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Plague78

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 13, 2019
5
3
DFW, TX
My dad passed away almost 3 years ago, he had an older iPhone 5c running on iOS 10.2.1. My mom has offered this phone to me multiple times and she finally said if I didn't want it she was going to throw it away, so I now have it in my possession. I figured I could do a restore on it as a new device, and then load Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio, YouTube, and whatever other distractions I could still use on the old OS.

The problem i'm having is that no one knows, or can remember my dad's old iCloud password, his email that the account is linked to is no longer operational, and going through the security questions isn't working despite my mom insisting the answers she told me to use are correct. There seems to be no avenue to recovering or resetting the password that I know of, my google search even came up with nothing except for an exploit for the old iOS 7. I can't do a full on restore from my computer either because Find My Phone is turned on and can't be turned off without the iCloud password. So even though I can unlock the phone and mess with the apps I can't download and install new apps. I seem to be up a river without a paddle so to speak.

The last resort I can think of is to take the phone somewhere like a T-Mobil store or AT&T store where they may be able to forcefully restore it. But i'm hoping the community here can offer a solution since i'm almost sure a cellular store would want to charge me for restoring it..... OH! I'm also the one that bought this phone for my dad back in the day so I already know it's provider unlocked if that makes any difference.
 

Apple_Robert

Contributor
Sep 21, 2012
35,630
52,388
In a van down by the river
If you have the phone receipt, take it and the phone to Apple. They will unlock the phone with proof of purchase and photo ID. If you don’t have that, you are out of luck. The phone is now a paperweight.
 

Plague78

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 13, 2019
5
3
DFW, TX
I bought this phone for my dad years ago off ebay as a refurbished device. I'm the one that should have a receipt but it's been so long ago that i'm certain it's gone. I've cleaned out my email folder multiple times since then. So yeah, any hope for a receipt is laughable.
 

Plague78

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 13, 2019
5
3
DFW, TX
RESOLVED!

Apparently, unknown to me, my brother being the computer nerd he is has kept a record of most of my dad's passwords and such to protect his identity after he passed away. He was able to go in and reset the iCloud accountj password so I could restore the phone.
 
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