How To Fix Your Disabled iPhone Without iTunes Backup

Have you ever come across this awkward situation where you forget the passcode to unlock your iPhone and it just won’t start up. It generally happens when you try so many wrong passcodes to unlock your device. The message displays on the screen saying, “iPhone is disabled, try again in 5 minutes” It’s not that severe if you can still remember the passcode. As it says, you can try again after five minutes or ten minutes to retrieve access to your iPhone. But if you still keep entering the wrong passcodes, your phone gets temporarily disabled. But this time it won’t be that easy. Your iPhone can be disabled for about 60 minutes or worse, it can be disabled permanently and this time it would require iTunes connectivity in order to unlock the device.

However, it’s not the only way. You can also recover your device without using iTunes. Also, if you haven’t backed up your device on iTunes, the chances of recovery are very slim and even if you do that, you will end up losing all your data. Well, the good thing is ‘you don’t necessarily need to connect your device to the iTunes in order to unlock it.’ In this blog, I’ll show you how to do that.

You may also like How To Extract Your iPhone Messages And Voicemails On Mac.

iPhone is disabled. Connect to iTunes.  

So, first things first. You must also know why this kind of error occurs in the first place. As already told, it happens when you keep entering the wrong passcodes over and over again. The problem ranges from being mildly severe to being totally frustrating and unbearable.

Depending on how many times you’ve entered the wrong passcode, the error messages may differ. For instance, you may see error messages like:

iPhone is disabled. Try again in 1 minute.

Happens after 6 failed attempts to unlock the device.

iPhone is disabled. Try again in 5 minutes.

Happens after 7 failed attempts.

iPhone is disabled. Try again in 15 minutes.

8 failed attempts.

iPhone is disabled. Try again in 60 minutes.

9 failed attempts.

iPhone is disabled. Connect to iTunes.   

10 failed attempts.

How To Unlock Your Device?

When the worst scenario occurs, you need to connect your device to the iTunes. But before you proceed, note that this process involves restoration of your device via iTunes. So if you haven’t created an iTunes backup, you might end up losing all your data. But luckily if you have an iCloud backup, you can always restore it later by logging in with your Apple ID.

• Connect your iPhone/iPad to the computer.

• Launch the iTunes app on your Windows or Mac PC (Make sure you are using an updated version of the app. If not, update it immediately and then proceed.)

• Select your device as ‘iPhone’ from the side pane. The device name displays on the top-right corner of the screen.

• Once you select your device, you will be redirected to the Summary tab.

• Click on Restore.

• The restore process will begin and your device will be wiped clean.

• Your iPhone will restart normally and then you’ll need to set up the device like you did the first time you purchased it.

That’s it! Your phone will be fresh as a new one. However, in case it doesn’t work, you may need to resolve this issue by going into recovery mode. You can do that by pressing and holding the home button and power button altogether until a black screen appears with an Apple logo. After that, you need to connect your phone to the computer and then repeat the entire process.