iPhone unavailable

My iPhone XR has suddenly locked me out with the iPone unavailable message. But I have not had ANY attempts at signing in with the passcode. I routinel sign in, as do most people I imagine, with FaceID. I moved to ios 15.6 a week or so back. Is this a known bug in this release? I'm currently trying to recover the phone even if that deletes everything. I should have a recent nck-up on iCloud, unless that stopped working too. I need thi phone to control my cochlear implants, without which I am totally deaf, so this is a tad inconvenient.

iPhone XR

Posted on Aug 5, 2022 8:39 AM

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Posted on Aug 5, 2022 8:59 AM

There are times the phone will require the passcode, even with FaceID enabled. A few reasons:

  • If the phone is restarted
  • If the phone hasn’t been unlocked by any means for 12 hours
  • If you press the Side button 5 times quickly (a security feature)
  • If the screen is getting flakey, or the phone is plugged in with a defective cable (“ghost touch”)
  • If the phone has had more than 10 attempts to enter the passcode that failed.

This last can happen if you are in the habit of carrying the phone in your pocket with the screen against your body, and you have Raise to Wake enabled.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 5, 2022 8:59 AM in response to grahamfromforres

There are times the phone will require the passcode, even with FaceID enabled. A few reasons:

  • If the phone is restarted
  • If the phone hasn’t been unlocked by any means for 12 hours
  • If you press the Side button 5 times quickly (a security feature)
  • If the screen is getting flakey, or the phone is plugged in with a defective cable (“ghost touch”)
  • If the phone has had more than 10 attempts to enter the passcode that failed.

This last can happen if you are in the habit of carrying the phone in your pocket with the screen against your body, and you have Raise to Wake enabled.

Aug 5, 2022 8:56 AM in response to grahamfromforres

If your device has iOS 15.2 or later installed, check out this link→How to reset your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch when you forgot your passcode - Apple Support. Otherwise:

See this Apple support link→If you forgot the passcode on your iPhone, or your iPhone is disabled - Apple Support

Or watch this companion video ⬇️


After restoring the phone using one of the methods above you can restore your most recent backup.

Aug 5, 2022 9:29 AM in response to grahamfromforres

Well, then most likely you “butt entered” the passcode too many times. You either should turn off raise to wake or carry the phone with the screen away from your body. It may be counterintuitive, as it doesn’t protect the screen as well, but it’s actually more important to protect the back; if the back breaks the phone must be replaced, but the screen can be easily replaced.

Aug 5, 2022 9:23 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

Thanks for responding, but in fact it has been days, even weeks, since I was last asked to use my passcode to log in, and that certainly did not happen today. I had used the phone as normal a few minutes earlier, then the next time I picked it up I had this "iPhone unavailable" message, and the associated lock-out. I've had iPhones for several years now, and this has never happened before. BTW, I do have "raise to wake" enabled, and I do habitually carry the phone in a pocket


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iPhone unavailable

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