Frequently Asked Questions About Find My iPhone (and iPad)
I’ve been getting a lot of hits for my article on Protecting and Recovering Your iPhone and iPad from Loss and Theft, and the search queries I’m seeing in my logs, together with the visitor comments, have raised a number of recurring questions. I’ve decided to publish this one-stop-shop of answers for all of the different queries that I see people searching for when they arrive. Although my article addresses a number of these, I wanted to put them all in one post for easy reference. I’ll update this post as new questions crop up. Here goes, in no particular order:
- Can I put some contact details on my iPhone’s screen in case it’s found by someone?: I’ve put together the free iPhone Lockscreen Generator to make this task easy! Find My iPhone also allows you to remotely display a custom message on your phone’s screen.
- Can I locate my iPhone/iPad if I didn’t have Find My iPhone configured on it?: Unfortunately not. Find My iPhone (or another tracking program) is the only way for you to locate your device.
- Can I locate my iPhone/iPad if I had Location Services turned off, or Airplane Mode turned on?: No, both of these settings prevent your device from reporting its location to the Apple servers (this includes 3rd party tracking services too).
- Can I find my iPhone/iPad when it is turned off (or battery is dead)?: Simply put, you can’t. The device needs to be on (and have a network connection) in order for it to appear in Find My iPhone for you to track it.
- Can I find my iPhone/iPad if the SIM card is removed?: Yes, this is possible, but only if the device is turned on and connected to a Wifi network. This would allow the device to return its GPS location to Find My iPhone.
- Can I track my iPhone/iPad if it’s been erased or restored?: If your device has been restored (or erased using the ‘wipe’ functionality), you will no longer be able to track it.
- Can I track my iPhone/iPad using its IMEI or Serial Number?: No, it’s not possible for consumers to track a device using its IMEI or Serial Number. In some cases the police/telco may be able to track a phone using its IMEI.
- What should i do if I lost my iPad and cannot locate it?: Ummm… Step 1: panic, Step 2: if you had Find My iPhone set up on it, you can request it to send you an email if/when the device is located. Otherwise report it lost/stolen to the police (give them its Serial Number), and if it’s found they may return it to you.
- Is there a reason to not wipe a lost iPhone?: This is a particularly good question. One reason to not wipe it would be so that you can continue tracking it and hopefully recover it. The other side of the coin is the security and privacy side. If the data on the device is extremely private or sensitive, then you may sleep better knowing it’s been wiped.
- Can I start using iCloud after my iPhone is stolen to wipe the phone?: No, if you didn’t already have iCloud set up on your device with Find My iPhone enabled, you can’t do so after the device is stolen.
- My iPhone/iPad was only protected with the PIN, will the thief be able to crack it?: It’s unlikely. If they manually enter the wrong PIN too many times, they’ll get locked out. Here’s Apple’s statement about this: “If you repeatedly enter the wrong passcode, your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch will be disabled for longer intervals before you can try again. After too many unsuccessful attempts, you won’t be able to try again until you connect it to the computer with which you last synced it.” That said, someone with with the necessary technical knowledge, and access to specialised forensics tools would be able to brute force it and gain access to the data.
- I had Find My iPhone disabled, but can I track my iPad through iCloud’s Photo Stream if the thief starts taking pictures?: If they take pictures with Geotagging, then you would be able to find out where those pictures were taken (the GPS info is stored in the picture’s metadata). So, if they take a picture whilst at home for example, you could find out (approximately) where that is.
- I accidentally removed my device from Find My iPhone while it was offline, will I still be able to track it?: Yes, if your device is able to get back online and still has Find My iPhone enabled, it will automatically reappear in Find My iPhone.
- If I remote lock my iPhone, can someone still access it?: Only if they already know the currently-set PIN.
- I issued a wipe command for my device, but then subsequently found it. I have data on it that I don’t want to lose, how can I safely recover it?: Best thing to do is to turn it off (if not already), remove the SIM card, and turn off any Wifi networks nearby that your device had access to. You will then be able to turn it on and plug it into your computer to perform a backup and copy off any data/photos. Then allow your phone to go online, get wiped, and then plug it back into your computer to perform a restore using the latest backup. It’s probably not the best solution, but the remote wipe is intended to be the last resort!
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you really smart and thanks for responding to my questions…
I have lost my iPhone,is there any chance of me finding it, if they connect it to a PC, even if the phone has a password lock.
from what i know an iPhone doesn’t connect to i tunes unless you take the pasword lock off.
is there any chance of me finding out were it was connected to
Sadia,
The only way you’ll be able to find it is if you had Find My iPhone set up, and your phone hasn’t been erased and is able to connect to the internet. Otherwise you’re out of luck.
it had ihound,do you know how long they store your location for its been 2days
also it had my internet enabled ,but i’m sure they wouldn’t be able to connect it to a PC cause i had a security code set up,will it still show its location
If it had iHound then log in to their service and see if it locates it, I don’t know how their service works so you should contact them. They would still be able to completely reset your iPhone by connecting it to iTunes, it doesn’t matter if you had a passcode set.
