Restore iPhone without password

DaveM · Jul 9, 2016

A client of mine has an employee who left his employment under "strained" circumstances. Apparently the employee changed the password on his iPhone before returning it. The phone does not have an Apple ID associated with it, as there was no need to install any software on it other than what came with the phone. Although I know that the employer would probably really like to do some "poking around" in the phone I realize that this is not going to be possible. So in order to salvage the phone he's going to need to just do a reset.

I came across the following on the Internet:

Restore Using iTunes if No Backup Exists
Step 1
Hold down the iPhone’s “Sleep/Wake” button until the slider appears on the screen, and then use your fingertip to slide the slider to turn off the device.

Step 2
Connect the iPhone’s USB cable to an available port on your computer. Don’t connect the iPhone at this time.

Step 3
Hold down the iPhone’s “Home” button as you connect the other end of the USB cable to the device. The iPhone will turn on automatically.

Step 4
Continue to hold down the “Home” button until the “Connect to iTunes” message appears on the screen. Release the “Home” button. A message appears stating that iTunes detects the iPhone as a device in recovery mode.

Step 5
Click “OK” and then click “Restore” to start the restore process. This will erase all data currently stored on the device.

Is this the recommended procedure, and will it work? Thanks.

J. A. · Jul 9, 2016

If it's the passcode that's used when "waking up" the iPhone, then recovery mode, as described in your one of the options. The other one would be to restore the iPhone using iTunes.

This isn't the latest description of recovery mode, btw. It works a bit different now:
Connect the iPhone to iTunes (computer), then press and hold Home and Power button at the same time, for at least 10 seconds. Don't let go until you see the recovery mode screen (showing the iTunes icon and a cable). Then you should get the option to update or restore.