Help me save my iPhone!

February 26, 2011 7:59 PM

Help! I broke my iPhone 4 screen, and it's locked! The phone turns on, but the screen is completely destroyed, so I can't enter my password to use iTunes to back it up. Any chance of getting at my pictures before my new screen comes in?

I know the password, so that's not a problem, but there are some pictures on there I'd really like to get to before the new screen comes in.

I'm confident I can replace the screen, as I've done it before on someone else's phone, but is there anyway I can get my pictures off the phone in the meantime?

I've got access to Windows, Ubuntu and OS X 10.4 on a G4.

Is there any hope?

posted by mhp to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

I'm confused- what do you mean when you say "the phone is locked"? When I try to sync my iPhone with my computer, even when the phone is password-locked, I don't need to unlock it. Have you synced the phone with the computer before?

Does the touch-sensing part of the screen still work? If you turn the ringer switch on, then slide your finger across the portion of the screen where the slider would be, can you hear the phone click?
posted by aaronbeekay at 8:21 PM on February 26, 2011

Response by poster: I've had to reformat since I set it up, and I've not synced it since then, unfortunately. So as far as the phone is concerned it's a new computer.

The message itunes gives me is "iTunes could not connect to the iPhone "Tony's iPhone" because it is locked with a passcode. You must enter your passcode on the iPhone before it can be used with iTunes"

The touchscreen is no longer responsive, I've tried to unlock it. I even put a password on my girlfriend's phone and then touched in the corresponding spots on mine and no luck.
posted by mhp at 8:45 PM on February 26, 2011

When I plug my iPhone 4 into my computer, Windows puts up an autorun, where I can "view all files" and then browse to the camera directory and get my photos. Make sure autorun is enabled - you can Google for specific instructions for your version of Windows.
posted by IndigoRain at 9:04 PM on February 26, 2011

No idea of whether or not this will work in this scenario, but you might try accessing the files directly with Phone Disk (requires PC or OS X 10.5).
posted by qwip at 4:27 AM on February 27, 2011

Best answer: There may not be much you can do. The iPhone's password lock feature seems to be at least moderately secure: Apple advertises the iPhone's security features as being enterprise-level, meaning that you are not supposed to be able to bypass the passcode with a special mode or anything.

Probably the easiest thing to do is wait for the new screen. If you are super-desperate, and you are comfortable working on phones, you could always swap the screen from your girlfriend's phone onto yours temporarily, assuming she has an iPhone 4 and likes you enough to let you tear apart her phone.
posted by aaronbeekay at 7:29 AM on February 28, 2011

Similar to qwip's suggestion, there is also PhoneView.
posted by chairface at 6:21 PM on February 28, 2011

Response by poster: I think I'm going to have to wait. Thanks for all your help and the suggestion of Phonedisk and Phoneview, but unfortunately, neither of those worked.

Unfortunately my girlfriend has a 3gs, so that won't wake.

Thanks all!
posted by mhp at 7:24 PM on February 28, 2011