The answer from Payam Toloo, Owner of Payam Data Recovery:
My iPhone Won’t Boot – I Think It’s a Storage Issue
You’re not alone – this happens all the time! Running out of storage is one of the most common problems we see, and it can really mess up your phone when it gets that full.
Why the Apple Store Can’t Help
Here’s the thing: if your phone won’t turn on or is stuck in a boot loop, even the Apple Store is pretty limited in what they can do. They’re great for a lot of things, but when your phone won’t boot up, they usually can’t access your data.
What We Can Do
That’s where we come in. We have specialized tools that can talk to your phone even when it’s acting up like this. Think of it as a “back door” that lets us get to your stuff when the front door (normal startup) isn’t working.
Here’s our usual process: we create a complete iTunes backup of everything on your phone. Now, there’s one catch – if your phone was completely maxed out on storage, that backup might be too big to put back on the same size phone. But if you’re getting a new iPhone with more storage space, we can restore everything perfectly.
The Good News
Even though your phone feels completely dead right now, we can probably save your data. Honestly, we succeed about 9 times out of 10 with this exact problem. When phones get completely full, the operating system can get corrupted, but your photos, messages, and other data are usually still there – they’re just trapped.
STOP! Don’t Do This
Before you bring it to us, please don’t try to “fix” it yourself. I see people make these mistakes all the time:
Don’t do a factory reset. I know it’s tempting when nothing else works, but this will wipe everything permanently. There’s no coming back from that.
Stay away from those “data recovery” apps you see online. Most of them are scams that just do a factory reset in disguise. You’ll lose everything and pay for the privilege.
Just don’t mess with it at all. The more you try different things, the harder it might be for us to help you.
What to Do Next
Bring it in as-is. Don’t charge it, don’t try to turn it on repeatedly, just leave it alone. The sooner we can get our hands on it, the better your chances of getting everything back.
What’s next?