My phone disappeared one night, its been a few days and ‘find my iPhone’ states that its offline. Im guessing if it ever is turned on again i should get the ‘iPhone has been found’ email?
but what if somebody removes the sim/inserts a new sim and then turns it on? if there is network/wifi will i still get the ‘iPhone has been found’ email.
great article by the way.
Hey James,
Thanks!
You need to make sure you’ve checked the “Email me when this iPhone is found” checkbox in Find My iPhone.
If somebody doesn’t wipe your phone but simply inserts a new SIM that has internet access, then it should still work. Same if it gets a Wifi connection.
I just checked my settings, i have checked that box. Hopefully IF someone had found and kept it, it gets a spot of internet access before they can wipe it.
Thanks for the advice!
So from what I have read, once the phone or pad is swiped clean, you can’t trace the device with all the programs that were once installed on it.
Like the geotagging, is their a way to track your device after it’s been stolen and wiped with some type of3rd party program. I mean their has to be something out their. Yea you give the police the information but that is the only proactive solution?
Michael,
Once your iPhone or iPad has been wiped and restored, it’s as if it were a brand new device. The only thing that remains the same is the Serial Number and IMEI. But because there are no apps and Find My iPhone settings have been erased, there is no way for the device to phone home.
The iPhone/iPad is not designed to be a persistent tracking mechanism, and as such operates within the limitations of its functionality.
Thank you and thank you for the rapid response. Have a good day.
My phone was stolen last night. Find my iPhone worked for the first hour but I was unable to pinpoint the exact location and then either the phone died, was turned off or the SIM card was taken out. I have a passcode on my phone. Is there anyway the thief can bypass the passcode if they wipe my phone or insert a new SIM?
And I keep trying to find my phone using Find my iPhone. If they have put in a new SIM card and/or have wiped the phone, will my display be different? Will the device just disappear from the list of my devices or will it just continue to say “No location available” for my iPhone? That would be helpful to know so I am not just chasing over something that is irrecoverable at this point. Fingers still crossed….
Bernadette,
No, the passcode cannot be bypassed if your phone is wiped or they insert a new SIM.
If they do one of those two things, it will continue to say “No location available”.
Good luck!
Thanks for your help and your super quick response! :-)
Okay, been searching the Internet on this topic. Unfortunately a thief can get all the info they want to make a stolen iPhone work for them (http://osxdaily.com/2011/01/16/forgot-iphone-passcode-how-to-reset/). Grrr. It’s looking like my only option would be to research Craigslist for a phone fitting my phones description and taking it back. If they jailbreak it or wipe it, I’ve read they can bypass passcode. And if they wipe the phone or jailbreak it, would Find my iPhone still work when in WIFI area? I am dying without my phone!!!! :-(
If I do decide to get my phone blacklisted…will it only be blacklisted with my service provider (AT&T) or will it be blacklisted everywhere? Can I call multiple companies to give them my IMEI so that they blacklist it as well? And I’ve read that if I blacklist it but the thief jailbreaks it, he/she can use with another company? Even if jailbroken, will they never be able to use it on my original service provider?
Sorry for the catharsis of questions!!!
Bernadette,
If you read that page correctly, it says “This will wipe all files, settings, and apps from the iPhone, including the passcode.” So if they do decide to do that, they will wipe your data in the process, however you won’t be able to track it if they do.
If you get it blacklisted (depending on the country), it’s usually blacklisted nationally (I think). If it’s a national blacklist, then it doesn’t matter if they jailbreak it. That said, they can still use it abroad.
Okay. Soooo, another question. I’m sure I’ve become a nuisance by now, sorry! So I’ve been experimenting with Find my iPhone and my remaining Apple products (iPad and Macbook Air). I have the “Email me when found” option checked. I sent messages to the iPhone, iPad and Macbook. I also sent a remote lock to my iPhone. I did this all yesterday. I had all my devices turned off when I sent the messages. As soon as I turned them on, I immediately heard the alert and saw the message displayed. I also immediately received e-mails stating, “Your message to My iPad/Macbook has been displayed.” However, the message and lock for my iPhone were both pending. Today, I receive an e-mail that stated, “Your message to My iPhone has been displayed.” and another stating, “My iPhone has been locked.” Yet I still can’t get a location, it still keeps showing up as “offline” whenever I search for it.
Any idea what this means? Advice?
