My mom accidentally locked her self from her Iphone 12, she wasn't aware what the consequence would be if she tired many time to do this. Long story short she has been in mourning for a few weeks now with severe depression. All of her most recent memories of her youngest child who passed away are now gone, Apple support has told us there is no way to unlock the phone without a hard reset. This is a terrible feature especially if most people are unaware of it, I have had an Iphone for several years and am just now finding out also. She never backed up anything on her iCloud because she was unaware of the service as well, note she is in her late 40's and knows nothing about tech. Im now put in a position where I have to figure out how to break the news to my mom that all her most recent memories of her 16 year old deceased child is gone.
Is there really no way we can recover the photos?