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My 2 year old daughter goofed with my son's ipod touch and locked it out. The message says that he can try again in 22,566,234 minutes, which is a heck of a long time.

He is 8, and has lots of photos that he hasn't backed up. Went to the Apple genius bar, they said a total wipe was the only option, which caused him to cry for a long time.

Anyone on here have any other suggestions as to how he can recover his photos and stop being mad at his sister. Or is this a life lesson for him?

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Has the device ever been backed up to iTunes? If so you could blank it, then restore from that backup. You can check for backups in the iTunes preferences under the Devices tab. – hellothere Aug 22 '12 at 23:41
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I'd say this is probably a good life lesson for him... one never truly learns the utility of backing up unless one has actually lost something very valuable. – rm -rf Aug 23 '12 at 0:54

4 Answers

up vote 0 down vote

I hope the genius explained your options:

  1. Connect the device to the computer that last synced it - you can reset the timer with a sync / backup operation
  2. Wipe and start over

Both of these show how important a backup is. If the computer crashes, you'll need a backup to get past the passcode (since the backup is either in the cloud with an Apple ID password controlling it or on a computer which you control outside the PIN code used to lock the device). It also allows you the freedom to wipe the device to regain control of it now and then later, restore from the backup.

The life lesson is important whether you and your son can get past the passcode lock or not.

To get past the passcode lock, there are forensic tools to try and crack backups or image the device - but most new iOS devices have data protection and connecting it to a computer will just yield scrambled / encrypted files - and until you present the proper decryption key (which is stored in the keychain behind the PIN code) - physical access to the device won't yield the pictures in a usable form.

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up vote 1 down vote

best and easiest way to do it

plug in itouch 1. a window should pop up saying to veiw as or something NOT ITUNES i will put a picture 2. click view files 3. press a tab saing to view hidden files 4. go to DCIM folder 5. copy and past everything in there to your desktop 6. no downloads required 7. simple af 8. rejoice and let your son praise you 9. (too lazy to put pic if it doesnt show up then just go to documents/computer/itouch/its in there)*

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Welcome to the site. Despite the lack of editing, this actually is a more concrete answer and would get you several up votes if you had posted it with a little more time. Feel free to comment or edit in links to photos - they often help very much for people in the same situation – bmike♦ Apr 6 at 14:22
up vote 1 down vote

Download Diskaid 5. I had the same thing happen to me, but I was able to recover my Photos with it. Report back if it works.

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up vote 1 down vote

Not sure it'll work without unlocking the phone, but there are apps that can pull photos and music back off an iPod, eg. Phone To Mac (http://www.macroplant.com/downloads.php), or iExporer by the same company. Might be worth downloading the demo then testing.

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