PS – If those messages listed above were displayed….i am wondering why I only got those messages and not a “Your iPhone has been found” message. Does it mean the device was turned on? But not long enough to “be found”? Curious…
AND – i just checked my account on my carrier’s website. The person hasn’t made or received any calls. But text messages that had been sent to me from a few friends were received today around the same time that I received Find my iPhone notification emails regarding the phone. So this has to mean the SIM is still in it, right? That they just keep turning it off or something?? Seriously don’t know what to do lol…
You again! ;)
It sounds like your iPhone was indeed turned on. Are you sure you had checked the “Email me when this iPhone is found” checkbox in Find my iPhone? If the message and lock were delivered, it should definitely have been able to get a location (although one can never be sure).
What message did you display on your phone? At this point I would recommend making sure the ’email me’ checkbox is checked, and maybe send another message offering a reward?
Yes, I am 100% positive that the email button was checked and is still checked. The “your iPhone has been found” message regarding my iPad or MacBook was not sent either, only the message I had requested to be sent to them. And in the message to the iPhone, I did say something about a reward and left a phone number.
So I filed a police report, police officer came to my house and even said he would look at the cameras at the location where it was taken. Didn’t think a police officer would go that far, but if he actually follows through, then that is awesome. If nothing happens in the next week, I’ll have it blacklisted. So getting blacklisted – if someone is already using it, will it render it useless? Or does it just mean no1 can activate it from that point on? If someone already put in a new SIM prior to me blacklisting it, would they still be able to use it?
Now for my last question, as I am losing hope in finding my iPhone. If I get a new phone with my same old phone number, will I no longer be able to attempt to track the phone on Find my iPhone app?
I shoulda went with Verizon….they don’t have pesky SIM cards that can b easily taken out….and they have service almost anywhere. Grrrr.
Hi Bernadette,
Good to hear about the police investigation, hope something comes of it.
Otherwise, assuming you can blacklist it, those blacklists are normally shared nationally across all carriers, and should render the handset immediately useless (for making calls at least). They’ll still be able to use it like an iPod Touch.
Find My iPhone shows each unique device that you’ve set up (based on serial number), so even if you get a new phone with the same number, it’ll show up as a separate device. You’ll still be able to track the old one should it come online.
Okay, great! Thanks so much for all of your help! :-)
So I just lost my iphone at an airport 2 days ago – i locked it and sent a message. Phone appeared to be off or back in the air. Today I get the email saying its been locked and message delivered. However, I go to the cloud and it says its offline. Is there a way to find out where it was turned on?
Esteban, if you ticked the checkbox as per the screenshot in one of my previous comments, it should have sent you an email IF it was able to get the device’s location (not always possible if it can’t get a GPS lock).
I left my phone (4GS) in a taxi on a Pacific Island. I got home a few days later after being on a ship and tried to track it / erase it, but had to wait to see if it was used on the internet. In the meantime I used my old iphone (3GS) and backed it up with in itunes with my info.. Unfortunately now the icloud is tracking my old restored phone not the one that is missing. What can I do to make it track the phone that is missing please?
I have lost my ipad. It has wifi & 3g. Can I track this with my AT&T account even if it gets wiped? I haven’t seen this issue addressed..
I remotely locked my ipod touch prior to reading this post. Is there a way for me to remove the lock?
My iPhone was stolen yesterday at school. The problem I have is that location services is turned off because of a limited data plan. Is there anyway that I can track it? I have find my iphone but forgetting about it, I neglected to create the account. HOWEVER, I did create a Lookout for iphone account and I have tried tracking it from that app, but it cannot locate. Is there anything that I can do?
Revanth, please read the FAQs. I refer you to point 3 which states that if Location Services is turned off, there is no way to track your phone. Lookout will also need to have Location Services turned on.
However even with Location Services turned off, you should still be able to send a message to your iPhone, or wipe it, if it has internet access.
Danny, if your old phone ever gets back online, it should reappear in Find My iPhone.
Aly, no you can’t track it if it gets wiped.
Monique, you can’t remotely undo the lock.
iPhone 4S was stolen last night at the gym. tried tracking it with my brother’s 4S but it was offline already. I have an email that the phone was locked and message was sent, but it didn’t have a location. feel like i missed an opportunity to track it because i was away from the computer. I thought the email would give a location?
You didn’t miss any opportunity by being away from the computer. It sounds like your iPhone had internet access, but it wasn’t able to get a location (otherwise you should’ve received an email).
Are you sure you had Location Services and Find My iPhone turned on?
thanks for responding SJ. I am sure that both are on. I have the emails you are referring to. It informs that the actions of locking remote locking my iphone was completed as well as the message I sent to my iphone was completed. I have the time and date that the actions were completed but then all it says is to “Use Find My iPhone on an iOS device or go to http://www.icloud.com/find on a Mac or PC to take additional actions.” Any recommendations on anything else I can do further?
