What to Do If Your IPhone Is Locked
What happens when someone locks your iPhone and asks you to do something to regain access? You’re worried – that’s right, as it means someone else has access to your iPhone, and it doesn’t have to, or worse, your entire Apple account.
How to fix it? First, let’s start with a story courtesy of Lifehacker reader Joanne :
“I really like your letter, and I have a problem that has worried me since it happened. Your input on this would be greatly appreciated.
There was a virus or something on my iPhone (it was actually hijacked; it shut down completely with a message about calling some random number to turn it back on). They advised to wipe everything and start over. There was a lot of content in the notes folder, and some of them were really important to me. Now, I’m afraid this is lost forever. Is there a way to recover this data? If I didn’t back up my phone regularly (I didn’t), was the content saved in the Notes folder automatically uploaded to iCloud? If so, how can I find and recover this data? “
There is a lot to reveal in this matter, Joanne, so let’s start at the beginning. The message – or “virus” – that you received on your device is a bit bothersome. I can’t say I’ve ever run into this because of a buggy app, and I’m not sure if Apple will allow anything in its App Store (even as a bug) that could basically lock your phone, pop up which something with a ransom number, and will force you to erase and restore your device.
I have two suspicions why this is happening, and both roads lead to the Find Me feature on your device — the one you would use to locate (or lock) a lost or stolen device.
You didn’t mention it, but I would be curious to know if you purchased your device from another party, bought it refurbished from Apple, or bought a brand new one from Apple. If the first two, then it is possible that whoever owned it before you never turned off Find My before selling (or giving) it to you. However, they would have to sign in to their Apple ID to bypass Activation Lock , or you wouldn’t be able to set up your iPhone.
(I can’t remember if it’s a one-off thing that allows you to then set up your device at any time, which means they could “unlock it” and give it to you, or if you have to always enter your credentials if you don’t complete the initial setup process. I suspect the latter, but I am currently unable to reset my iPhone to confirm this.)
If someone gave or sold you an iPhone that was already set up and ready to go, that would be one of the signs that it might still be linked to their accounts. You may have noticed that their account is linked to device apps at some point if you’ve ever tried to set up your own Apple ID and iCloud with this iPhone.
Since your person appears to be acting in bad faith – providing a phone number and demanding a ransom – it is clear that they will not let you get away from using your device (by deleting it from their iCloud account). In other words, you have a paperweight; Apple is not going to delete this account from your device for you, and resetting your iPhone will only trigger powerful Activation Lock and prevent you from doing anything with it. You will need proof of purchase to prove that you are the original owner of the device in order for Apple to stand up for it.
More Likely Scenario: Someone Stole Your Apple ID
It is also possible that someone hacked your Apple ID. You should have received a prompt to check out a new device or browser that tried to access your account, but you may have either agreed and forgotten or never set up two-factor authentication .
Be that as it may, I think the main issue is the security of your Apple ID. Reset your password and change it to something unique and difficult to guess . (There aretools you can use to help with this.) Once you’ve done this, make sure you use two-factor authentication to protect your account.
Then, sign back in to your iCloud account in your web browser and visit Apple’s Find My section . Your iPhone should appear on the map. Otherwise, use the drop-down menu at the top center of the screen (All Devices) to bring it up. Your iPhone must be in Lost Mode if you see a phone number and a strange message on its screen. Click this icon:
Then click “Stop Lost Mode” to return the “locked” device to its normal state:
Where did your notes go?
As far as your notes are concerned, they should all be automatically synced to your iCloud, provided that you are signed in to your iCloud account on your iPhone and this option remains enabled in Settings> [Your Apple ID]> iCloud:
The quickest way to check this is to visit Notes on the web of iCloud and see what’s there. If your notes are present, sync is set up and working. Otherwise, restoring from a backup should restore your notes (since they were never saved to iCloud from the beginning), but only those that have been created since the time the backup was created.
And while you may not have backed up your phone regularly, your iPhone was backing up to iCloud at regular intervals – or at least it should have been if you also enabled the option from the same settings screen.
This should cover all your questions (I hope), but if you’re still having difficulties, post an answer! I am happy to continue troubleshooting this difficult issue.