“iPhone Unavailable” message appeared without touching iPhone

Question

“iPhone Unavailable” message appeared without touching iPhone

I woke up in the middle of the night and reached for my iPhone to get the time.

My iPhone displayed the time as:

2:45 AM on Friday, September 5th.

Additionally, my iPhone also displayed the messages:

"iPhone Unavailable"

"try again in 4 minutes"

"support.apple.com/passcode"

I have an 'iPhone 13 Pro Max' with 'iOS Version 18.6.2'.

After 4 minutes passed, I was able to enter my 'Passcode'.

Questions:

Since no one else had access to my iPhone, and I was sleeping, what happened?

If I had not attempted to enter my 'Passcode' myself (as I was sleeping), why was this message on my iPhone?

Thank you!

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: iPhone Unavailable (...woke up in the middle of the night to "iPhone Unavailable")... Why?

iPhone 13 Pro Max, iOS 18

Posted on Sep 5, 2025 11:43 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Sep 5, 2025 02:21 PM in response to cromaracder146

Either you touched it in your sleep, someone else touched it, a pet touched it, or your iPhone’s digitizer is failing, resulting in a failure mode called “ghost touch”.

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Answer 2

Sep 5, 2025 04:12 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

Thank you Lawrence!...

I initially posted because I was concerned about a brute-force password attack from an external hacker... is that even possible on an iPhone???

Based on your reply, it must be the iPhone's digitizer... as I did not touch it, no one else was here to touch it, and I do not have a pet...

I am new to the community.

Can I find more information on a "digitizer failure" here in the community? How to confirm before going back to the retailer and submitting an insurance claim?

Could this be related? About 2 months ago, a "No SIM" message appeared on the same iPhone 13 Pro Max. I swapped SIM cards with an older iPhone X and determined that the SIM card was not the problem. It was the iPhone 13 Pro Max. So, I filed an insurance claim. However, before the claim moved forward, I became aware of ESIMs. I cancelled the claim and worked with the retailer to download an ESIM. The iPhone has been working perfectly since then.

Thanks again!

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Answer 3

Sep 5, 2025 04:46 PM in response to cromaracder146

If the phone's screen digitizer were the culprit, the phone would be acting up randomly and frequently......not just the one time that you seem to be describing.

So, unless you are saying that "Unavailable" is appearing frequently on its own, the screen digitizer is not the answer here.

Pick from one of the other answers that Lawrence has suggested. There is no way that "brute force" is involved here.

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Answer 4

Sep 5, 2025 06:14 PM in response to cromaracder146

AppleCommunity-Lea wrote:

Thank you Lawrence!...

I initially posted because I was concerned about a brute-force password attack from an external hacker... is that even possible on an iPhone???

No, it is not possible. The passcode can only be entered from the screen.

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