If a Iphone has been stolen and they do a restore with iTunes. Does iTunes allow the user to download new apps to the phone? Wouldn’t you think apple would track that device to a Apple ID? and not allow any downloads.
This way atleast the phone is disable via the carrier and apple also protects it from downloading content. Just wondering this process.
Hi MForsey,
When a phone is restored, it’s essentially new. The phone does not know it’s been stolen. Apple doesn’t get involved in blocking phones, as it could create a lot of headaches for them.
In the US you will soon be able to block devices based on their IMEI number: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303815404577334152199453024.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
When I open Find My iPhone in icloud.com on my Mac, it sho’s ‘Riley’s iPhone’ as offline, even though I am connected to a wi-fi network and the internet is working. I have no sim card installed, would this be a problem do you think? Thanks in advance
I lost my iphone (4s) this weekend just passed. The find my iPhone app was more of a frustration than anythings else. I could my iPhone moving around the city, someone had picked it up and ignored my messages to the phone asking him\her to meet me somewhere to return it.
I was running around the city after it untill eventually I gave and did the remote wipe and got the SIM cancelled.
Basically, if someone takes your phone, its very difficult to get it back, even if you can see where it is on the Find my phone app. You cant walk up to people in a crowded space, knowing that one of them has your phone and start making accusations. I was even trying to listen for the loud beeping it should have been making and I know I was only a few feet away from it (and who ever had it).
They just keep moving around the city untill you give up.
@Riley:
Sounds most likely like you have Location Services turned off. Or you have Find My iPhone disabled. Check these two settings in Settings > Location Services > Find My iPhone, and Settings > iCloud > Find My iPhone.
@Moonfox: You were pretty unlucky. In many cases people will stop, or go home, in which case it’s a lot easier to track down. In terms of securing your information, you did the right thing. It’s too bad you weren’t able to recovery your phone.
hey bro..
My phone was stolen 2 days ago.. Find my iPhone worked for the first hour but I was unable to pinpoint the exact location and then either the phone died, was turned off or the SIM card was taken out. I have a passcode on my phone. Is there anyway the thief can bypass the passcode if they wipe my phone or insert a new SIM?
or if he attached to the itunes thn is there any chance to find the locatin ..
Hi sandy,
It’s quite possible it ran out of battery, or the SIM was removed. If they plug it into iTunes, and it still has your SIM, then you may be able to track it. If they wipe it, however, they won’t be able to bypass the passcode. There is some software out there that can bypass passcodes, but it’s very unlikely that a thief would use it (or know how to use it).
Hello, at a store yesterday a guy steal my iPhone and was able to track it for 4 hours but police is very slow here now the iPhone is offline? Please let me know If i will be able to find it even if they remove the simcard?
Hi Maria,
I feel like you didn’t read the FAQ points above. Please refer to point number 5.
Hey,
I left my iphone in a shopping cart at a store and someone must of gotten the cart and never returned the phone as lost to the grocery store. I have an icloud on it. Will it track it even if they removed the app? It is verizon so it doesn’t have a sims card but if they have reset it can they connect it to their own wireless service without getting caught? I really want to be able to track them down..
Thank you!
Hello
I read the FAQ and didn’t actually find the answer to my question. I had my iphone 4 stolen while I was on spring break this year and had the find my iphone app installed. By the way it was also jailbroken. I was able to successfully track it for a few days, but when I finally realized it was highly unlikely for me to recover it from the thief I chose the option to wipe it. My question is did the find my iphone app really wiped i or not since it was jailbroken. I’ve searched all over google to figure out and finally stumbled across this article.
Hi David,
Find My iPhone should still wipe your phone as normal, even though it was jailbroken.
Hi SJ,
I did have a question but just reading this page I got my answer. I was worried that after sending the wipe signal for a friends lost iphone I had visions of once receiving he’s new one and connecting to the net because it would be the same Apple id number I was worried the wipe would be sent to he’s new phone. (Which I now know is not the case).
On another note I would like your thoughts on an idea. I know an iphone can be hard reset or hard powered-off can be applied but for the every day person they only know how to turn it off normally. If the phone is turned off right away it makes it very hard to track so I think it would be a good idea for Apple to install a setting(our choice) that when you turn your phone off you also need to put in the passcode just like when unlocking it. I think this would at least buy you some time! What do you think?
Hi Jamie,
Glad this page was able to help!
A passcode to power the phone off would indeed be interesting. But as you said, a hard power off (holding down power button), would make it too easy to bypass, thus making it mostly redundant.
I highly doubt Apple would introduce a poweroff passcode.
Hi SJ thank you for your reply.
Isn’t just holding down the power giving you the normal turn off mode?
