How I Unlocked and Erased My Old iPhone After Forgetting the Passcode: A Simple Solution

I recently decided to sell my old iPhone X, which had been sitting in a drawer for years, gathering dust. I figured I could easily wipe it clean and put it up for sale online. But as soon as I powered it on, I realized I had forgotten the passcode.

To make matters worse, the phone wasn’t connected to Wi-Fi, and it hadn’t been online in ages. Without the passcode, I couldn’t even access the phone to erase my data.

I was stuck.

The phone kept asking for the passcode, and after a few failed attempts, I got that dreaded “iPhone is disabled” message. I couldn’t connect it to Wi-Fi because I was locked out, and it wasn’t linked to my current Apple ID devices, so I couldn’t remotely unlock it via Find My iPhone.

It felt like I had no options left. But after a little bit of research, I discovered a method that saved me: Recovery Mode.

Here’s How I Solved It

I had heard of recovery mode before but had never really needed to use it. Turns out, it’s a lifesaver for situations like this. If you’ve forgotten your passcode and your iPhone is locked out, you can use recovery mode to erase the device, even without an internet connection.

Here’s what I did, step by step:

Step 1: Connect it to a Mac

I didn’t have a MacBook handy, but I did have my Mac mini that I use for various tasks. It was running the latest macOS Sequoia, so I knew I’d be using Finder instead of iTunes for this process. If you’re macOS Mojave (or earlier) or a Windows PC: Use iTunes.

Step 2: Turn Off the iPhone X

Next, I powered down the iPhone. I pressed and held both the Side (power) button and one of the Volume buttons until the “Slide to power off” option appeared. I dragged the slider and waited for the phone to shut off completely.

Step 3: Enter Recovery Mode

This part was key. With my iPhone X turned off, I connected it to the Mac mini while holding down the Side (power) button. I kept holding that button until the recovery mode screen popped up (the one that shows a cable pointing toward a computer or an iTunes logo).

Step 4: Restore the iPhone

After the iPhone was in recovery mode, Finder on my Mac mini recognized it, and a pop-up appeared with two options: Update or Restore.

I chose Restore since I wanted to erase everything and get the phone ready to sell. The process started, and I just had to sit back and wait. The Mac mini downloaded the latest version of iOS, erased all the data on my iPhone, and reinstalled the operating system.

(NOTE: You may have to go through all this twice. As my Mac was downloading the latest version of iOS for the phone, the phone disconnected for some reason.)

Step 5: Set Up the iPhone

Once the restore process finished, the iPhone rebooted like it was brand new. I went through the initial setup steps, but since I was planning to sell the phone, I didn’t log into any accounts or set anything up. I was just glad to see that the passcode lock was gone and the phone was fully reset.

A Few Things to Remember

One important thing to note: If your iPhone is linked to an Apple ID (which it probably is), the next person who tries to use the device will still need that Apple ID and password to disable Activation Lock. So if you’re selling it, make sure you log into your iCloud account, remove the device from your account, and turn off Find My iPhone before handing it over to the new owner.

And yes, you’ll lose all the data on the phone when you restore it. But in my case, that wasn’t a big deal since I had already moved on to a new iPhone.