Sending your iPhone for repair without exposing your photos
A repair counter is a stranger holding your phone.
1 min readLast reviewed
In short
Before a repair, back up the iPhone, move anything private into an encrypted vault or off the phone, and ask whether the repair actually needs your passcode. If the phone may be erased or replaced, make sure your vault backup works first.
Key takeaways
- Back up before anything else.
- Ask whether the passcode is really needed.
- Check your vault backup can be restored.
Before you go
- Make a full backup of the iPhone.
- Move private photos and documents into an encrypted vault, or off the phone entirely.
- Empty Recently Deleted, which keeps deleted photos for 30 days.
- If you use a vault, run its restore test or check that its backup is up to date.
At the counter
Many repairs do not require your passcode. Ask what the technician needs to do and whether the phone has to be unlocked for it. If it does, a vault with its own pattern stays locked even when the phone is not.
If the phone is replaced
A replacement iPhone starts empty. A vault restores only from its backup and its recovery phrase — which is why the backup must be checked before the repair, not after.