Apple Unable to Restore Data From iPhone of Florida Teen Lost at Sea

[MvdM]

Well, they can ask the FBI to recover the data

 

[Shirasaki]

Well, they can ask the FBI to recover the data

And what about that mysterious hacker who provides assistance on accessing that now-famous iPhone 5C?

 

[Dr.Chroma]

All the more reason to start pushing waterproof phones. Not sure if days that far under the ocean would help though.

I'm not entirely sure water-proofing would have any further prevented the iPhone from not decaying. Salt is corrosive and eventually would have destroyed through the hardware.

 

[Jess13]

That’s a shame.

 

[vooke]

There are limits of physics and chemistry at work. Not Apple's fault

 

[captain cadet]

My understanding is that after a cvr/fdr (airplane "black box") is recovered from water/ocean it is stored in a container of water until it can be properly cleaned just before trying to recover the data. It is said to help prevent corrosion or other problems that might prevent data retrieval.

I wonder the condition of the phone when found on the boat (submurged in water, rain exposure only etc) and if any additional precaution to preserve the electronics were taken.

Probably would be but those devices are designed for a swim while iPhone bearly survives a swim in a toilet.
But if its been under salt water and heat for a few days (like it was) its already had the damaged done. It probably got submerged in water but too little to late.
Its a shame it failed though as I wished they could have got the data back
[doublepost=1463137012][/doublepost]

Fresh water is bad enough. Salt water? That phone didn't stand a chance. Sorry for the family, but realistically there was little hope of recovery.

I know data has been successfully taken off an SD card which was in the water for a hour or two. It was unrealistic but its always worth attempting as you got nothing to lose

 

[alexxn]

Couldnt they just restore a working iPhone from the kids latest iCloud backup?

I live in the same town the 2 kids are from - it was reported in the News Media that the phone wasn't set to backup to the Cloud -