How To Reset Password On iPhone 7 Plus When Locked Out

Getting locked out on your iPhone 7 Plus can be a nightmare scenario, which can take a long time to receover from. Some people say that getting locked out of your phone is worst than losing your wallet, credit cards and all. You’ve forgotten your phone’s PIN and now you can’t get onto your phone at all! Fortunately, there are several ways to resolve the situation and get your phone back in working order again.

The last resort for resetting your password is to complete a hard factory reset. That works but deletes all your files and data on your phone. If you have a backup this is no big deal, but if you haven’t backed up your phone’s data, including precious photos and videos, then a hard reset is almost as much of a fiasco as being locked out in the first place.

That’s why we at TechJunkies created this guide explaining several different ways to reset the password on the iPhone 7 Plus when locked out without the big risk of losing data and files.

In this how-to article, I’ll teach you three different ways how to reset the lock screen password on the iPhone 7 Plus when you get locked out of your smartphone.

Select a way to erase your iPhone 7 Plus

If you haven’t already done a backup or saved iPhone data, it’s impossible to save information on your iPhone 7 Plus before you reset the password. To reset the password on iPhone 7 Plus, you’ll need to erase the iPhone.

If the iPhone 7 Plus is already synced with iTunes, use the iTunes method.
If the iPhone 7 Plus is signed in to iCloud or Find My iPhone is turned on, then go ahead and use the iCloud method
If you don’t use iCloud on your iPhone 7 Plus and you can’t sync or connect with iTunes, use the “recovery mode” method.

Erase your iPhone 7 Plus with iCloud

Go to iCloud.comm/find with a different device.
If required, sign in with your Apple ID.
Then at the top of the browser, select All Devices.
Select the device you want to erase.
Then tap on Erase [device] which will erase your device and its passcode.
Now you can either restore from a backup or set up as new.

If your device isn’t connected to a Wi-Fi or cellular network, you can’t erase it with Find My iPhone.

Erase your iPhone 7 Plus with iTunes

Connect your iPhone 7 Plus to your computer running iTunes.
Open iTunes and enter the passcode if asked, try another computer you’ve synced with, or use recovery mode.
Wait for iTunes to sync your iPhone 7 Plus and then make a backup.
After the sync has been done, and the backup has finished, click Restore [your device].
When the Set Up screen shows up on the iPhone 7 Plus, press on Restore from iTunes backup.
Select your iPhone 7 Plus in iTunes. Look at the date and size of each backup and pick the most relevant one.

Erase your iPhone 7 Plus with recovery mode

If you’ve never synced with iTunes or set up Find My iPhone in iCloud, you’ll need to use recovery mode to restore your device. This will erase the device and its passcode.

Connect your iPhone 7 Plus to your computer and open iTunes.
While your iPhone 7 Plus is connected, force restart it. Press and hold both the Sleep/Wake and Home button for at least 10 seconds, and don’t release when you see the Apple logo. Keep holding until you see the recovery mode screen.
When you see the option to Restore or Update, choose Update. iTunes will try to reinstall iOS without erasing your data. Wait while iTunes downloads the software for your device.

If you’re trying to decide the best way to back up your iPhone you may want to check out a couple TechJunkie how-to articles:

Have you ever been locked out of your iPhone and had to reset the password? How did you do it? Please leave us a comment below!