You mean the home & power button for a hard power-off, right?
The first ones a hard reset then keeping them both down longer gives you the hard power-off (so I thought anyway).
I was amazed as to how many people dont even know about the hard reset, or power-off which was my point really… it wouldn’t be a hard addition to add the passcode off option which would stop the vast amount of people that only know how to turn off using the normal mode, buying some vital time for the owner to track.
Thanks for your tips, but I don’t see anyone with a similar situation as me. I was in Mexico and my phone was stolen at a bar. I immediately went to a cafe with Internet so I could use the “Find my iPhone” app to wipe the data from my phone. I went ahead and sent the wipe request and noticed only after I sent it that I accidentally told the app to erase my Mac back home in the States. It never did locate my iPhone (probably b/c it’s offline).
The problem: how do I reverse the request to wipe my Mac? Is there a way to cancel the data wipe? I can’t afford to lose all the info in my Mac!!!
Thanks so much,
Kim
Great article! Thanks for the tips.. I was in the Dominican Republic last week and left my iPhone 4 in the bathroom at the airport. It was on airplane mode and was not connected to wi-fi. I also have a lock-screen set for 30 minutes after the phone has not been used.
I boarded the plane and as soon as I sat down I realized I did not have my phone with me so I went to the flight attendant who told me I could not leave the plane but she would send someone in there to check if the phone was in the bathroom. They “checked the bathroom” (I’m assuming) and said the phone was nowhere to be found… I cried the whole way to Miami (I had photo stream turned off and lost many of the pics from our vacation) and then as soon as we arrived in Miami (about 3-4 hours later) I sent a lock to the phone along with a message including my information.
Both the message and the lock are still “pending” according to Find my iPhone and there has been no activity on the phone for the last week… I’ve called the airport several times and nothing has been turned in, I also called AT&T who tracked its IMEI and they told me it has not been linked to another number so far. Is there anything I’m not thinking of? I just don’t want to take the plunge for another phone if there’s anything at all I can do to retrieve this phone. It would mean a LOT to me if anyone can help. Thanks!
Hi Danielle,
Sorry about your phone :-/ If it was in Airplane Mode, then there’s no way for you to contact it (not even by SMS). If the person who found it isn’t able to unlock it (because of the 30-minute passcode lock), then they won’t be able to disable airplane mode. Chances are at this point that it will just get restored (ie. erased).
Keep in touch with the airport to see if anyone turns it in, but in the Dominican Republic that may be a stretch. There isn’t much more you can do, particularly as the phone is abroad.
hey my phone was stolen today along with my mophie case and my beats (im super mad). i checked e-mail me when found on find my iPhone on my dads iphone and im asking what has to happen for me to be emailed and will i get a location with the email?
hey, i’ve been getting strange messages from some random and is a way i can track where the ‘Important Message’ is coming from?
Hi, I lost my ipod on my street yesterday when it fell out of my coat. I tried tracking it using find my phone but it was offline. I sent a message with my details and also remotely lock it. But I accidentally removed my device from Find My iPhone while it was offline, will I still be able to track, if no, how can i wipe out my details.
I was wondering if it is wise to put fliers in each of the houses in my street in case one of them pick it up.
Thanks for your anticipated response
My son left his iPhone at his girlfriends house 4 days ago they say they can’t find it I track it to the flats where they live and now the tracking is saying no location could this just because the phone is dead?
Hi Kelly,
Yes, it’s most probably dead after 4 days. If it tracked to their flat, chances are it’s still there – probably under a sofa cushion ;)
I just want to say I posted fliers in my neighbourhoo. Fortunately for me, I got a call from a lady that my iPod was with her. Thanks a lot
Nosa, Good to hear someone managed to get their device back!
can u pls answer my question? i cant find anywhere where this question is answered. it would mean a lot to me.
Hi Darcy,
It’s not really the topic of this post, but sorry no, there is no way to track the origin of messages.
ok, itll b fine, they havent messaged me 4 a few days anyway.
Although this does not pertain to the iPhone/iPad criteria, I still have a question in relation to Find My iPhone. I hope you can still answer it…? :p
I lost my MacBook Pro a couple of months ago, and sent the lock/message/sound within an hour of realizing it was gone. However, during this time no one ever connected it to the internet – until yesterday, when I finally received an email telling me “a sound has been played” and it “has been locked.” However, the location is still unavailable and it is offline.
Is there any way I can get the location despite this? :S
My iphone was stolen i had verison 4s what if the phone was restored and sim tooken out but hooked up on wifi could it be traced any way?
Hi, I have a question about this find my iPhone app. My husband and I both use it but lately, he has been claiming that his location showed up wrong then it would just say no location available when I know he was in an area it would have picked up had he not turned it off.
