I have got a friend with both an iPhone and iPad which they have forgotten the passcode.
They do not mind doing a factory reset. There appear to be two ways of doing this -

1. Find my iPhone. Both devices are set up for this, but when you do a reset from iCloud it says it will reset next time the device is connected to the internet. However, you can't connect to the internet because you can't unlock it.

2. Connect to a computer and iTunes and put it into recovery mode. I have also tried this, it downloads a new version of IOS but when it comes to resetting the phone it says to acknowledge on the phone, but in a similar way the phone doesn't display anything without successfully unlocking it.

What am I missing ?

Do you mean they have forgotten the apple id, they must use the pass code every time they use the phone. i think it can be reset using your email address.

You need DFU Restore mode ideally. Google it, or this is how I think you access and use it (been a while since I last needed it myself though):

1. Turn the phone off.
2. Hold down the home button and plug it into your computer with iTunes open.
3. Keep the home button held down until iTunes detects the phone and says it is in restore mode.
4. iTunes should now allow you to restore the phone with the latest firmware.
5. Once it is complete you will have to log into the phone using the iCloud credentials that the phone is associated with (this is called Activation Lock).

A

Yes, I did Google it and came across those same instructions which didn't work on either device. They left me in the situation I described, expecting a response from an iPhone which has the passcode lock on and no way to proceed. But on further experimentation when I went into recovery mode by doing a hard reset and then holding that until recovery mode, it worked (on both devices). All now sorted.

No, I do mean the passcode. In one case their 7 year old child reset the passcode and then forgot what he had done, and in the other case they had been away abroad for a year and similarly forgot the passcode.

Incidentally, this friend of mine who I have been helping has an Apple id of ****@apple.com where the *'s are her real 4 letter first name. She has no idea how she got this id originally. I thought such email addresses would only have been given to Apple employees ?

It will be given to the first person who requests it.

Requested from whom ?

I can't say I've ever seen an email address on the Apple domain not an official Apple person or function.

Yeah it should only be @iCloud.com, @me.com or @mac.com
She could have entered it wrongly entered it when she signed up or an employee during a phone support request has entered it incorrectly.

Yes, that's my point, it's not an Apple id, it's an internal Apple address. I also can't believe you can get one by entering it wrongly.