Can’t unlock my broken old iphone but really need the photos, any workaround?

My old iPhone 13 is broken..the screen’s totally gone (just colorful streaks and frozen touch), face id won’t work either. I never got around to backing it up to icloud or anything smart like that.

Now I’ve moved to a new phone, but I just realized that all my old trip photos, videos, and some really personal stuff are still on the dead one. The problem is..I can’t unlock the phone at all, so I’m stuck.

Is there any clever trick people have used to get data off a phone like this? Just need to get those memories out somehow.

Tagged: Broken Iphone

iPhone

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Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

Mack

Participant

July 18, 2025 at 9:46 am

Thank you sooo much buddy @SilasVane..your response gave me hope as my phone does still power on.. I can feel the vibration and all. Just can’t interact with the screen or unlock it.

I never really used a Mac so mirroring’s probably not an option for me, but maybe I’ll check out one of those tools you mentioned. Thanks for once giving me a bit of hope

Silas Vane

Participant

July 18, 2025 at 9:22 am

One of my friend used an iphone data recovery tool on her laptop.

She said it scanned the iphone memory directly and even found stuff she thought was long gone. Not sure what tool she used, but I remember it worked with broken screens and all that.

Just saying… even if the screen’s toast, as long as the phone’s powering up, there’s still hope. Might be worth checking out some trusted desktop tools that specialize in iPhone recovery. They’re usually safer than all those YouTube hacks.

Mack

Participant

July 18, 2025 at 8:43 am

THATS EXACTLY ME RIGHT NOW!!

Gonna dig out the old laptop and see if it still shows up when I plug it in. I didn’t know the “trusted device” thing actually made a difference like that.

Ezra Flint

Participant

July 18, 2025 at 8:28 am

I faced this situation 2 years ago when I literally googled every possible “iPhone dead screen transfer hack” at 2am

If the phone was trusted on your computer before, that’s your golden ticket. Even if the screen’s unusable now, your computer might still recognize it.

Mack

Participant

July 18, 2025 at 7:08 am

I used to plug it into my laptop every now and then. Never did a full backup though, just charged it or transferred random stuff. Do you remember how you checked if the files were there?

Isla Voss

Participant

July 18, 2025 at 6:52 am

If the phone was ever synced with your computer before, you might be able to access some of the stuff. Like, even if you never explicitly backed it up, sometimes a pc or mac keeps some traces. Pleaese check

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)