iPhone that's been sitting . . .

[britechguy]

This was just texted to me, "I have an iPhone that fell in some water and I had dried it out with rice, then let it sit too long (years).. I can't access it anymore.. it says I need to upgrade iOS or something. It has all the baby pictures of my son, so I'm hoping I can access it to get the pictures...can you help?"

Based on what's said, it has to be powering up, but it sounds like it's immediately seeking to update, and if it's been sitting around for years, I doubt that it would.

My question is whether this thing could be accessed as an external drive in its current state to extract photos? [I also wonder if they wouldn't be on iCloud, as I thought iPhones did this for many years now for photos.]

 

[Markverhyden]

Have them send you picture(s). Reminds me of the calls I used to get - "my computer is dead. Doesn't do anything". Get onsite and it's the monitor not the computer.

I've never heard of an iPhone powering up to a iOS update message and stopping.

Another thought. This does have a slight odor of eau de fraud...... After years suddenly wanting baby pics of son?

 

[callthatgirl]

Apple store, save your time.

 

[britechguy]

Have them send you picture(s).

Thanks. I've made this request. And after making it two minutes ago I already have a response saying, "I'm at work, but will do this as soon as I get home later today."

I don't think it's a fraud, in this case.

 

[Blues]

I am wondering if the message comes up when trying to "sync" the phone to the computer to download the photos.

 

[britechguy]

Well, I should have photos later today. I've asked the client to text me a screenshot of every screen that comes up from the time of initial power-up until "it gets stuck." I've also asked for the specific iPhone model.

I really hate, hate, hate Apple devices in general. No matter what you want to do, they make it more difficult to achieve.

 

[overburnz]

my advice, if it is requesting iOS update in order to access it, set their expectations and tell him that there is a very good chance that all is lost, afterwards I would advice to connect the iPhone to a MacBook with latest version of macOS and try to update the phone.

 

[britechguy]

my advice

Which I intended to follow, coupled with that from Lisa were push to come to shove. There is no local Apple Store, so other options need to be explored first.

I am not hopeful that anything good will come of this. If I get screenshots later that would not compromise client privacy, I will post them so that everyone can see what I've seen.

 

[timeshifter]

my advice, if it is requesting iOS update in order to access it

Why do you think that is? My thought is that it's an old iOS version or older iPhone and it's connecting to a new Mac or PC, probably a Mac, and Apple wants to update it.

There should be no need to connect to a computer yet. Should see if the phone will power on and operate normally. If it needs to be hooked up to a computer for some reason then I'd find one that's compatible (i.e. older) rather than updating the iOS on the phone.

 

[timeshifter]

I am not hopeful that anything good will come of this. If I get screenshots later that would not compromise client privacy, I will post them so that everyone can see what I've seen.

I hate doing tech support by text. Even with screenshots, not quite as bad. If you could get the phone in your possession we could probably help you work through, there's just too many degrees of separation right now.

 

[britechguy]

I hate doing tech support by text.

As do I. That's not what I consider this. I'm just in basic information gathering stage.

I have, on many occasions, had someone else have a flash of recognition when something like this comes up because they've "been there, done that, got the T-Shirt." That's the best case scenario.

But I don't expect that any full fix will occur sans an in-person interaction with the client and device. I'm simply trying to figure out if it's even worth going that far (and I routinely do, if not 20 questions, at least a few) with most potential clients when I am unsure as to whether there is anything to be done, or not.

 

[timeshifter]

You can also get good tech support from Apple by phone. It's easy to get them on the line and they do a good job. You could dump that on the client and send them there. On the one hand you might be saving them some money, but it may be a disservice because they may not have the skills to deal with this anyway or feel safer letting a pro handle it.

If you do take it on you can call Apple yourself. Don't go too far with the first agent unless they guide you to a quick fix. It's common to ask for a senior adviser - I have a friend who works for Apple who is always reminding me of this. And when I do get a senior advisor on the phone it's generally a really good experience.

 

[britechguy]

Some images:







I am not quite sure whether that last message about Activation Error means that any stored content on the device is absolutely toast or not.

This is a very old iPhone, so I have no idea whether Apple Support would even be willing to "touch it" even walking anyone through something by phone.

 

[frase]

One would need to connect to a valid Apple account on another apple device, using the account it was setup on. I would think to pass the authentication. This is not gonna happen, it would have been more economical to eat the rice. Who leaves a phone in rice for years anyway then asks for it to be restored? I personally would not go near this type of situation, point them toward Apple Stores.

 

[britechguy]

I texted this potential client back asking if they were still a loyal iPhone user, and if they were, that calling Apple Support should be step one. My jaw dropped that part of the reply was, "I never thought to call the support line.. I will do that." One thing I will absolutely give Apple is that their customer support and technical support for their customers is very good. I'd always be giving "the mothership" first crack at something like this if I'm dealing with any iDevice.

 

[lan101]

iPad Rehab

We specialize in iphone logic board repair & microsoldering. We offer iPhone data recovery with the highest success rate in the world. We offer iPhone motherboard repair training, microsoldering training, & microsoldering equipment & supply sales.

www.ipadrehab.com

I believe the lady that owns this company is the one that Louis Rossman on youtube has had on his channel a few times in the past.

Might be a little pricey but another source maybe.

 

[overburnz]

Some images:

View attachment 16378

View attachment 16379

View attachment 16380

I am not quite sure whether that last message about Activation Error means that any stored content on the device is absolutely toast or not.

This is a very old iPhone, so I have no idea whether Apple Support would even be willing to "touch it" even walking anyone through something by phone.

iPhone 7 with cellular issues, those models (especially the NA ones) have an issue were the cellular antena fries and does not allow to activate the iPhone, and in the state that the phone is it probably was restored or was updated and cannot proceed from there, either way there is no possibility to recover the photos.

 

[Blues]

Yeah those screen shots look like a restored phone I doubt there is anything to recover or what ever there was got erased in the restore process prior to getting to that point. You might be able to complete the activation connecting it to a PC/Mac with valid apple credentials but this really looks like a lost cause to me.

 

[britechguy]

On a related note, I thought that iPhones automatically copied all photos to iCloud unless you turned that off? Am I mistaken in what I thought I'd remembered?

I've known of a few iPhone only, or very near to iPhone only, users who don't even think about that.

 

[timeshifter]

On a related note, I thought that iPhones automatically copied all photos to iCloud unless you turned that off?

That's generally true. It's possible to set up an iPhone without an Apple ID and that wouldn't happen. 99% of users are setup with an Apple ID, but it's still possible to turn it off.

And full sync of photos was not always the norm. In the early days you had to manually sync photos, then Mobile Me / iCloud came along. Even then there was something called Photo Stream that synced the last 30 days of photos. At some point with an OS update Apple replaced iPhoto with Photos and more fully integrated your iPhone photos with iCloud. Don't recall the exact time now, but maybe 10 years ago when that became the norm.