It's possible to make a secure enclave that will accept updates while the phone is locked, but doing so would wipe the encryption keys. (In this scenario, so lo

It's possible to make a secure enclave that will accept updates while the phone is locked, but doing so would wipe the encryption keys. (In this scenario, so long as the secure enclave is unlocked beforehand, it could accept software updates without a wipe.) It's theorized that Apple considered this option but chose not to go this route because it's a little riskier and a software bug might permanently brick 100 million phones. They may reconsider now.