iPhone SE: forgotten passcode

I’ve recently changed the password on my iPhone SE (running iOS 10.x?) and now I’ve forgotten it. I was able to use my iPhone for a few days from TouchID but after the iPhone restarted today, I can’t get into it. It's a 4 digit passcode.

I still remember my iCloud password. But the phone is not currently configured to back up to iCloud.

Would I be able to recover the Messages if I take my iPhone to an Apple Store? I don't have any trouble proving the iPhone and its data belong to me (I purchased the iPhone with my credit card, signed into my Apple ID and iCloud accounts). But my understanding is that they can't do anything either even if they want to.

Is there any way I can get back into my iPhone? Everything else can be erased, but I just really need access to my messages. For example, would I be able to jailbreak it given that it’s running a pretty old version of iOS?

Your question is old but still relevant. Sorry I didn't see it soon enough.

This is an important feature in iOS and has caused a tremendous stir among privacy advocates and law enforcement. Just do a search for "graykey device"

For all intents and purposes your iPhone is locked and will stay that way. Depending on the iOS version you have installed it may or may not be able to be "hacked" using a zero day exploit. This isn't realistic to the 99.999% of us out there who have forgotten some old pin lock.

You can use your iCloud account associated with the device, and IF you can see it with "find my iPhone/ iPad" you can initiate an erase command.

If you have synced with iTunes at anytime in the device's history, you can put it into DFU mode and restore that way.

The data is gone forever either way

I'm sorry but I see this occasionally, especially with senior citizens who walked out of the cell phone store with a shiny new iPhone, and haven't kept up their backups, never synced to a computer, and forgotten their Email account, email account password, itunes account, icloud account and the email account it's associated with... they lose all of those grandkid pics and videos.

It's the sad price honest people pay for security and privacy

The only way to reset the login PIN is to wipe the device.

As for JailBreaking, some JB's require that you wipe the device as well so you will have to properly identify your iOS version and then go to this website to see which JB is available for your device.