The latest issue with DHin hospital, can you help?

[Toorapid]

People have been so helpful.

He's still in hospital, still very confused but a bit more lucid if you catch him at the right time.

However, he's managed to lock himself out of his iPhone.

The McMillian nurse, who admitted IT is not her thing, says it's asking for his Apple ID. I don't use Apple and haven't a clue. DS1 has managed to get into his apple account using some guesswork, but to unlock it needs to get into his work emails, which none of us can do.

DH has his work laptop with him, a week ago he was using it and checking emails from his hospital bed, but now doesn't seem to be able to open it. He's getting very cross with himself because he can't make it do what he wants.

So our only way to contact him is via the bedside phone, which is extortionate and most annoyingly has a long message,which you're paying for, before you even get put through to the phone. Plus we can't send him texts etc. Which has been a way to let him know we're thinking of him (whether he knows it or not) when he hasn't been well enough to talk.

Any ideas how we get this phone unlocked?

You need to forget about that phone you won’t get it unlocked unless you have access to the email

Get him another phone with pay as you go sim and send it to him - problem temporarily sorted

It would be his work you would need to contact, for his email adress for you to open the emails. Really isn't the responsibility of the staff, and I doubt they have time. Call his work and explain- they should be able to help you.

If he is able to, He can call out on the hospital phone for free

Op, does he pay into a work pension? If so then it may be worth letting HR know about your DH’s condition as a lot of pensions get released on a terminal diagnosis.
Also, I would push for a visit. What are they going to say to you? A lot of hospitals are allowing some visits now.
Thinking of you all.

Another one who says he's not in a covid ward, have you a relative that could help you push for a visit? (only because you must be at your limit with all this xxx)

Just a suggestion OP, the hospital that we have just been involved in, let patients visit their relatives in the gardens. Is it possible he could be wheelchair outside at all? (sorry, I know he is poorly though xx)

@callmeadoctor
I don’t think that’s possible. He is bedbound and can’t sit up or move.

Is this phone owned by his employer? If so, they may have a mobile device management system on it which means they might have forced a code reset for some reason (one place I worked if you were out for four weeks you lost access to everything unless your manager informed IT before the four weeks was up, about 90% of managers had no idea this happened), or there may have been a security patch or something which meant he had to reset something himself, or his network password got locked so he also can't use the phone (this happens to be all the time)......etc etc.
They may be able to unlock it for you remotely or reset it to their default build.

But if it's a work phone, you should let them know.

I'm sorry this is so hard. A different phone us probably the best option now, a really basic one.

If it's just the 6 digit pin could you make some guesses at what it might be and ask the nurse to try them. Likely to be his birthday, yours or one of the childrens.

Sorry to hear of the situation you are in and I hope your dh is more himself once the infection is under control.

@AIOR

Firstly I'm very sorry for what you are all going through.

If the unlock email is going to the emails on his work laptop is there any chance your DH could open a webpage on it and then you use remote assistance software to access the laptop and open his work emails? There are a few different ones but something like dualmon is quite simple to use if your DH (or the Macmillan nurse) is able to. You open the website, enter a code that you provide and then you would have remote control of his laptop. Maybe you could open his work emails and retrieve the reset code for the phone then? This would create a one time connection, it is also possible to set it up so you could connect to the laptop whenever it had an internet connection.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions and think I can help.

You wouldn't be able to do any of that on any work laptop I've ever used, not allowed (nor able) to download stuff and won't run exe files unless an admin is logged in.

Massive security issue for someone external to the company to be able to log into his work email. Best thing is to ask the employer IT team for help.

Push the hospital, my husband was terminal and I was allowed to stay with him in his room for 3 days till we got him home for 2 days before he died. (This was just 3 weeks ago)

I've also the problem of passwords, DH was writing them down but he was struggling to remember them all - it's bloody hard as you feel you can't push 'when they are well' but all of a sudden it's too late. My DH walked out of the hospice on Wednesday teatime (was in for pain management) and woke up Saturday morning really confused and ended up being blue lighted in Sunday, I stayed with him, we got him home non responsive on the Wednesday tea and he died Friday afternoon,

I would be very surprised if work were not entirely sympathetic to what he is going through. If you rang and told them of your complications would they not be able to resolve it if you dropped the phone off with them for a repair?

In the meantime call the ward and ask that they facilitate you being able to have face to face meetings - explain you need to collect the phone, and see your husband and the distress you're feeling. Drop him a very cheap PAYG phone whilst you get his work to fix his old one.

