[JD6]

My gf has an iPad 2 from about 12 years ago which contains some family photos that aren’t stored elsewhere. It is locked with a passcode which she can’t remember.

A few years ago she asked Apple to help her access it, but without proof of purchase, they couldn’t help. She believes it was set up on the same Apple account as her current iPhone and Apple Watch. I would have expected that to be sufficient for Apple to accept her ownership, but apparently not.

The iPad pre-dates iCloud I believe and without the passcode she can’t connect to WiFi anyway.

Any suggestions as to how she could retrieve the photos?

[gac]

If you know what iPad it is, you can probably educated-guess what the latest version of iOS it is potentially running, and potentially find some lock screen bypass?

https://www.macworld.com/article/200...every-way.html

Section 3, method 2 looks like the most likely to me - even purchasing the actual recovery tool that this is advertising involves a factory reset, wiping the data. So I think your options are potentially pretty limited

[JD6]

Originally Posted by gac

If you know what iPad it is, you can probably educated-guess what the latest version of iOS it is potentially running, and potentially find some lock screen bypass?

https://www.macworld.com/article/200...every-way.html

Section 3, method 2 looks like the most likely to me - even purchasing the actual recovery tool that this is advertising involves a factory reset, wiping the data. So I think your options are potentially pretty limited

It looks like it might have the right version of iOS (9) for the Siri method to work. Definitely worth a try. Cheers

[Eddamoo]

I've never used an apple device since an iPhone 3GS, but have you just tried plugging in a USB cable to see if a PC can access the partition anyway? Many old devices will let you do this as the camera is often partitioned away from the main OS and encrypted data.

[F30Andy]

Somoene with the correct equipment should be able to run a brute force attack on it to unlock it.

It basically involves re-writing a file which dictates how many attempts you have at the passcode.
It will be set to unlimited, then a third party piece of equipment is plugged into the ipad (usually overnight) where it tries every possible combination.

Most of the more sophisticated indie mobile phone repair shops (in London anyway) will be able to do this for you.

I believe you can even buy the equipment online to do it yourself if you are that way inclined.

[JD6]

Thanks for the other suggestions. They sound like good alternatives if the Siri method doesn’t work. She should be bringing it over tomorrow so I’ll give it a go and report back.

Cheers

[DaveA]

Did she do physical backups to itunes back in the day.?

You might be able to recover some files from those backups if they were not encrypted…

Edit to add…

Actually, if you have a backup, then if all else fails, maybe you can reset then restore … ???

[danb1979]

She'll not be able to do a factory reset / restore without actually being able to sign into the iPad and switching off 'find my ipad' and signing out of iCloud

She'll get so far IIRC but it'll still be registered

[JD6]

As far as she knows, there is no backup to this iPad- iTunes or iCloud and it was last used many years ago.

I tried to access it for the first time yesterday - it needed to stay plugged in as the battery seems to have failed, but it kept cycling between showing the Apple logo and then a blank screen. I couldn’t access Siri unfortunately to try that method of access.

[danb1979]

Originally Posted by JD6

As far as she knows, there is no backup to this iPad- iTunes or iCloud and it was last used many years ago.

I tried to access it for the first time yesterday - it needed to stay plugged in as the battery seems to have failed, but it kept cycling between showing the Apple logo and then a blank screen. I couldn’t access Siri unfortunately to try that method of access.

That's fubar unfortunately - you could fit a new battery to it but I'd ask what's the point?

Without the login details; it's nigh on bricked

[JD6]

Originally Posted by danb1979

That's fubar unfortunately - you could fit a new battery to it but I'd ask what's the point?

Without the login details; it's nigh on bricked

The iPad itself is far too old to be useful, she’d just like to get the photos off if possible. I spoke to a local repair place today and they share that view that it can’t be done.

[gac]

Originally Posted by JD6

The iPad itself is far too old to be useful, she’d just like to get the photos off if possible. I spoke to a local repair place today and they share that view that it can’t be done.

Sounds like at this point you're into the real esoteric data recovery stuff like finding someone to literally desolder the flash storage and so on. I've seen it done on YouTube in order to upgrade storage on iPhones etc, and I guess it would be potentially possible to solder the flash onto something with a USB-compliant flash controller and put it in a Mac to see if it'll read the iOS filesystem (which might just be APFS/HFS+). But feels like the tiny chance of success doesn't warrant the cost of finding someone to attempt that...