Dead man's iPhone

unforeseen

stripeyfox wrote: »

Don't think I'd want my missus going through my phone after I'm dead anyway...

How else would she find details of your mistresses to distribute your estate? :rotfl:

unrecordings

missile wrote: »

Hi,

A friend of mine husband died and she would like to get access to his mobile iPhone. She has spoken with Apple and they have said if she gives them the phone with a copy of his death certificate they will wipe it.

Any suggestions? :A

Try asking through the guy's mobile phone provider ? Maybe a pointless exercise, but worth a try if for no other reason than they can help navigate the previously mentioned Apple route

McKneff

Why would they want to.?
A trust issue?

Mojisola

McKneff wrote: »

Why would they want to.?
A trust issue?

Or to retrieve photos.

Neil49

DCFC79 wrote: »

Take a print of the fingerprint and use your own finger to press fingerprint against the reader.

I think we are getting into the realms of Mission Impossible here. The next thing is getting a face mask made up for facial recognition purposes! Give Tom Cruise a call.

movilogo

If the deceased person already did not share his password with his wife, it could be his will not to divulge content of his phone to his surviving spouse.

However, I see no problem with wiping data off and re-using the phone as new. Apple is right that they can help with it.

DoaM

stripeyfox wrote: »

Don't think I'd want my missus going through my phone after I'm dead anyway...

Why? You'd be dead so her finding out what you'd been up to would be irrelevant by that time.

poppellerant

dan958 wrote: »

do the iphone fingerpint readers not work on electrical conductance? If so, won't work on someone who has been deceased for a while.

I don't know to be honest, but while I made what was a legitimate suggestion, I did realise there could perhaps be a funny side to it. After some Googling, it seems that you are indeed correct:

...Do you need to be alive for your fingertips to unlock your phone?

In fact, it gets more difficult to unlock a phone using fingertips the longer a person has been dead, said Anil Jain, a professor of computer science and engineering who has spent years working on fingerprint recognition at Michigan State University and one of the authors of the "Handbook of Fingerprint Recognition" (Springer, 2009). URL="https://www.livescience.com/38795-9-odd-tech-injuries.html"][U]9 Odd Ways Your Tech Devices May Injure You[/U][/URL.

This is because, on most smartphones, fingerprint identification works through electrical conductance, Jain told Live Science.

We all have a little bit of electricity running through our bodies. When we place our fingertips on a fingerprint scanner, the ridges of our fingerprint touch the surface whereas the valleys don’t. Tiny capacitors — devices that store electrical charge — will store more charge coming from the finger if they sit under ridges than they would under valleys. The sensors will use these patterns to form a detailed image. But when a person dies, that flow of electricity ceases, and with it, any chance of interacting with the scanner.

Why Dead Fingers (Usually) Can't Unlock a Phone - Live Science

UncleZen

Dont apple have anything similar to this:

https://support.google.com/accounts/troubleshooter/6357590?hl=en

molerat

UncleZen wrote: »

Dont apple have anything similar to this:

https://support.google.com/accounts/troubleshooter/6357590?hl=en

They say they will "carefully consider access to the data" but will likely say no. Apple have pretty much said the same.