First of all, I'm so sorry you're going through this. My husband was in hospital a few months ago and we struggled with communication. His condition wasn't serious but it was still really terrible not to be able to visit or talk easily.

Secondly, can you buy a phone off ebay thats the same model, make sure it's unlocked, set it up with a new apple ID and put a sim in it? That way he'll hopefully know how to use it but you will know any pins or passwords. Then drop it off for him. Alternatively, do you have another device you could drop off like a tablet?

GiffGaff is payg.

Easy. You set it up online choose a 'goody bag basically the tariff. They start at 5 quid a month although the 8 quid one might be better for minutes.

You register a card and tick a box to auto renew after 1 month.

Easy and cheap. Your dh won't need to do anything.

Giffgaff.com

The OP’s DH still is expected to live for another 18 months to 2 years. I don’t think that counts as being terminal enough to allow visitors, it seems. It’s very sad.

notapizzaeater I'm so sorry.

Sympathies OP, this sounds miserable.

On my iPhone I get this (black picture) which is the passcode lock / PIN (nothing to do with my Apple ID as you've already found). There are generally three or four ways past this, depending on how your husband set up his passcode -
• manually typing in a 6 digit password (note that it is entered numerically but might be a word, eg 'sesame' would be '737263'
• using thumbprint recognition on the home screen button (not visible on picture, at the bottom)
• 'drawing' a shape on the numbers (this is a pattern passcode)
• some sort of face id / looking at the camera

I have both the thumbprint AND number set up - so I usually use the thumb-entry but if I've just done the dishes (wet thumbs!) I can enter numbers instead. I don't have the pattern code but lots of people do so it may be that what's needed is a shape (eg imagine drawing a letter Z by dragging thumb over 1,2,3 then 5,7 and along 8 and 9).

Mine says 'Touch ID or Enter Passcode' so it may be that the info at the top will say what sort of thing is needed to unlock it (eg 'Swipe up for Face ID or Enter Passcode' etc).

I don't know of a way to break into that beyond resetting the phone from scratch. If your husband sync'd his phone (backing up) with his laptop (either by wifi or connecting cable) then you'd be able to recover the phone's contents from the backup after a reset to clear the passcode, but if not then you end up with a factory reset phone - though at least you'd be able to download WhatsApp and other apps, using his Apple ID (actually I think you'd be able to use any Apple ID at that point).

His Apple ID (email and password) would presumably also let you log into iTunes on another device and perhaps see if there's a backup there I suppose (though I think backups are onto computers, rather than 'cloud' but may depend on setttings).

The Covid Mutual Aid groups / local council volunteers are still active I think, and I know that they were helping people with tech matters early on and may still be able to, worth asking I suppose?

Also if you go to Apple here getsupport.apple.com/?caller=cups&SG=SG003 then type unlock in the Search bar and click on Cannot lock or unlock phone from the options that appear, it will then take you to a page where you can chat online or by phone (white picture) - you may need to use your husband's Apple ID to log in, or you can create your own.

Good luck
Jo

Thank you so much for all your help last night, things seem a little brighter today.

I spoke to him on the bedside phone and he seemed with it enough to want to try and call me back - he does get free calls to a landline, or so he says. However, he didn't call for an hour or so. The success came because the "wonderful wonderful tea lady" had helped him, but he must have been able to ask and remembered the number.

We had a nice chat and he seemed lucid enough that I suggested we had another go at making a messenger call and we did it! The only problem is it doesn't "ring" so he won't necessarily know he has an incoming call, but baby steps. He's going to have a look at the settings. He wouldn't have been able to even say that yesterday.

The phone seems to have reverted to factory settings but we're going to park that for now. He does apparently already have a document with all his passwords, which he will send me. We'll see if that makes it!

Ah that must have been lovely Toorapid :) Well done him!

Glad you've been able to speak to him @Toorapid!

good news glad hes feeling brighter

It might be a circular issue that cant be resolved without the help of his employers IT dept.

In order to access my work laptop, I need my iPhone to work as I have to use it to generate a code to access my laptop. If my iPhone stops working I'm screwed as I then can't access my work emails which I need to access toget the iPhone reset. Its massive pain so I hope it's not that, but just putting it out there just in case....

Really glad you spoke to him.

So glad you spoke to him, maybe you can ask PALs to organize someone to assist him with getting that document sent to you asap (in case he gets a bit loopy again) It sounds like its pretty crucial for you to have it. If it is a google document, he can just share it with you.