“Iphone Unavailable”

[Cloverjo]

Husband has a new iPhone 8.

We entered the passcode incorrectly too often (it had changed from 4-digits to 6), and now it’s locked with the message “iPhone unavailable”. I can’t even get in to do a factory reset.

What can I do?
Preferably without using iTunes to reset/erase as I’ve never had much luck with that except for actually playing tunes. And the phone has never been connected to iTunes anyway.

Thanks for any help

[barry1010]

As nobody has replied, does this help? https://techpresident.com/bypass-iphone-unavailable-lock-screen/#:~:text=If%20you%20see%20the%20message,for%20at%20least%20five%20minutes.

[Cloverjo]

Thanks Barry.
Trying one of those things now.
Here’s hoping

[barry1010]

Fingers crossed. Is there an Apple store near you?

[Tuvok]

Have you got another apple device? If so, if you log in to Find My app with hubby's apple ID on it you might be able to reset the phone

[Gromit]

Have you done the obvious things ?
Powered it off.
Unplugged it.
Removed the Sim card.
Then put in sim back in, powered on and plugged in.

Do you now know the correct pass key number?

[Cloverjo]

Thanks for further answers. Yes I’ve tried all of those things. He hadn’t got as far as using the phone at all, so it’s not recognised in Find My…

I tried Barry’s suggestion which included downloading some firmware. It took forever to download and then asked for a registration code, which it didn’t have because it said it was a free download. Just click this button.

I guess we’ll have to take it to an Apple shop, but will they help? We bought it from Amazon, not Apple.

[CrapAtCryptics]

An Iphone 8 is not new -the latest model is 14 so you are a fair bit behind. That said there is a piece of software which identifies the operating system and overwrites it with the appropriate latest version for that phone effectively restoring it to factory settings.

you could also try this if you havent done so
https://9to5mac.com/2017/10/11/iphone-8-how-to-force-restart-recovery-dfu-mode/

[barry1010]

Did you buy it as a brand new phone? It was discontinued two years ago

[Gromit]

Have you previously had an iPhone. Did you do an iCloud back up ?

Take the Sim out. Restart the iPhone. Will it let you do a software update in settings? The reload your data from iCloud.

[Cloverjo]

I bought it (them - I got one as well) as refurbished. We only needed a slight upgrade just to put Wimbledon tickets on. We didn’t want to spend loads on sprauntzy new phones.

We’ve both had iPhones before.
Gromit, I can get it into Recovery Mode but no further than that.

I’ve tried switching our SIM cards so we can connect to iTunes via my account. I was hoping to unlock the troublesome phone via this account, switch the sims back and start again.

Sigh! ITunes is out of date. Look for new update. The most recent update I can access is 12.xxx. The computer says it needs 15.xxx

I’ve had enough of it for today. Thank you all for your replies.

Any more ideas will be gratefully received, though.

[bednobs]

i dont have an answer but just wanted to say "sprauntzy" is not used enough