Passcode unknowingly put on iPhone

[addictive]

Hey people, I'm looking for some help.

I handed down my iPhone SE to my Mum about five months ago. It is her first smart phone, she barely uses it but is pleased to have moved into the modern age.

I set it up as a factory restored iPhone and set up her email account for the phone. She asked me not to put on a passcode for her and she was not using Touch ID either.

She has now come to me saying that the iPhone is locked with a six digit passcode. She swears she didn't put one on the device. I believe she isn't tech-savvy enough to put a passcode on her iPhone. I didn't put a passcode on and she says no-one else has touched her phone.

So my question is how is it possible for a passcode to have appeared on her iphone?

I believe I can do a restore iPhone through iTunes which should wipe the device in order to get the phone open once again. But I'm stumped to how the phone has become locked. Could it be some type of activity while in a trouser pocket or handbag? Or is it probable that my Mum did unknowingly put a passcode on her iPhone?

Any advice or suggestions or links to previous similar threads would be a massive help. Thanks in advance.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

In my experience, it's more likely she did it.

 

[fischersd]

Any chance she has a potassium deficiency? I've seen people with potassium deficiencies have virtually no short term memory (literally, 20 minutes later, they don't know what they did). That's an extreme case, but it happens.

Did you set the phone up in Find my iPhone? At least you could do a remote wipe on the phone that way.

It's a shame Apple hasn't put an iPhone password reset on the iCloud admin page (but, then, I guess that could give the feds a means into a phone as well, couldn't it?)

 

[addictive]

I appreciate the replies. I think I did not set up Find My iPhone on her handset.

I think it is the most likely situation that she put a passcode on her phone perhaps unwittingly. I do wonder if someone at the hospital she works at (possibly a patient?) could have played with the iPhone and put on a passcode. I'm truly stumped. She says her grandson has not touched the phone.

Part of the problem is she is such a technophobe that anyone on this forum would laugh if they saw her use technology. She was adamant she didn't want a passcode when I set it up for her. But now we have an iPhone which acts like a brick.

 

[C DM]

I appreciate the replies. I think I did not set up Find My iPhone on her handset.

I think it is the most likely situation that she put a passcode on her phone perhaps unwittingly. I do wonder if someone at the hospital she works at (possibly a patient?) could have played with the iPhone and put on a passcode. I'm truly stumped. She says her grandson has not touched the phone.

Part of the problem is she is such a technophobe that anyone on this forum would laugh if they saw her use technology. She was adamant she didn't want a passcode when I set it up for her. But now we have an iPhone which acts like a brick.

Part of it is that she might not know if someone might have used the phone. For example, she says that her grandson has not touched the phone, but that's basically to the best of her knowledge and he did use it at some point and she didn't know about it then that usage still happened and something could have been changed at that time without her realizing it.

 

[addictive]

Apple walked me through the process of restoring the iPhone. Of course all the contents of the phone were lost but at least we now have a functioning and usable iPhone.

I'll never know how the iPhone got a passcode got put on it. My guess is my Mum did put the passcode on it unwittingly.

Mods you can close this thread now.