Generally yes it will use accessible, accepted wifi first then when not available out and about it accesses the mobile network for all transmission phone calls and data transmission. It will show you if there are wifi networks available around you, most will be locked and not available. If you are located near a free hot spot it will notify you of the network and if you want to use it you can click on it and connect. Some free hot spots require that you get a password from them to use their free network. Keep in mind that any open free hot spots is just that open to anyone and not secure so don't be doing banking or using credit cards. I personally don't even access my email on an open hot spot.

mikecowley- I disagree with the view that it isn't in Apple's interests to be helpful. My interpretation is that Apple is making it difficult for a person who can't prove that they don't have a stolen phone to get that phone activated. I prefer that position because it provides a strong disincentive to thieves, and that is in the best interests of customers as it provides all iPhone owners a lowered risk of theft and robbery. The OP's situation is unfortunate, because I believe her that it is a legitimately owned phone, but if Apple started making exceptions for all plausible stories then the value of their policy would be next to nil.

I have a desktop Windows-based pc, as well as an iPad and iPhone. I can transfer photos from the iPad and iPhone to my computer simply by connecting the iPad and/or iPhone to the computer with a USB cord. Well, to clarify, the end that goes into the iPad and iPhone has a Lightning connector, and the end that connects to the computer has a regular USB connector. Once the device is connected, I get a popup window on my pc saying that a new device has been detected, and asking me what I want to do. I click on the choice to explore files on the device. Then I navigate to the folders with the photos, and do the copy/paste thing (there are several different ways to do that, but you should be familiar with them). I don't do "move" because if anything hiccups (such as a power outage, etc.), I don't want to lose the photos. Once they've been copied to the desired destination, I can delete them from the iPad/iPhone. Easy peasy.

It sounds like someone played an early April Fools joke on you and edited an autofill file on your devices. Does anyone come to mind? It might be accessible via the Settings tab on the Chrome home screen, but I'm just guessing.