How to STILL do 4 important things when an iPhone screen breaks

Smartphones are now part of our day-to-day life, meaning we carry them everywhere we go. Unlike telephones that lived on a desk or a wall, mobile phones are susceptible to accidents. Dropping on hard surfaces, for example. Unfortunately, displays are among the most vulnerable parts. A 2018 study from Mintel, found that 24% of smartphone owners in the UK had broken their mobile phone screen in the past two years. Besides iPhone parts, Samsung screens, Huawei displays and many others all had a similar vulnerability, the study found.

Modern smartphone screens break easily. This is because they are made of thin glass. Also, there is a huge demand for large phones with a sleek design. Glass plus sleek is a combination that is challenging to produce. Most people see their phones as a daily necessity, because of this it is not that uncommon to see people using phones with broken screens because they are either too expensive to replace or pose too much of an inconvenience.

Some people believe that once your phone screen is damaged, it has completely lost its use. This isn’t the case. We are going to concentrate on Apple’s iPhone family and, following the steps below, we will guide you through how to accomplish some crucial functions on your phone whilst the screen is unusable.

How to Turn off an iPhone with a Broken Screen

Every day we have to repair iPhones with a broken screen and we have to make sure we have first switched off the phone before opening the device. Users also experience the challenge of switching off your phone when the screen breaks. Normally, switching off an iPhone only requires you to long-press the lock/unlock button and a slide to power off option appears on your screen. But what would you do if you can’t use the slider to turn off the phone because the screen is broken? Here are some simple tricks you can use.

Turning Off Without Screen (Using Home Button)

Apple designers added two ways to turn off your iPhone without using the screen. But, it will depend on the phone model. If you are still using the older iPhone versions with a home button, follow the following steps to turn off the phone without using the screen:

1. Press and hold the lock/unlock button. The button can either be on the top or right side of the phone, depending on the model.
2. Press and hold the home button when still pressing the lock/unlock button. The home button is the button below the screen.
3. The phone should turn off after a few seconds. Release both buttons as soon as the screen shuts downs as continuing to hold them down will reset the phone.

Turning off iPhone Without Screen (For iPhones Without Home Button)

More modern iPhone versions like the iPhone X no longer have buttons, meaning the steps above may not be of much help. Worry not as there is also another way you can turn off your phone without using the screen. Long pressing the lock/unlock button on iPhone X does not prompt the power off slider as it does in the previous versions of the phone. Since the lock/unlock button on iPhone X only prompts Siri, turning off requires the use of a two-button combination.

The phone will prompt the power-off slider only if you simultaneously press and hold the lock/unlock button and the volume up or down button on the left side of the phone. If the screen is not responding, you can follow the below steps.

1. Press and release the volume up button on the right side of the phone. Don’t hold or long-press the button.
2. Press and release the volume down button.
3. Press and hold the lock/unlock button until the phone’s screen shuts down and then release the button immediately.
4. You can hold the lock/unlock button if you want the phone to restart.

How to Unlock an iPhone With a Broken Screen

iPhone locked screen is a security feature that prevents others from accessing your phone when it is in idle mode. Unlocking your phone requires a Passcode, Pattern, Touch ID or Face ID, meaning have to use the screen to unlock. Except when using touch ID. It is, therefore, hard to access your phone when the screen is cracked as you have to enter the passcode first. However, there are several possible solutions to help you access your mobile whenever the screen is unresponsive.

Unlocking a Brocken Screen iPhone with iTunes

Apart from helping us sync files to our iPhone, iTunes can also help you restore your phone easily. You can use iTunes to restore your iPhone and unlock without using the screen. This is possible IF you had enabled the “Trust this computer” option when synchronising data with iTunes before. if so then follow the below steps to restore and unlock your iPhone using iTunes.

1. Connect your iPhone to the computer you had synced with before.
2. Launch iTunes on the computer and update to the latest version if needed. iTunes will automatically detect the phone.
3. Go to the navigation panel on the left side of your computer screen, select “summary” and click the “restore iPhone” option.
4. Click on the “Restore” button on the new popup windows to restore your phone.
5. Wait for a few minutes as iTunes re-install the firmware package and restore your phone.
6. After that, your phone will restart as a new on, and you can reaccess it.

Remotely Unlocking a Broken Screen iPhone with iCloud

iCloud helps Apple users to back up and restore their iOS data and control their devices remotely. You can also use the “Find My iPhone” option in iCloud to remotely erase your locked phone if the cracked screen is a hindrance to accessing it. Follow the steps below to unlock your phone using iCloud’s Erase iPhone function.

1. Open iCloud Web using another internet-enabled device.
2. Sign in to your iCloud account using your Apple ID and password and click in the “Find iPhone” option.
3. Choose the name of your iPhone from the list of your devices and click “Erase iPhone” option to confirm.
4. Your iPhone will restart without the passcode for the locked screen.