So here’s my question, can the “email me when found” option be wrong? His place of work has absolutely no service so I tracked it around 7pm (he works night shift) and when no location available showed up, I check marked the “email me when found”. Every night this week I have done that and received an email around 7am saying “your iPhone was found at 4:30, or 4:35am, etc. Since I know he would still be at work where there is no service, how is it tracking the phone?
I lost my iPhone 4s which is locked. And if a person tries to unlock n number of times, is that possible that all the pics of my family can erased automatically. However I was installed Find my Phone on the same iPhone 4s but my phone is already locked. After inserting a new Sim Card is that possible the data can be erased automatically of the previous Sim Card.
Please reply me what action should i take immediately. However i already changed the passwords of all emails which is on my iPhone.
And also someone can provide me how to wipe out all the data of my iPhone from my laptop, as I already have Find my Phone application on it. But without SIM CARD might be he removed my SIM card and trying to insert a new sim.
Regards,
Hi Bennie,
Find My iPhone is not 100% reliable, and signal strength, as well as GPS coverage, both play an important role in the way it works. The iPhone will ‘normally’ wait until it thinks it has an accurate location before reporting it. Even in areas with little or no signal, it’s sometimes possible for a phone to get a brief signal during which a location is obtained, although it can be wrong. If it’s an area where it’s literally impossible to get signal (eg, underground), then I have no idea how it might report a location found.
Hope this helps.
I have the iPhone 3, and I use a password to unlock it once it goes to sleep. In testing Find iPhone, I sent the sound and a message. The sound comes on with the phone locked, but the message does not appear (and the sound continues) until the password is entered. Seems to me that that defeats the purpose of the message feature.
Also, the app is not useful against a professional thief. Doesn’t replacing the SIM make it impossible to find?
Forgot to click the email notification. Kindly make your response to this comment.
I have a related question– Is it possible to be notified if someone uses Find My iPhone to track me? IE: If I track my kids phones, is there a way they would know I’m spying on them?
Not notified per-se, but the user may be shown a visual cue (ie, the location arrow in the menu bar) when the device is being tracked.
This setting is controlled in Settings > Location Services > Find My iPhone > Status Bar Icon
Mike,
The behaviour you’re reporting is strange. The message should show up on the lock screen.
And yes, if the SIM is removed (and the phone doesn’t have another internet connection such as Wifi), then you can defeat Find My iPhone. It’s not intended to be a foolproof anti-theft tracking device, but can still be useful in thefts or just forgetting it somewhere.
If someone stole my Ipad 2 and was able to hack into it and erase everything, will I still be able to track it down?
No.
If I remote lock my stolen iPad, can I still track it? Also, is the tracking in real time such that I would see the iPad moving (similar to the GPS in Maps)?
Taharqa,
Yes, the tracking is relatively real-time, although there is some delay. A bit like GPS in Maps, but probably with a bit more delay.
Someone stolen my ipad3, when i came to know this I immediately did a remote lock and send a message, but its was not delievered. Again after few hours back I swipe out request. So which request will executed first.
1. remote lock
2. send message
3. remote swipe.
Is it any chance I can track the device?
One of my cousins sent a picture through imessage to my other cousins ipod touch (both her new one and old 1)
My boyfriend then received it on his iphone as a normal text.
My cousins are now accusing my boyfriend of stealing her ipod touch.
They say he must have synced it to his itunes on the pc and thats how he has received it on his phone.
however he didnt have i cloud or anything like that.
is it even possible to merge apple ids together, wouldnt he have needed her password etc.
Can that even be possible?
this has caused so many problems with my family its so out of hand.
please can anyone advise
So my phone was stolen and immediately turned off. When I got back into town I re-activated my older i-phone. On Find My I-phone I still see the option to wipe my older phone. I have requested this option since I have sensitive info in the phone. I am wondering if the wiping will still occur since I have a new one activated? Would the new phone stop the wiping option on the old phone once they connect my i-phone to internet? Also if they remove the old sim card can they see my information or can they plug it into another phone and see pics or notes that I have saved?
On Friday of last week, I left my iPhone in a taxi in Mexico and thus far, all attempts to recover it have failed and I am now back in the states. On the evening that I discovered it was missing, I used Find My iPhone to try to locate it, but it could not be found, most likely, because I had my cellular data option turned off to avoid astronomical data charges while out of the Verizon network. I immediately sent a message to my phone with my name and the phone number of my wife’s phone. I also called Verizon and placed the phone in a suspended mode so the data, voice, and texting features could not be used as I also wanted to avoid someone from running up charges on my phone while roaming in a foreign network.
