Many people may want to know how to unlock iPhone without passcode or Face ID. They might have their reasons for this. For instance, they may forget the passcode of an old iPhone and now need to unlock the device in order to use it. In another case, they may need to access an iPhone of their family instantly however the owner of the iPhone is not there, so they cannot use Face ID to unlock the iPhone.
If you are one of them as well, you can get all your answers in the following sections.
Can You Unlock an iPhone Without a Passcode or Face ID?
A straightforward answer is, yes, you can.
However, there’s a catch. Although Apple takes utmost care of your devices and data and ensures that they are well-secured and remain protected from unauthorized access, it also believes that sometimes you may genuinely want to bypass these authentication measures and unlock your iPhone without them.
To help you with this, Apple allows you to access your iDevice without a passcode or Face ID. But because the company has no way of checking if you’re the right person, it erases all your data during the unlocking process.
Furthermore, after you have unlocked your iPhone without a passcode or Face ID, during the setup process, your device prompts you to enter your Apple ID and password so it can verify that you’re an authentic owner with no bad intentions.
How to Unlock iPhone Without Passcode or Face ID
Apple offers a couple of ways to unlock an iPhone without a passcode, Face ID, or fingerprint. While several third-party tools claim to do these things with ease, it is a good idea to stick to what the company suggests to play safe with your device. Some most common solutions to get the job done are explained below.
1. Use Recovery Mode via iTunes
Recovery Mode allows you to download the latest version of iOS for iPhone and install it with or without deleting your data. Now, in this scenario, because you cannot access your device and want to bypass the authentication, the only option you’re left with is restoring iOS which will completely erase the data on your phone. After that, you can set it up a fresh iPhone.
You can learn how to unlock iPhone without a passcode or Face ID through Recovery Mode using iTunes by following the instructions given below. First of all launch iTunes on your Windows PC (used here for illustrations) or the Finder app on your Mac computer.
Step 1: Put iPhone in Recovery Mode
Putting iPhone in Recovery Mode requires you to connect the phone to a computer using the Lightning Cable and press the correct buttons. The combination of buttons that you must push varies according to the phone’s model. All the possibilities are described below.
For iPhone 8 and Above
- Connect your iPhone to your Windows or Mac computer.
- Press and release the Volume Up button.
- Quickly press and release the Volume Down button.
- Press and hold down the Sleep/Wake button until the Recovery Mode icon appears on the screen.
For iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus
- Use the Lightning Cable to connect your iPhone to a computer.
- Press and hold down the Volume Down and Sleep/Wake buttons together until the Recovery Mode icon shows up on the screen.
For iPhone 6 and Earlier
- Connect your iPhone to a computer using the original Lightning Cable.
- Press and hold down the Home and Sleep/Wake buttons simultaneously until the Recovery Mode symbol is visible on the screen.
Step 2: Restore Your iPhone
Once your iPhone enters the Recovery Mode, a pop-up will appear. When the iTunes box appears, tap Restore and then Restore iPhone. Follow the on-screen instructions from there to download and install a fresh copy of the latest iOS on your iPhone. After installation, you can set up your iPhone as a new device.
2. Use iCloud
If you don’t wish to use the Recovery Mode method to unlock your iPhone or you don’t have access to a computer at the moment, you can use iCloud to do so on another device that can access icloud.com. Unlocking the smartphone using this method erases everything that it has as soon as the phone turns on and connects to the Internet. After the cleanup, you can set it up as a new device. You can learn how to unlock iPhone without a passcode or Face ID using iCloud by following the steps given below:
- Use your favorite web browser to go to https://www.icloud.com/.
- Sign in to your Apple ID.
- Click Find iPhone from the main page.
- On the Find My iPhone page, enter your account password.
- Click Sign In.
- On the next page, click All Devices from the top.
- Click your iPhone’s entry from the list.
- From the box representing your iPhone that appears on the left, click Erase iPhone.
- Click Erase on the confirmation box that appears next to clean your iPhone and unlock it without a passcode or Face ID.
- Once done, you can set up your iPhone as a new device.
Note: This method works only if ‘Find My iPhone’ is enabled on your iPhone.
Additional Questions
Below are some of the frequently asked questions of iPhone users.
1. Can you unlock your iPhone Face ID with a picture?
Although Apple claims that it uses depth information (3D) to verify your biometric details which is something that 2D pictures don’t offer, some users have successfully unlocked their iPhone 12 by opening a selfie image on another phone and bringing it in front of the locked iPhone.
Therefore, to answer your question, YES. Based on the feedback of users, if your photo is clear, your iPhone may be unlocked using it.
2. Can you unlock your iPhone Face ID with your eyes closed?
No, you can’t. Because iPhone saves the shape of your full face with all its unique identification points at the time of registration, if it finds any of those attributes missing, the authentication fails and you cannot access the device whatsoever.
Conclusion
Although many people do ask how to unlock iPhone without a passcode or Face ID, the fact is, Apple devices are pretty secure, and unless you feed them with correct credentials, you cannot access them whatsoever. However, if you need to unlock iPhone without a passcode or Face ID, you can either use Recovery Mode or sign in to iCloud, erase all the data from the smartphone, and then set it up as a new device.
