What happens when an iphone gets disabled?

My friend forgot his passcode for his iphone and he got his phone disabled, and it didn't have a time on it but then when I called it, it went back to normal, is his phone okay now cause it looks fine but I just want to be sure?

This situation can occur on all iOS devices--iPhones, iPads, iPod touches--and comes in a few different forms. Sometimes you'll get just the plain "This iPod is Disabled" message, or one that says that and adds that you should retry it in a minute. Occasionally, you'll even get a message that says the iPhone or iPod is disabled for 22 million minutes and to try back later. Obviously you can't really wait that long, since 22 million minutes is nearly 42 years.

Whichever of those messages you're getting, the cause is the same: An iPod or iPhone gets disabled when someone has entered in an incorrect passcode too many times.

The passcode is a security measure that you can turn on in the iOS to require people to enter a password in order to use the device. If an incorrect passcode is entered 6 consecutive times, the iPod will be disabled. If you enter an incorrect passcode many more than 6 times, you may get the 22 million minutes message (which isn't a real amount of time; obviously you can't wait that long. That message is basically something designed to represent a really, really long time).

If you're seeing the disabled message, that means someone--maybe you, but maybe not (which is potentially a warning sign)--has entered the wrong passcode at least 6 times.