ICloud (beta) has no way to UNLOCK & RESTORE a lost iPhone?

My iPhone 5 was recently stolen. Thus I set up iCloud to track it, succesfully, and since it was stolen by an employee at the Tax free shop in Denpasar, Bali, airport, I felt it was a likely scenario to get it back. After a week of checking cctv, the management there indeed found out who took it and the phone is now back with me. So far, all good.
It turns out there is no choice in iCloud to UNLOCK & RESTORE a tracked phone, to turn off the damned inhibition. It is nice to have the phone made useless when the phone is in the hands of thieves, but in my hands I would like it to work. Reading several Find my iPhone themes here in support, no help. Seems Apple did not quite think of the possibility of stolen phones returning to the owner... At least not enough to make such an unlock-restore function visible and chooseable. In iTunes it seems they did think of that possibility, inhibiting my phone from being restored there until "Find my iPhone is turned off". Well, where is that OFF button, please!
Anyone out there knows how to get the tracked phone back online for the rightful owner?
Thanks.

Either force the phone into recovery mode, as described here, & restore it:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1808
Or, login to iCloud.com, locate the phone, then erase it, then restore from backup or setup as new.

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I lost my phone and i got an unlocked 4s from my gf she used it before an its still connected to her icloud is there a way i can restore my icloud back up to replace hers without messing up the unlock also my latest backup isnt showing on my pc help plz!!

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If you did not activate Find My iPhone on the device when you had it, you will not be able to track it. The Find My iPhone app has nothing to do with it. That is only for trying to track another iOS device with it. Log into www.icloud.com and if you cannot see the device, you did not have Find My iPhone activated. If you see the device, but it says offline, then it could either be powered off or the battery dead. There is nothing that you can do without the phone in your hand about activation. Did you have a passcode on the device? Did you send a lost/wipe command? Do you have iOS 7 on the device. If you had iOS 7, then the phone cannot be restored and activated without your Apple ID and password. The device would be worthless to the thief. Change all of your passwords for accounts that you had on the phone.

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1. (You KNOW what's coming) NEVER restore or update any device without backing up/syncing first.
2. You can re-download virtually all apps without paying again.
3. SOL for music/media from iTunes - you'll have to pay again.
4. Photos and any other data/files on the phone which were lost cannot be recovered. There are no data recovery methods for iPhones.

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Your friend may have placed the ipod next to an object that repeatedly pressed the screen. Under certain circumstances this can lead to what appears to the iTouch to be failed attempts to access the system. After repeated failed attempts, the Touch increases the waiting time required for the password and may ultimately lock in the way you describe.
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Every time I try to restore my ipod it downloads the software then it says its processing it, then it says it cant download it right now. Is there any other way to unlock a locked ipod touch without the lockcode?

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Has your phone ever been hacked or jailbroken. This error message is what usually shows up for that. Are you using a supported carrier for the iPhone, or did someone hack the phone to unlock it to be used on another carrier. If that is the case, then there is no help you can get here as discussing hacked/jailbroken devices is not allowed.

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To recover it at this point you need to restore it using the computer it was last backed up to. This will remove the passcode.

HT4859 i broke my iphone and got a new one. My iCloud backup has a backup from the old phone and one from the new phone. The new phone didnt download everything from icloud. Is there a way to download the stuff i didnt get back?

i broke my iphone and got a new one. My iCloud backup has a backup from the old phone and one from the new phone. The new phone didnt download everything from the original icloud backup. Is there a way to download the stuff i didnt get back? please help

You'll have to do another restore from the old phone backup. But before doing that, tell us what was not restored. For example is it just photos that didn't get restored? If so, that seems to be a common problem for many users, judging by the posts left in the forum. There doesn't seem to be a solution to that problem (other then to tell users to ALWAYS sync photos to a computer and never trust an iCloud backup/restore to save photos.

My I pad is locked - forgot password- is there any way of unlocking it so that I do not lose photos on the device ? The I pad has never been backed up before

My Ipad has never been backed up before and is currently locked because I can't remember the password. Is there a way to unlock it without losing the photos on the device?

