[iMore Question]

With no action on my part (or at least on purpose) my iPhone 4S 7.1.2 has gone into emergency mode. Emergency mode asks for a really long PW (I have never seen this and don't know what it is). I can access the keypad screen, but not dial any other number. I can see the regular phone lock screen, and it offers me a slide option, but only goes to the emergency screen.

I am able to swipe up from locked screen and access wifi/airplane mode/cell mode, etc. I have tried turning them all off and all on.

I have tried powering off and on, holding down the home button, trying to dial a non-emergency number from the keypad (it will not dial, and red emergency word is still there), powering off & on quickly, powering off & letting it sit overnight, triple Home button tap, etc.

I tried to sync it to iTunes so at least I could have a backup.

It imported my pics & movies fine, but I couldn't even open file names on anything else on the iphone. iTunes is telling me it cannot do anything with a locked phone. There is no place to input my 4 digit unlock password.

I want to fix this without recovery, restore of DFU. I want my info. iTunes is asking me to update to V8, but I am not sure if that would hurt or help since the phone is disabled.

The only thing I haven't done is try to call the emergency number. I don't want to bother them.

Thanks

[kch50428]

Could someone have locked the device via 'Find my iPhone' from another device using your AppleID? Or via iCloud using your AppleID?