Unlocking A Broken Screen iPhone Via Siri

Siri is another feature you can use to access your phone when the screen’s display is unresponsive. You should first ensure that the iPhone is using iOS 9 or earlier versions. If your phone is still active but the display isn’t working, follow the below steps.

1. For iPhone 7 and older versions, press and hold the Home button to turn on Siri. For later versions like iPhone X, press and hold the sleep/wake button, and Siri will activate.
2. Ask Siri to “Turn on Voiceover” and go back to the main unlock screen.
3. Swipe left or right until you select “Slide to Unlock” option, and double tap for the password page to appear.
4. Swipe right or left to highlight your correct password keys on the keyboard and double-tap to select each number.
5. Swipe to highlight enter and double-tap to submit the passcode.

Unlocking A Broken Screen iPhone Using Third-Party Unlock Tools

The market is full of iPhone unlock tools with a high success rate. In addition, they also won’t/should not erase your data. These tools are simple to use and will also normally not ask for any password to unlock. You also don’t have to worry about your iOS version as they are compatible with almost all the systems.

How to Backup an iPhone with a Broken Screen

Apart from the use of unlocking tools, most of the methods that we covered above involved erasing all data to remove the password. Erasing your data gets the phone back to how it was when just out of the box. This means you will lose your photos, contacts, apps and other important data in the phone’s memory. Backing up your data will help you keep the data even after unlocking it remotely. This is a good practice. Let’s see some of the ways you can do it.

If You Had Trusted a Computer Before

Using iTunes

You can follow the below steps if you had trusted a computer when the iPhone screen was still functional.

1. Connect the iPhone to the computer and turn on both devices.
2. Launch iTunes on the computer and select the ‘Device” icon on the screen.
3. The computer will recognise the phone and it will appear under the Device section.
4. Click ‘Summary” in the left panel and select the “Automatically Back Up” option.
5. Continue by selecting ‘This computer’ and click on the ‘Encrypt local back up’ checkbox.
6. Now, create a password to protect the backup in your computer.
7. Click the ‘Back up now’ button to store all the backups on the computer.

Using a Data Recovery Software

If you had installed a data recovery on the computer, well done. You can use it to recover data from the iPhone by following these steps.

1. Run the software on the PC and connect the iPhone.
2. Wait for the computer and utility to identify your phone.
3. Preview if the PC has a previous iPhone backup. If there is a backup, you can open it and extract the files from it.
4. If the computer doesn’t have a previous phone data backup, you can select the important documents and files on your iPhone.
5. Click on the ‘Backup Now’ option to start a backup and save the selected files in it.
6. After completing the process, confirm that you have created the backup successfully.
7. Finally, preview all the data you wish to get back and choose the ‘Recover’ button to get the saved PC data back.

If You Have Never Trusted a Computer Before

It may seem impossible to back up your data if you had not selected the ‘Trust this Computer’ option before you broke your iPhone’s screen. Fortunately, there may also be a solution for that if you have paired a Bluetooth keyboard with your device. if so, follow these steps to access your iPhone and create a backup.

1. Press the power button to check whether the display lights up or not.
2. If the display is visible but you cannot touch the keys, use the Bluetooth Keyboard that you had paired with the device to type the password.
3. Tap the ‘Trust’ button when prompted to trust this computer and select ‘Backup’ option to retrieve all the important data.

Note: you can also use Siri instead of an external keyboard if a small area of the screen is working. The process is similar but you will need a working part of the screen to enter the passcode using Siri.

How to Trust a Computer on an iPhone with a Broken Screen

Trusting a computer on a broken screen iPhone is almost impossible. The only way a user can do it is by using Siri if there is a part of your screen that is functional. Siri also works for some devices and not all. Just follow these steps if you decide to give it a try.

1. Activate Siri by pressing and holding the Home button and say “Open VoiceOver”.
2. Press the Home button twice to prompt the password screen.
3. Use the functional part of the broken screen to swipe left and right and move the VoiceOver cursor to different password numbers. Voiceover will also say the selected button to help you where the screen is not visible.
4. Next, when you have the selected all the numbers in your password, double click to enter the selected password.
5. Once the iPhone is unlocked, you can use VoiceOver to Click “Trust” in the “Trust This Computer” dialogue that will appear when you connect the iPhone to your PC.
6. Now you can backup your broken iPhone Using iTunes.

Conclusion

Having a broken screen can be stressful due to all the above hurdles. Repairing an iPhone screen is also expensive (though if you talk to us we may be able to help!).  The solutions above will only help you access your phone but the broken screen issue remains. To get your broken screen repaired, get the right iPhone parts, and ensure you have the necessary skills and tutorials. Cost-effective repair should then be quite possible for many users. For general advice on your situation, why not contact us.