In addition to the message sent through Find My iPhone, I also requested the phone to be locked as I have sensitive data stored in an application called 1Password. That application is protected by a 4 digit PIN and a 10 digit password for the more sensitive data. Unfortunately, I didn’t have some data, like the SSN’s for myself and my family, protected by the 10 digit password. I am now concerned that if my phone has fallen into the hands of a saavy identity thief, the individual, after some research of my name and cell number(stored in my phone), may be able to try some common PINs such as birthdate (displayed on my Facebook page), which is what I used in this case for both the phone lock PIN and the 1Password PIN– in retrospect probably not the strongest protection (lesson learned).
Two days after I sent the message and requested the phone to be locked through Find My iPhone I received an email notification that the message was delivered and the phone had been locked. I then sent a request to wipe the phone, which I probably should have done much sooner, but it is what it is at this point (another lesson learned).
I suspect that the person in possession of the phone turned off location services, since that was the status on Find My iPhone in the list of devices after I received the notification emails, and established a WiFi connection–hence the delivery of the message and the lock command. The command to wipe the phone is still pending as I unfortunately sent it after the message and the lock command. I’m guessing that unless the phone establishes a WiFi connection in sleep mode the command to wipe the phone will never take place unless the individual figures out the lock PIN.
In trying to determine how much time the individual would have had to hack into 1Password, my question is this, does the command to lock the phone take place immediately irrespective of what screen or state the phone is in or is it similar to the auto-lock feature on the iPhone where it waits for the home screen to be in sleep mode or the phone to be turned off again?
Secondarily, I realize this may be somewhat off the topic of this post, but what are the chances an individual can open the phone and hack into the logic board to retrieve data or continue to hack into my 1Password app?
Sorry for my long winded explanation, but I’m very worried my personal data may have been compromised and I’m not sure how probable that is and what my options are at this point to contain the situation.
Many thanks for any help you can provide.
Mike
@adrine: the wiping should work as normal on your stolen phone. Also, removing the SIM to another phone won’t do anything as all your data is stored on the iPhone’s internal memory.
Hi Mike,
Sorry about your iPhone. I think you’re really overestimating your thief. You lost your phone in Mexico. Hardly the center of technologic excellence. Chances are your phone will just get restored and that’ll be the end of it. You biggest mistake was not having a passcode to protect your phone and apps.
With regards to 1Password, it has a built-in feature to prevent brute forcing, so after five failed attempts, the attacker must wait a while before they can try again. The amount of time increases with each failed attempt. Again, being a Mexican thief I HIGHLY doubt they’ll be data mining Facebook in an attempt at getting to your data.
Now to answer your questions. Firstly: sending a lock request to the phone will make it lock instantly (regardless of whether it’s being used). Secondly: and again I stress you that unless you had your phone stolen by a foreign government, it’s mostly unfeasible for the thief to try and access the data directly on the internal memory. And even if they DID (massive if), 1Password stores all data encrypted with 128-bit AES, which can only be decrypted with your master password.
You won’t recover your iPhone, but you can also rest pretty easy that your data is pretty safe (and may even already have been erased by now).
Hope this helps! Secure your devices! ;)
SJ
i lost my ipad last week.. if they jailbreak my ipad, i still got chance to track the location???
once i restore my iPhone & after i connect to iTunes why it doesn’t show the Sim even though it’s already inserted? but the sim works in other phones
Hello,
I’ve enabled the Find my iPhone app and the location services. However i am unable to track my iPhone once i go beyond my Wifi network. I don’t have a 3G enabled iPhone. It’s an iPhone 4, should it still work? It didn’t work when i tried it.
hello
my iphone lost today and i had enable find my phone on it, i opened icloud and enter my user pass then my iphone shape appeared and i locked it but there wasnt any location so i refresh it two or three times then i thought if i close the device and try again it would be different result so i remove my device on top of the page with cross sign and tried again but my device does’nt appear again,i tested another device and i realize that my locking option didn’t work when i remove my device until it connect to internet and it showed again ,my question is ,is there any way to lock my phone exactly after first connection to wifi?
Hi,
I’ve lost my phone today and is pretty sure that my Find iphone apps is off. I would like to know if anyone can read my email from the phone after i changed my password through PC. Is there anyway that i can stop anyone from reading my emails?
@Kevin: an iPhone is 3G-enabled (unless you’re saying there’s no 3G in your area). That said, it should still work if your iPhone has some kind of internet connection.
@KJ: If you change your password online, they won’t receive any new emails, however they’ll still be able to read all of the emails that were already on the device. The only way to prevent them from doing so is by successfully wiping the device, but that would require Find My iPhone to be on, and for the device to be connected to the internet.
Yes, that’s my point, unless you have a SIM card that’s 3g enabled it’s useless? We can have 3g here, just don’t need the “extra” service. So unless it’s 3g enabled it’s no use.
