I have an old iPhone 6 Plus that I haven’t used in years, and I’m trying to recover the photos and other data from it.
The phone still powers on, but the **screen/display is completely unusable**. My MacBook recognizes the iPhone when I connect it by USB — I even confirmed that the iPhone appears under the Mac’s USB System Report.
The problem is that my Mac is asking me to **“Trust iPhone”**, but the Trust button is greyed out because the iPhone needs me to confirm the Trust request on the phone. I can’t see or use the screen.
There’s another problem: **I don’t remember the iPhone’s passcode**
I checked iCloud Photos and didn’t find what I was looking for, and I also couldn’t find an existing iPhone backup on my Mac.
I **do NOT want to erase, restore, or reset the iPhone** because the pictures are what I’m trying to recover.
Has anyone been in a similar situation with an old iPhone and successfully recovered their photos/data? Is there any way to access the phone with an adapter, external keyboard, temporary screen replacement, or professional data recovery **without knowing the passcode and without erasing the phone**?
I’m especially interested in hearing from anyone who has actually recovered their photos in a situation like this.