How to Unblock an iPhone?

[Nick H. Supervisor]

I'm getting a headache today thanks to iPhones...

 

I have a user who has entered his code incorrectly too many times, and the iPhone is now saying "iPhone is blocked. Please connect to iTunes." We have been able to get the phone connected to the computer, and iTunes recognizes that the device is there. It asks if it can access the information on the device, but when we say "yes" it says to confirm the decision from the iPhone...which is blocked.

We logged in to the iCloud to remote wipe the phone, but it is listed as offline...because it is blocked and we cannot enter any code to activate the network connections.

Online it says that there is still the option of doing a factory reset by pushing and holding the power button and home button at the same time, and then when the Apple logo appears we release and that should do the trick. Instead, the device just restarts normally and then presents the display "iPhone is blocked. Please connect to iTunes."

The one thing that has just sprung to mind is trying to restart the iPhone without a SIM card inserted. Maybe he has blocked the SIM rather than the phone, which if it's the case means that this no longer becomes my problem and I can bump him over to our network team. I'll check this afternoon if I can and update accordingly.

 

A different issue: another user has forgot his Apple account password. We've gone through the "forgot password" process and Apple is now saying that they will deliver the details in 24 hours. I'm curious, is that normal? Do they mean "within 24 hours" or will it really take 24 hours?

 

I'm venting mostly, but I'd be interested to see if the above situations are normal. Apple really have taken this security issue to extremes if so.

 

EDIT: Should have mentioned that the first problem is with an iPhone 4. No idea on the OS version because we can't access a thing on the device.

[Mando]

16 minutes ago, Nick H. said:

 

 

A different issue: another user has forgot his Apple account password. We've gone through the "forgot password" process and Apple is now saying that they will deliver the details in 24 hours. I'm curious, is that normal? Do they mean "within 24 hours" or will it really take 24 hours?

 

I

most times ive found, yes.

[+John. Subscriber¹]

29 minutes ago, Nick H. said:

Online it says that there is still the option of doing a factory reset by pushing and holding the power button and home button at the same time, and then when the Apple logo appears we release and that should do the trick. Instead, the device just restarts normally and then presents the display "iPhone is blocked. Please connect to iTunes."

 

There is a way of getting it to restore, and it's called DFU mode. 

 

It's a pain to get there, but this should help: 

Quote

 

How To Put An iPhone In DFU Mode

1) Plug your iPhone into your computer and open iTunes. It doesn’t matter if your iPhone is on or off.

2) Press and hold the Sleep / Wake Button and Home Button (iPhone 6s and below) or the volume down button (iPhone 7 and above) together for 8 seconds.

3) After 8 seconds, release the Sleep / Wake Button but continue to hold the Home Button (iPhone 6s and below) or the volume down button (iPhone 7 and above) until iTunes says “iTunes has detected an iPhone in recovery mode.”

4) Let go of the Home Button or volume down button. Your iPhone’s display will be completely black if you’ve successfully entered DFU mode. If it’s not, try again from the beginning.

Restore your iPhone using iTunes.

 

See if that works.

 

EDIT: I don't know if this works with a 'blocked' device though.

[jasondefaoite]

12 minutes ago, John. said:

EDIT: I don't know if this works with a 'blocked' device though.

It does. However, if find my phone is enabled on the device, you'll need the AppleID and password of the account the phone is locked to, to reactivate it.

[JoseyWales]

It's Apple.. I'm surprised you did not get the "this phone will self destruct in 10, 9, 8...".

[Nick H. Supervisor]

For the user that has requested a password reset, not only did he receive the email 24 hours later (almost to the minute, I think) but the email that he received says that his account will be ready for restoration on October 4th. 2 weeks from now...

 

What if this were business-critical?! That's just insane!

[GTR707]

Hence why you never forget your passwords. Apple cannot be to blame for ones own stupidity. 

[+John. Subscriber¹]

28 minutes ago, GTR707 said:

Hence why you never forget your passwords. Apple cannot be to blame for ones own stupidity. 

How helpful. 

 

[PsYcHoKiLLa]

15 minutes ago, John. said:

How helpful. 

 

Just bend over the Apple barrel and stop complaining

[GTR707]

45 minutes ago, John. said:

How helpful. 

