Can't remember PIN

highly1111

Hi

Please bear with me as this is coming 2nd hand from my 69 year old mum who has an iPhone 5. She also rang me from Italy where she's on a cruise so I don't have the phone myself to check it all out.

So she went to an iPhone class (you couldn't make it up) and decided she should put a password/PIN on her phone. However, something has obviously happened and the code she thought she put in (twice!) isn't working. She has no idea what the code is. The phone has never been backed up/synced to a computer.

Does anyone have any idea what she can do? Is there anything she can do?

I think I'm right in saying that she has an infinite amount of tries to unlock as the setting wouldn't have been changed from the default which is to NOT erase information after 10 turns.

I know it sounds utterly ridiculous - but so is my mum!!

thanks in adavance

Dades

I think she's goosed as far as getting the phone back to normal.

Unless she remembers the PIN it'll have to be restored from new via iTunes and all her settings/contacts redone.

GhostInTheRuins

Is it the sim pin or a phone passcode? If it's the code on the SIM card she can just swap it for a new one, but if it's the phone passcode you'll need to restore it with iTunes (hopefully she remembers her icloud password or that's out of the question too!)

highly1111

Dades wrote: »

I think she's goosed as far as getting the phone back to normal.

Unless she remembers the PIN it'll have to be restored from new via iTunes and all her settings/contacts redone.

Thanks. I promise she's not a complete eejit - just extremely bad luck that she put the 4 number code she would use for things in the same way incorrectly - twice.

She won't mind the contacts or settings - I assume all messages will go too?? From a practical point of view how do I restore it? Do I need itunes? I don't have an apple axcoujt - I doubt she has either. To be honest its an absolute waste on her - the sales person in Vodafone told her it was an excellent phone when she got an upgrade but she only uses a percentage of its functions.

Piliger

highly1111 wrote: »

Thanks. I promise she's not a complete eejit - just extremely bad luck that she put the 4 number code she would use for things in the same way incorrectly - twice.

She won't mind the contacts or settings - I assume all messages will go too?? From a practical point of view how do I restore it? Do I need itunes? I don't have an apple axcoujt - I doubt she has either. To be honest its an absolute waste on her - the sales person in Vodafone told her it was an excellent phone when she got an upgrade but she only uses a percentage of its functions.

Well she has it now so you just have to make the best of it. She will probably have learned her lesson. She was right to put a PIN on it, but she should have written it down. She needs some basic lessons in computer use clearly .. as most older people of that age do.

Just google how to set the phone up as a new phone using iTunes on a PC or a Mac. It's a doddle, and it's a doddle to get an iTunes account.

It'll all be fine and the next time she can use numbers she can remember.

Creamy Goodness

writing down the pin is the WRONG way to stop this happening again!

Piliger

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

writing down the pin is the WRONG way to stop this happening again!

On the contrary, people should always write their PIN down somewhere, as they should with all of the passwords they use.

Creamy Goodness

No, no they shouldn't. They should use a password safe that has a strong yet easy to remember password. Writing down pin/passwords is akin to leaving a front door key under the door mat.

Piliger

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

No, no they shouldn't. They should use a password safe that has a strong yet easy to remember password. Writing down pin/passwords is akin to leaving a front door key under the door mat.

That is nonsense. All passwords someone has should be written down. People should not be using a single password for all fo the web sites, applications and devices they use. That is insane. They should have different ones for each instance and should write them down.

Your claim makes no sense whatsoever. If someone steals your phone it is extremely unlikely that they will have stolen your notebook/notepaper at home with your passwords in it. Unless they steal your phone and then find you and break in to your house and ransack your home and find the book and steal it ... wow.. there's your door mat

highly1111

Just to clarify it is the phone password. I'll talk to her when she gets back and I might come back when I physically have the phone. She uses the same pin for bank cards / house alarm etc. and i even guessed it - I said Mum, are you sure it's not XXXX? And she said that's what she put in - but she mustn't have! I know that human error is more common than computer error!

Fingers crossed we can just restore factory settings - if she loses info, it's not the end of the world.

Cantremember

You're not getting it.

Deep Thought

Piliger wrote: »

That is nonsense. All passwords someone has should be written down.

Serioulsy...

Absolutely have different passwords but don't write them down, use a generator or something that you can remember or can assoicate with

I do this stuff for a living and a cannot emphasize enough...Do not write down passwords

Dades

I think people are taking the whole security thing a bit too seriously. I don't see a problem with an elderly lady writing down a four digit number for her mobile in a notebook somewhere in her house. Have some perspective.

Whatever about bank card/account details, this is just a phone PIN, and I very much doubt she has all her email with banking information stored on it. She doesn't even have an iTunes account.

Piliger

Exactly. Home users should always keep a small notebook in a drawer and keep ALL passwords written there.

The threat to your password does not come from burglars. That is the absolute least of your concerns.

The threat to your security comes online.

Keep that notebook. And update then periodically. Every six months or a years will be fine.

Sad Professor

I'd recommend 1Password and iCloud Keychain for generating and saving secure passwords. Keychain isn't the most reliable but I've been using 1Password for years. It's a bit limited on iOS compared to the Mac but that should change with iOS 8 and extensions. It still works quite well in conjunction with Keychain at the moment.

quad_red

If his mother has an iPhone 5 then its at least running ios5. So most likely someone (probably the person in the shop) would have set icloud up when the phone was activated.

OP, does your mother have an email address?

If the phone is set up on I cloud then stuff like contacts are probably backed up there (so they ain't lost).

If the device is well and truly locked then maybe your mom could try and find some nice person with a laptop. If they have iTunes then set the phone up as a new phone to unlock it. Then restore from icloud.

Er - she will obviously need to find someone to do this for her. Are there families there? A few bob to some smart arsed nerdy young lad should do it!