Help, locked out, can’t connect

Got my 3.1 from Uy at an event last May. He set it up, put what he said was a conservative tune in it and locked to my phone (no idea if paired/pin/password, don’t remember. Just said I wouldn’t want to be at an event without my phone as the only one that can access my board.)
Been riding it since then changing nothing. Putting new rails on and a bkb, opened up and installed remote dongle, sealed back up and rode it. Doing fine. I have just used the vesc tool app on iPhone to monitor voltage etc. buddy tells me to get float control app. I do so, we open but something is not happy once connected. I have not updated my vesc since last May, so maybe 6.1 FW? Power cycle a few times, kill app etc.
Turn on float control and go to tweak tail stiffness, motor starts crunching like crazy. Decide to run motor config again, can’t access board to do so on vesc tool.
Can’t seem to link to board with any phone. It’s more than motor crunch, not rideable, no idea what changed.
So the question is, how to I get this controller to talk to me (or other phones as well). Hook up via USB C and load updated FW?


Update, turn board on with no float control app open and remote not on, it rides normally, no crazy growling crunching terrible noises coming from motor. Will try to see if float only is ok, then try remote separate.