 

Very helpful. it's called don't forget your passwords. Use a password manager. I have had an iPhone since the 3, Never have any had any sort of issues. Same with my email or nay other sites. 

[Nick H. Supervisor]

On 9/20/2017 at 0:37 PM, John. said:

There is a way of getting it to restore, and it's called DFU mode. 

 

See if that works.

Cheers, John! My user was finally available for me to see him and we were able to get in to DFU mode without any issues! It's now downloading the software and wiping the device, here's hoping that will be the end of it!

[+John. Subscriber¹]

5 minutes ago, Nick H. said:

Cheers, John! My user was finally available for me to see him and we were able to get in to DFU mode without any issues! It's now downloading the software and wiping the device, here's hoping that will be the end of it!

No problem. Good to know it's all worked out! 

[Nick H. Supervisor]

42 minutes ago, John. said:

No problem. Good to know it's all worked out! 

There's a slight roadblock in that I'm getting error message 3503, but I suspect that is because iTunes needs to be updated. The user will bring his personal machine to the office tomorrow so that we can install the latest version of iTunes and try again. I'll report back.

[Circaflex]

1 minute ago, Nick H. said:

There's a slight roadblock in that I'm getting error message 3503, but I suspect that is because iTunes needs to be updated. The user will bring his personal machine to the office tomorrow so that we can install the latest version of iTunes and try again. I'll report back.

Seems many are receiving Error 3503 when attempting to do a restore through iTunes, https://www.reddit.com/r/jailbreak/comments/728skm/question_anyone_restoring_using_itunes_or_any/

 

[+John. Subscriber¹]

8 minutes ago, Nick H. said:

There's a slight roadblock in that I'm getting error message 3503, but I suspect that is because iTunes needs to be updated. The user will bring his personal machine to the office tomorrow so that we can install the latest version of iTunes and try again. I'll report back.

I had this twice upgrading to ios11. Updated iTunes, restarted everything and on the second go it worked.

 

I also deleted the first ipsw that it downloaded (in the iTunes folder somewhere) and downloaded it again just for good measure.

[Nick H. Supervisor]

6 minutes ago, Circaflex said:

Seems many are receiving Error 3503 when attempting to do a restore through iTunes, https://www.reddit.com/r/jailbreak/comments/728skm/question_anyone_restoring_using_itunes_or_any/

 

Well that's disconcerting, and it's even as recent as an hour ago. I hope there is a fix before tomorrow morning, otherwise I'm going to have a very upset user to deal with.  

1 minute ago, John. said:

I had this twice upgrading to ios11. Updated iTunes, restarted everything and on the second go it worked.

 

I also deleted the first ipsw that it downloaded (in the iTunes folder somewhere) and downloaded it again just for good measure.

Well at least I won't lose all hope on this issue.

[+John. Subscriber¹]

3 hours ago, Nick H. said:

Well that's disconcerting, and it's even as recent as an hour ago. I hope there is a fix before tomorrow morning, otherwise I'm going to have a very upset user to deal with.  

Well at least I won't lose all hope on this issue.

I don't know if you have one, I've just tried it on a Mac and it worked first time with another device, so they've either fixed it or it might be a Windows only error. 

 

EDIT: http://www.pyranet.co.uk/iphone-could-not-be-restored-an-unknown-error-occurred-3503-itunes/ This makes it sound like a Windows only error.

[Circaflex]

6 hours ago, Nick H. said:

Well that's disconcerting, and it's even as recent as an hour ago. I hope there is a fix before tomorrow morning, otherwise I'm going to have a very upset user to deal with.  

Well at least I won't lose all hope on this issue.

Apple is aware of the issue, they have gathered disgnostic logs and are working to resolve it. It is a server issue causing the error. 

[Nick H. Supervisor]

It worked! The user brought in his personal laptop and we were able to do a factory reset without any further issues. Thanks for the help guys. Really appreciated.

 

Now I just have to hope he remembers his iTunes credentials... 

[+John. Subscriber¹]

2 minutes ago, Nick H. said:

It worked! The user brought in his personal laptop and we were able to do a factory reset without any further issues. Thanks for the help guys. Really appreciated.

 

Now I just have to hope he remembers his iTunes credentials... 

Woohoo! Just let me know where I have to send the invoice to  I do mates rates if that helps.