This is my real nightmare experience. I would like to share this with other users because it is not just an iPhone technical issue. It is a security issue --- we always use the iPhone as a secondary authentication tool. The title could be "How Secure for iPhone"; that would be a topic catching eye. But I kept choosing the current title because I had a distinctive experience that no one had previously that I got
12 times Failed Attempts --- then my iPhone Data was Erased.
I will write this article in the opposite way: the conclusion first, then the introduction, and the body.
A. Conclusion
How Many Failed Password Attempts to Erase iPhone Data?
- 6 failed attempts --- lock 1 minute
- 7 failed attempts --- lock 5 minutes
- 8 failed attempts --- lock 15 minutes
- 9 failed attempts --- lock 1 hour
- 10 failed attempts --- lock 3 hours
- 11 failed attempts --- lock 8 hours
- 12 failed attempts --- lock 8 hours
but during the 8 hours or after, Data was Erased
B. Introduction
I have an iPhone 13 Pro Max, never had any issues. One day, I remember 08/12, a Saturday, when I woke up, I could not access my iPhone either by face ID or by Password, while during the night, my iPhone was just put under my pillow. In the beginning, I did not realize that was a problem, and I typed the password again and again until 6 times, the iPhone was locked, the first time, 1 minute.
Then, I realized something had gone wrong.
- A. Conclusion
- B. Introduction
- C. What Happened?
- D. How does the unlock Software succeed?
- E. My iPhone was Erased after my 12 Failed Password Try
- F. The iPhone fully Recovered
- G Summary
C. What Happened?
When I realized something wrong, my first feeling was that my iPhone was attacked. I went online to check the possible reasons. I found out this is a very popular issue happening for iPhones. However, no one complained the locked iPhone was due to hackers. Two popular reasons:
- Forgot Password
- The iPhone being upgraded
The first one was not my case. Then I had to believe the second reason because I had no way to verify yes or no.
D. How does the Unlock Software Secure?
Actually, most of the data are save, such as Photos, Files, and emails. Even for application settings, they are backuped up either in the cloud or in iTunes. The only concern for me is WeChat data. That is my main social communication software, with more than 20 GB of data recording the previous year's life track. Unfortunately, I was told that it would not be backuped up on the cloud.
Under this assumption and expectation to recover the WeChat data, I searched for iPhone recovery software online. This recovery must be under the condition that the user, I, could not access the iPhone. Fortunately or unfortunately, there are more than, say, a dozen or hundred of this kind of software. They claim that they can recover iPhone data, even without a password to access it. Fortunately, this is good news that I might have a way to recover my lost data; unfortunately, this means that everybody can get my iPhone data if I lost my iPhone --- which could be a big security hole.
In order to recover my iPhone, the first issue is to pick up software to do the job. This is another risk --- that could lead to a virus software that might destroy your computer. Due to there are so many companies offering this kind of Product, and no one complains about viruses about using this kind of software, due to I kind of trust the United States --- in this country, at least, the paid software should be risk-free.
Anyway, I chose one piece of software, around $50. I used that to successfully recover a small iPhone, the iPhone 6, without logging in to the iPhone.
E. My iPhone was Erased after my 12 Failed Password Try
At that time, actually, I already had had 10 times failed, that was three hours lock. Before I tried to recover my iPhone 13 Pro Max by the software I chose, I got one article that said one could recover the iPhone by some default password, such as 6 digits 000000, or 123456. I still thought that I might have the last chance, then I tried one more time, 000000. It absolutely does not work. My iPhone got one more lock, 8 hours. This was in the morning of the day.
After 8 hours, it was time to recover my iPhone, but I did not want to lose the chance to try 123456.
I DID, and I failed for sure. Fortunately, my iPhone was not forced to erase but was given another 8-hour lock. I thought that was enough, I would go to bed, and when I woke up, I would recover it by the software.
However, ...
When I woke up, I found out my iPhone had been erased already during my sleep. I saw a screen letting me set up language, like a new phone to set up. I knew all my data had been lost, no more.
I DID try the software running against the erased iPhone, but it absolutely did not work because the iPhone had already been empty.
At this point, I cannot say if the software can recover the locked iPhone, and I cannot say if the iPhone is secure enough that it does not allow other software to recover it without an access password.
F. The iPhone fully Recovered
The final solution is quite dramatic.
I thought I lost my all data. so I was so frustrated. I used the iPhone 6 for about three weeks without touching my iPhone 13 Pro Max. until one day, I thought I should do something for my iPhone 13 Pro Max.
I reset my iPhone 13 Pro Max, exactly like to set up a newly bought iPhone, and then restore the backup from iCloud. I knew, or I expected, that I could only get partial backup data and would lose all WeChat data. However, really amazing; I found out I got everything back. The data recovered were exactly from the day my data was erased. That meant before the iPhone erased my data, it had fully backed up my data to the cloud, including everything.
G. Summary
After one month of nightmares, I got:
- Unknown reason, iPhone password access was locked.
- The best guess by others is due to a system upgrade
- You have at least 11 times to try with locked time longer and longer until the 12ed time, the data will be erased.
- Before the data is erased, it will be backed up to iCloud automatically (the setting must be on) fully, including everything.
- There are a lot of software online claiming they can recover locked iPhone data:
- The software itself probably is secured ---
- I used one of them, no opposite issue
- I did not read any negative issues caused by the software
- It can recover one of my iPhone 6s without a password. It is not locked
- I do not know if it can recover the locked iPhone or not
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