 

[IntoTheRed]

A

To answer your Q, no the number of stars does not correspond to the amount of characters in the email address.

She got a new iPhone and then changed the email address on her Apple ID?

Or she got a new iPhone and made a new Apple ID?

Thanks, that’s what I was hoping. We think we know the email address it might be. Long story, but someone else may have “borrowed” the phone from a drawer & left it locked to their id. We’ll try that route.

I’ve read that you can connect the locked phone to a pc running Tunes logged into the account. Hoping this will avoid setting off the time lock?

Many thanks
S

 

[IntoTheRed]

I’m assuming she’s forgotten her old AppleID and password?

No, the email on the Lock Screen X****@icloud.com doesn’t match her old or new account. We think we know X but their email is 8 chars long.

 

[J. A.]

A time lock happens when someone enters the wrong passcode, the code used to unlock/ access your device in general, too often. The passcode is not the password of the Apple ID. It can be numeric or alphanumeric.

If that‘s the case, you can put the iPhone into recovery mode and restore it.

If you forgot your iPhone passcode, use your Mac or PC to reset it - Apple Support

Locked out of your iPhone and forgot your passcode? Use a computer to put your iPhone into recovery mode so you can erase your phone and set it up again.

support.apple.com

 

[ThatTechyGuy]

No, the email on the Lock Screen X****@icloud.com doesn’t match her old or new account. We think we know X but their email is 8 chars long.

If you know X, have them go on Find My on their iDevice or Mac, select the devices tab, and look for that iPhone 8 under their devices.

Or they could log in to this website: Find Devices - Apple iCloud
And remove the device from there. This will remove activation lock and then you'll be able to use and set up your iPhone like normal. This website is a good route if person X doesn't have any other Apple devices logged in, as you don't need two-factor authentication to sign into this website.

 

[IntoTheRed]

Just to complete the story, it was just a screen lock causing the trouble. We eventually determined that a sibling had started & then abandoned setting up the (cleaned & reset) phone. With a little persuasion they coughed up the pin to unlock.
Thanks to all for suggests.
S.