How can I unlock my iPad if I forgot the passcode?
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/ipad/ipad-troubleshooting-repair-faq/ipad- how-to-unlock-open-forgot-code-passcode-password-login.html
iOS: Device disabled after entering wrong passcode
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1212
How can I unlock my iPad if I forgot the passcode?
http://tinyurl.com/7ndy8tb
How to Reset a Forgotten Password for an iOS Device
http://www.wikihow.com/Reset-a-Forgotten-Password-for-an-iOS-Device
Using iPhone/iPad Recovery Mode
http://ipod.about.com/od/iphonetroubleshooting/a/Iphone-Recovery-Mode.htm
You may have to do this several times.
Saw this solution on another post about an iPad in a school environment. Might work on your iPad so you won't lose everything.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
‘iPad is disabled’ fix without resetting using iTunes
Today I met my match with an iPad that had a passcode entered too many times, resulting in it displaying the message ‘iPad is disabled – Connect to iTunes’. This was a student iPad and since they use Notability for most of their work there was a chance that her files were not all backed up to the cloud. I really wanted to just re-activate the iPad instead of totally resetting it back to our default image.
I reached out to my PLN on Twitter and had some help from a few people through retweets and a couple of clarification tweets. I love that so many are willing to help out so quickly. Through this I also learned that I look like Lt. Riker from Star Trek (thanks @FillineMachine).
Through some trial and error (and a little sheer luck), I was able to reactivate the iPad without loosing any data. Note, this will only work on the computer it last synced with. Here’s how:
1. Configurator is useless in reactivating a locked iPad. You will only be able to completely reformat the iPad using Configurator. If that’s ok with you, go for it – otherwise don’t waste your time trying to figure it out.
2. Open iTunes with the iPad disconnected.
3. Connect the iPad to the computer and wait for it to show up in the devices section in iTunes.
4. Click on the iPad name when it appears and you will be given the option to restore a backup or setup as a new iPad (since it is locked).
5. Click ‘Setup as new iPad’ and then click restore.
6. The iPad will start backing up before it does the full restore and sync. CANCEL THE BACKUP IMMEDIATELY. You do this by clicking the small x in the status window in iTunes.
7. When the backup cancels, it immediately starts syncing – cancel this as well using the same small x in the iTunes status window.
8. The first stage in the restore process unlocks the iPad, you are basically just canceling out the restore process as soon as it reactivates the iPad.
If done correctly, you will experience no data loss and the result will be a reactivated iPad. I have now tried this with about 5 iPads that were locked identically by students and each time it worked like a charm.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Try it and good luck. You have nothing more to lose if it doesn't work for you.
 Cheers, Tom

My iphone 4S wont allow me to restore a bckup of icloud it has just rebooted the os and for over 24 hours i have been trying to fix it i use this phone for my job so i need help

My iphone 4S wont allow me to restore a bckup of icloud it has just rebooted the os and for over 24 hours i have been trying to fix it i use this phone for my job so i need help. when i try to restore it says "Your iphone could not be activated becuase the activation server is unavailable, If the problom presests goto apple.com/support" It has done this for 27 hours now PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!

- Connect the iPod to the computer and see if iTunes sees it. If it sees it try to get the photos off the iPod.
- Next let the battery fully drain. It will likely take days. After charging for at least an hour try again
- Last, make an appointment at the Genius Bar of an Apple store.

My iphone was stolen, I used find my iphone app, and found that it was offline, however when tried locking mode option, I pressed remove device by mistake. Is there any way I can restore the iphone to my icloud/ apple Id again? No manual backup on laptop

My iphone was stolen, I used find my iphone app, and found that it was offline, however when tried locking mode option, I pressed remove device by mistake. Is there any way I can restore the iphone to my icloud/ apple Id again? No manual backup on laptop

The phone will automatically re-appear when it connects to the Internet. However, don't get your hopes up, as thieves know this & will make sure your phone never re-connects so you can locate it.

ICloud (beta) has no way to UNLOCK & RESTORE a lost iPhone?

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