I accidentally disabled/locked my iPhone a few years ago and I have been holding on to it in hopes to figure out a way to recover the photos and videos. Everywhere I look points to it being impossible.

Even a sketchy, back-alley phone whiz couldn't access it?

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Educational_Worth906 t1_jeav66o wrote on March 30, 2023 at 5:56 PM

I know it’s not what you want to hear, but almost certainly no. I would be quite worried if it were possible.

OneAceFace t1_jeb34my wrote on March 30, 2023 at 6:47 PM

There are companies who take a few thousand dollars to attempt data recovery from damaged hard drives. But that’s about it. Do you have a backup on a computer?

bottlefacet OP t1_jedgepm wrote on March 31, 2023 at 5:27 AM

Dang. The laptop it would have been backed up on is long gone as well.

OneAceFace t1_jee51cv wrote on March 31, 2023 at 11:01 AM

Some people take their data with them from computer to computer as well these days. So it was worth asking.

RegularIntelligent63 t1_jeb3kx8 wrote on March 30, 2023 at 6:50 PM

You could try iMazing. I haven’t used it. They have a free trial with limited features. If you decide to try it (free or paid), please post a review.

From the FAQ:

Q. Which iOS devices does iMazing support? A. Pretty much all iPhone, iPad and iPod touch models are supported. If your device is running an older iOS version (prior to iOS 5), some features may not be available, though.

If the phone is locked and you don’t have the passcode, this may not work.

-bobak t1_jecalv6 wrote on March 30, 2023 at 11:35 PM

In addition to what u/regularintelligent63 suggested, iOS did not start encrypting iPhones behind passcodes until iOS 8. Since the 3GS could not be updated beyond iOS 6, it’s possible that you could send the device away for data recovery to be performed on the flash storage itself