iPhone 5 just erased itself

glenimp617 · 9 Mar 2013 at 16:13

Just gone to use my phone and it's erased itself. My phone had a 4 digit pin number on which only I know. If you try and erase your phone it asks you for the pin number.

How can this have happened?

The only thing I can think of it an exchange/SCCM remote wipe but I deleted the management profile weeks ago so it's not that

Good job I have photo stream enabled else I'd be p*ssed :mad:

bloodiedathame · 9 Mar 2013 at 16:18

They can do that if the pin number is entered incorrectly too many times I think...

glenimp617 · 9 Mar 2013 at 16:20

bloodiedathame said:
They can do that if the pin number is entered incorrectly too many times I think...

ahhhhh, I bet its my two year old :mad:

That makes perfect sense. Thanks!!

bloodiedathame · 9 Mar 2013 at 16:25

Haha, oh dear, no presents this Christmas then!

ic1male · 9 Mar 2013 at 17:59

Yes 10 times I think it is and then your phone auto erases. I nearly cack myself if I get it wrong just the once.

theheyes · 9 Mar 2013 at 18:05

Erase is not the default setting though, is it?

ic1male · 9 Mar 2013 at 18:18

theheyes said:
Erase is not the default setting though, is it?

No you do have to activate it.

Reality Bites · 12 Mar 2013 at 10:59

i also think the time between entries increases the more you enter incorrect pins

glenimp617 · 12 Mar 2013 at 14:19

Just a quick update

erase phone on incorrect pin entry is on by default. Running latest version of iOS. Did factory reset again and checked. Yup, it's the default.

theheyes · 12 Mar 2013 at 21:27

That's weird, I've always had to enable it and the documentation on Apple's site suggests that also. Unless they've simply not updated it.

That's not such a good change in my opinion. It's a very straightforward denial of service opportunity.

Reality Bites · 13 Mar 2013 at 07:52

glen8 said:
Just a quick update

erase phone on incorrect pin entry is on by default. Running latest version of iOS. Did factory reset again and checked. Yup, it's the default.

Have you tried entering it incorrectly? After 3-4 times I'm sure he time between tries increases to a point where it gets to an hour or more. I'd be amazed if that was done accidentally

theheyes · 13 Mar 2013 at 11:54

I've just factory reset an iPad2 with ios 6.1.2 and the erase setting is off by default.

ic1male · 13 Mar 2013 at 12:03

theheyes said:
I've just factory reset an iPad2 with ios 6.1.2 and the erase setting is off by default.

It could be it's only switched on by default on iPhones. My iPod's default is off as well.

theheyes · 13 Mar 2013 at 13:54

It's a good point, but their knowledge base article references the iPhone and it's even implicit in the user manual that you have to enable it.

I really do think the default is off for all devices. Why this isn't true for the op I'm not sure.

Fillado · 13 Mar 2013 at 18:46

Just like to add after restoring an iPhone 5 it's definitely set to off by default. That's a full iTunes restore with "Set Up As New iPhone" selected

Reality Bites · 13 Mar 2013 at 19:18

Why does it matter if its on or off as a default? You would have to try to enter the pin enough times Incorrectly due to the time between tries.

glenimp617 · 13 Mar 2013 at 19:33

mmmm, I'm starting to worry now

If the default setting is off, why is mine on? they should be the same surely?

also, if it is highly unlikely that my phone erased due to my daughter getting the pin number wrong then why did it erase

iCloud remote wipe? account hacked?

theheyes · 13 Mar 2013 at 20:08

I think it would be sensible to change your passwords, just as a precaution.

theheyes · 13 Mar 2013 at 20:11

Actually, now that I think about it, a friend of mine said the other day she had a similar problem. I wasn't paying much attention but I'm sure she had to restore from iTunes and lost a few months worth of texts, all her contacts etc.

I'll try to find out more.

glenimp617 · 14 Mar 2013 at 09:09

Thanks,

what really annoyed me is that I didn't realise photo stream only saves a months worth of photos.

On my phone before the wipe, photo stream was showing me loads of photos (including my 2012 holiday). Now obviously it's my own fault for not manually backing them up.

after the wipe, photo stream only shows me the last months worth of pics. I've downloaded the icloud software for windows which tells me I've used 1.6gb out of my 5gb allowace. However, my photos only add up to 165mb :confused: