Anyone know about this iPhone error? I'm helping a friend and they are hoping to get their phone/videos off their phone at the minimum.

The phone shows a black screen with the words "iPhone Unavailable" on it. Oddly the phone got buggy and when inputting the lock screen code it kept saying it was wrong. The person said they were 100% sure they were tying it right, but it went to an iPhone disabled screen. I rebooted the phone and it asked for the login code, I input it 2 or 3 time and it said it was wrong, but then it would accept it and log in, but nothing would show on the screen. So it was absolutely having some odd issue where the lock code was right, but it was only accepting it sometimes. My friend tried to plug the phone into iTunes and it gave the option to do an "Update", and they did it which supposedly reinstalls the OS. It goes through this process fine, shows the apple logo, the status bar, reboots, shows the apple logo and seem fine until the screen goes black and only shows the words "iPhone Unavailable" on the screen in white letters.

So now I have the phone and am trying to get their Photos/Video off if there is any way. The phone is responsive, it turns on and off as the side buttons are clicked, and will wake up and show these words on the screen, and if the side button is pressed the screen will go black until you press the side bar again.

They DO NOT have an iCloud backup, or an iTunes backup. Phone is basically all they have for the data on it.

I've tried all sorts of software, I did the iTunes "Update" IOS Reload a few times with the same results, Tenorsoft REIBoot, and another program or two that seem to do the same thing iTunes does, reload the OS, and then the phone returns back to this "iPhone Unavailable" state.

What are my options at this point? Any? Is their data doomed? Any way I can get their Photos and Video off? Willing to buy a software if necessary.

Tips appreciated

EDIT: Resetting the phone and starting over from a blank slate is possible, the major issue here is for people who do not have an up-to-date iTunes backup, or an icloud enabled backup. Resetting the phone can be done with ease, the challenge here is getting the phone to be responsive again while retaining the existing data on the phone. If all you want to do is get the phone functional again as a blank slate, check the comments and that can be done with iTunes without much trouble. The solution most of us here are looking for is a way to get the phone to work again while retaining the existing data.

I've recently broke my iphone 11 and can't currently afford to buy/fix it so i decided to use my old iphone 8 thats been sitting in my cupboard. However when i charged it and turned it on, it just says 'unavailable' with a blank screen, it doesn't show the time, there's no 'emergency' or 're-set' button, legit just a black screen with unavailable scrawled across it.

I've tried resetting it with the buttons ( the increase sound, then decrease sound, then power button), tried to use my laptop with iTunes but my phone won't connect when i plug it in.

Any help appreciated!!!!!!!!! I cant afford a new phone :(