I’m curious if this has actually happened to someone to great dramatic effect

Personally, I’ve had episodes where I was tripping and lost access to the knowledge of passcode but luckily my sort of muscle memory saved the day but its not always a sure thing which was scary at the time

  • firebarrage@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    17 days ago

    It depends. If everything is stored unencrypted on the drive it’s pretty easy to reset passwords or boot to a USB and access everything. If it’s locked down hard you could be SOL. The worst I’ve seen happen is the loss of family photos with people who had passed away so they were irreplaceable.

    • cheese_greater@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      17 days ago

      It would be such a mindfuck honestly. Like all your billing, auth, files, apps, gone. Like I feel like its plausible you could literally end up on the street

      • firebarrage@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        17 days ago

        Probably not. It might be a pain in the ass but realistically you’ll be able to work with banks/utilities/work to get access back. As long as you have access to your email as well you can likely recover your accounts. Files are likely the biggest risk, remember to keep regular backups and even this can be recovered.