Completely dead · No response · Won’t charge
Your iPhone won’t turn on. Your data hasn’t gone anywhere
A dead iPhone is a power problem, not a data problem — the storage chip keeps your photos safe with zero battery, for years. We find the reason it won’t start, fix that at board level, and extract everything.
1300 806 557Free diagnostic · Fixed quote · Proof before payment
“Dead” usually means one small thing failed
An iPhone needs a healthy battery, a working charging path and a dozen power rails to come up in the right order before the screen ever lights. One weak link — a flat-and-failed battery, a worn charging port, a failed power-management component, one shorted capacitor — and the phone looks stone dead. Meanwhile the flash storage sits there unharmed, holding your photos exactly as they were. That gap between how dead it looks and how safe the data is surprises almost everyone we help.
What we check first
- Does it draw current? On the bench supply, the phone’s current draw pattern tells us in minutes whether it’s a battery issue, a short on a power rail, or a boot fault.
- Does a computer see it? A phone that’s “dead” but enumerates over USB is often minutes from recovery — the board runs, the display path doesn’t.
- Any history? A drop, a splash six months ago, a botched repair or a failed update each point at a different culprit — tell us everything, it shortens the diagnosis.
Why the data survives when the phone doesn’t
iPhone storage is NAND flash — it needs no power to remember. What it does need is the rest of its own board: on modern iPhones the storage is cryptographically married to the processor beside it, so the path to your data runs through making that specific board run again, even briefly. That’s exactly what board-level recovery is: repair the power fault under the microscope, bring the board up in a controlled state, extract everything, verify it, and only then worry about whether the phone itself has a future.
It’s also why “we can’t fix it” from a repair shop doesn’t mean “the data is gone”. Repair shops answer “can this phone live?”. We answer “can this data come out?” — a much easier bar to clear.
On the bench
How we wake a dead iPhone
Board-level diagnosis first — no guesswork part-swapping. Opened phones are handled under ISO Class 5 rated clean-air equipment.
Power diagnosis
Bench supply, thermal camera and current analysis pinpoint why the phone won’t start — battery, charging path, or a specific board fault.
Microscope repair
The failed component or short is repaired under the microscope. The goal is a board that runs stably — even if only long enough to extract.
Controlled boot
The board is brought up in a controlled state and your passcode unlocks the encrypted storage — on its own board, the only place it can.
Verified extraction
Everything is copied off, checksummed and shown to you as proof before payment. Then we give you an honest verdict on the phone itself.
Honest odds
What moves the odds on a dead iPhone
Our overall recovery rate is 92% across every device type we see — but your odds are personal to your phone. Here is what genuinely moves them.
Helps your chances
- The phone died quietly (battery or charge-circuit faults are very recoverable)
- A computer still makes a connection sound when it’s plugged in
- No repair attempts since it died
- You know the passcode
Hurts your chances
- Heavy impact or bend before it died — possible multi-fault board damage
- Long charger sessions after death heated a shorted board
- A previous repair removed or swapped board components
- Severe liquid event combined with the failure
Transparent from the start
What it costs
Diagnosis first, fixed quote second, and you approve everything before recovery work starts. No data, no recovery fee.
Standard assessment
Full diagnostic on your iPhone, a written report of what failed, and a fixed recovery quote. You decide from there — no obligation.
Critical priority
Your phone goes to the front of the queue with an engineer assigned same-day. For work deadlines, legal matters and can’t-wait situations.
Emergency 24/7
We start immediately and work continuously until it is done — nights, weekends and public holidays included.
Priority fees cover the expedited service; the recovery quote itself depends on what your phone needs and is fixed in writing before any work begins.
Straight answers
Dead iPhone questions, answered straight
How do you get data off an iPhone that won’t turn on?
By fixing the reason it won’t turn on — at board level. Once the failed component or short is repaired and the board runs, even briefly, your passcode unlocks the storage and we extract a complete verified copy. The data itself sat safely in flash memory the whole time.
My iPhone died suddenly with no warning. What was it?
Sudden quiet deaths are most often the battery or power-management circuitry — both among the most recoverable faults we see. The bench diagnosis identifies it precisely, and the standard assessment that finds out is free.
Apple said it’s unrepairable. Is the data gone?
No — “unrepairable” from Apple usually means uneconomic to repair as a phone, because their path is module or device replacement. Data recovery has a lower bar: the board only has to run long enough to extract. We take on plenty of phones Apple has declined.
Can’t you just move the memory chip to another iPhone?
No — and be wary of anyone who says they can. iPhone storage is encrypted and paired to the processor on its own board, so a transplanted chip alone reads as scrambled data. The correct route is making the original board run, which is exactly what we do.
What does it cost?
The diagnostic is free on the standard queue (3–5 business days). Critical priority is $650 + GST ($715 inc. GST) for an engineer within 24–48 hours, and 24/7 emergency is $1,400 with work starting immediately. The recovery quote itself is fixed in writing before any work starts.
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Dead phone. Living data. Let’s go get it
Free diagnostic, a fixed quote before any work, and proof of your recovered files before payment — on every dead-iPhone job.