How can I unlock a deceased family member's iPhone?

Drago1807 wrote:

Thanks for that. It was just things found in a box. An iPhone 4 and an iPhone 8 plus an old iPad which is equally old and I know it doesn't support the latest operating system or a lot of the software. My late Uncle took great care of his tech and everything looks like new.

If you don't know the passcode, anything stored on the iPhone 4 is gone. The process of resetting either phone will wipe everything on it, and I believe that the iPhone 4 is so old that it may never have supported either iCloud synchronization (e.g., iCloud Photos) or backups to iCloud Drive. (If there are backups of it, they are likely to be backups stored on a computer by iTunes.)

You will have to wipe the iPhone 8 Plus to get into it – but your uncle may have been synchronizing photos, etc. to iCloud, or making backups to iCloud.

The following link may be helpful:

How to request access to a deceased family member’s Apple Account - Apple Support

Note that you might need to have the executor/administator of the account make the request. That person might need to submit official copies of the death certificate, of court documents showing their appointment as executor or administrator, etc.

You can reset it to get rid of the Lock Screen passcode, but you won't be able to get past the activation lock without access to his apple account.

Even if you would, it would be pointless. That device is obsolete. it is not even usable as a basic phone anymore in most of the world.

The iPhone 8 can run iOS 16.....but not iOS 17 or 18. Most apps will still run on iOS 16, but there are some banking apps that won't. iPhone 8 should be OK as a basic cell phone, but it can't handle 5G.

Drago1807 wrote:

Thanks for that. It was just things found in a box. An iPhone 4 and an iPhone 8 plus an old iPad which is equally old and I know it doesn't support the latest operating system or a lot of the software. My late Uncle took great care of his tech and everything looks like new.

That iPhone 4 has a 32-bit processor, cannot update past iOS 7.*, and possibly cannot access the modern App Store. I can only connect to 2G/3G networks that have been shut down in the U.S. and many parts of the world.

You could possibly re-purpose it as a portable music player (for purchased music loaded onto it with the aid of a Mac or PC).