How do I reset an iphone 4s?

pleasehelpme2

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For simplicity's sake I've gotten this phone from my relative, who has not used this device in a long time. They forgotten the password and have given me some suggestions as to what the password could've been. All of them were wrong and now it says something along the lines of "Iphone disabled connect to itunes". My friends have told me that this "itunes" is something for listening to music, so I'm not sure how it'll come into play for resetting the phone. My relative has also forgotten nearly all the info regarding the device such as the id and the corresponding password. As far as I know that plays no part in the resetting process. Is there a way to get the images and such off of the device in its current state? There's nothing important but I just want to double check. I've seen some videos online about how to reset one's phone but I still don't understand, I'm still new to this smartphone stuff to be honest. Could you please explain to me in great detail as if I were an unknowing schoolboy in his 4th year? I would greatly appreciate it.
 

FAST6191

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... thanks for this week's "wow I am old" moment.

Itunes was originally something for music, however it managed ipods and later iphones as far as getting data to/from them (officially it was the only way as well but other options did exist). The iphone4 family still being within that paradigm but did do over the air updates and the like so it was mostly a convenience and means of doing backups for most people. Said backups would include a factory reset though.
You will want the pin code at least though if going this method.

If it is files from them then do check if there are old laptops that might have backed things up and just been stored rather than flattened and sold on. That might have pictures to at least the last backup (and it was fairly automated/something it bugged you to do rather than relying on tech illiterates to make the "everybody forgets to back up once" mistake) which could be something in this, and they will be simple files within the itunes directory (indeed such things were the primary cause of full hard drive in those timeframes -- they might only be a few gigs but when the average laptop of the era would be good to have 80 gigs then several backups of a full phone or indeed two or three if family usage nails that quickly enough).

In most cases though you will want the password, or associated icloud account* to bypass protections if doing it the "proper" way -- no point in having none or someone could steal the phone, plug it into a random computer and copy files off as a slightly more annoying USB drive.
I am not sure what has been achieved on the hacker side of things here (I think we might be beyond baseband unlock for this but I have not kept up with iphone jailbreaking and hacking for the older stuff) as that might be able to bypass things as well. A casual scan says there are some things available depending upon the IOS update it is on but at this point I am copy-pasting one of those and don't have a 4s here to test with.
https://www.coolmuster.com/unlock-iphone/remove-activation-lock-without-previous-owner.html looks like a reasonable start, but I have no experience with them.

*if someone sent an email from their iphone in that timeframe (to themselves, to some relative that keeps old emails, to a friend...) then it might include the icloud ID associated with it as a lot of phones would default to the apple email service.
 

pleasehelpme2

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... thanks for this week's "wow I am old" moment.

Itunes was originally something for music, however it managed ipods and later iphones as far as getting data to/from them (officially it was the only way as well but other options did exist). The iphone4 family still being within that paradigm but did do over the air updates and the like so it was mostly a convenience and means of doing backups for most people. Said backups would include a factory reset though.
You will want the pin code at least though if going this method.

If it is files from them then do check if there are old laptops that might have backed things up and just been stored rather than flattened and sold on. That might have pictures to at least the last backup (and it was fairly automated/something it bugged you to do rather than relying on tech illiterates to make the "everybody forgets to back up once" mistake) which could be something in this, and they will be simple files within the itunes directory (indeed such things were the primary cause of full hard drive in those timeframes -- they might only be a few gigs but when the average laptop of the era would be good to have 80 gigs then several backups of a full phone or indeed two or three if family usage nails that quickly enough).

In most cases though you will want the password, or associated icloud account* to bypass protections if doing it the "proper" way -- no point in having none or someone could steal the phone, plug it into a random computer and copy files off as a slightly more annoying USB drive.
I am not sure what has been achieved on the hacker side of things here (I think we might be beyond baseband unlock for this but I have not kept up with iphone jailbreaking and hacking for the older stuff) as that might be able to bypass things as well. A casual scan says there are some things available depending upon the IOS update it is on but at this point I am copy-pasting one of those and don't have a 4s here to test with.
https://www.coolmuster.com/unlock-iphone/remove-activation-lock-without-previous-owner.html looks like a reasonable start, but I have no experience with them.

*if someone sent an email from their iphone in that timeframe (to themselves, to some relative that keeps old emails, to a friend...) then it might include the icloud ID associated with it as a lot of phones would default to the apple email service.
I asked them and they've given me the go ahead to wipe the thing clean. How would I go about that from step one? To make the situation more clear I'll reiterate what I do and don't have. I don't have the passkey, id information (that includes the password corresponding to the id and the id itself), as far as I'm aware no backups were made on any devices that we still have around. I do have the phone itself, a new battery that's been recently placed within, the old dead battery in the garage, my computer that doesn't have this itunes thing, and that's about all I can give you at the moment. I do know the email that would likely correspond to the id however my relative has expressed no interest in helping me recover their now lost account information. Apparently they've also taken the images that they've wanted from it as well, so no need bothering there. There's also been no modifications to the phone, as in jail-breaking or what-have-you.
 

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