Kevin,
No, it’s not useless. Your iPhone should still get internet access over GPRS or Edge, but that’s only if your phone plan includes internet access. Obviously if your phone plan doesn’t include internet access then yes, none of these services that require the internet will work.
Thanks SJ.
factory rest…
Hello,
I recently lost my iPhone and if my Find my iPhone was disabled on my phone but still had the location services turned on, would I still be able to track it?
If They stole my iPhone and they took the SIM Card out and they put a New Card In, Can I still Track It down even my old info was still on the iPhone ?
@C: Please read the FAQ. Point 2 answers your question.
@Juan: If they put a new SIM card in that allows your phone to connect to the internet (and they didn’t wipe your phone and it had Find My iPhone and Location Services enabled), then yes, you could still theoretically track it.
My iPhone was stolen, I had Find my iphone app Installed. I got a new iPhone but with the same phone number when I login to find my iPhone app in my new iPhone will it countiue to track my stolen Phone. The app still shows my stolen iPhone device saying “no location”
My iPhone got lost last night. Unfortunately I don’t think the Find my phone is on in my iPhone. Therefore I really don’t know if the icloud will work or not to find it. I did access the icloud from my laptop and it shows my iPhone as offline. So could somebody please let me know if it can be online if somebody uses the internet on it?
I have a question for you SJ,
I read your FAQ. And it was very helpfull, it was nice finally getting answers after a day of frantically trying to track my iPhone
And i’m aware that If the nasty little thief resets iphone/takes out sim chip
That it won’t be trackable… :-/
I’m wondering if the thief connects to so say… a home wifi
(with sim out/allready was reseted)
Will I still have some gleam of hope tacking it ? :-[
If your phone is stolen the first thing the thief will do is to switch off your phone and you will never be able to locate it even with my iPhone.
It drives me crazy iPhone allows to switch off even when the iPhone is password locked. In my option switching off should only be allowed with the phone unlocked.
Is there an application or teak for this ?
Many thanks for your post !
My husband lost his iphone and and he said he had linked it to my iCloud so I went on to the “Find iPhone” and accidently put a remote lock and wiped my old 3GS that I dont use anymore but has all my old photos and text from my best friend who passed away last year. Im so scared to turn on the phone (cause its not backed up) thinking everything will be wiped away even though the phone isnt in service (since I have the new 4) but it is linked to my wireless internet. How do I salvage my stuff? will it wipe everything if I know the passcode? Will it wipe even though its not in service? help!!!!
Hi Colleen,
Lucky that your phone was off! Good news is your data is still safe, tricky news is that in order to pull everything off, you’ll have remove the SIM card (if it still has one) and turn your phone on in a place where it gets no wifi reception. If you know that you had only used it on your own wifi (and no others in the area), just turn your wifi off. As soon as it’s on I would turn Wifi off in the Settings, as well as turning off Find My iPhone, just to be safe, then you can plug your phone into your computer and pull off all the photos/texts.
Good luck!
@Jenni, if your phone’s been restored, you have no hope. If the phone hasn’t been restored, but the SIM’s been removed, you may still be able to track it if they connect it to a Wifi network.
@Arnold, it is indeed annoying that it’s so easy for a thief to turn off an iPhone. There’s a chance that in the future Apple will require the passcode in order to turn it off. Until then there’s no way to get around this without jailbreaking.
SJ
many thanks for speedy reply!!,
Are you talking about internal restore (in the phone itself)
Or the computer restore? :-/
So I lost my phone yeaterday! I suspect the taxi driver to the airport might have taken it. I remote locked it before my plain lifted, and send a message to it ro contact me on email. My friend was calling it and signals went through untill late during that night! Then it stopped ringing on my old nr! Today in the morning I got a location on it! i called the police and gave them the IMEI nr as it was still ringing yesterday untill late, I hope they can track it, the theif has probably changed nr! My question is will the remote lock prevent the theif from restoring the phone? Or will he be able to switch of Find my ipone now? Furthermore, is it possoble to get a new location on my phone if the remote lock is on?
SJ: Thanks for the reply. Amazing Apple being so good at some things and miss such a small simple point of not letting phone switching off if locked. Keep going the good work !
Cheers
Arnoldo
@Razan, the remote lock will not prevent the person from restoring the iPhone. You can still get a new location even with the remote lock (as long as the phone is still on and has access to the internet).
Hi there,i have a question i’d like to ask about my recently stolen iphone 3GS. I logged into icloud to track the location of my phone but the status was “offline” so i went checked the “email me …find my iphone” section then went ahead and selected ‘Remote Wipe’. My question is, when the phone is turned on,will the remote wipe pop up screen present itself to the thief? (thats what i’m hoping) Densel in distress :)
Fiona, if you phone is turned on and manages to make contact with the iCloud servers, then the wipe command should be sent through and happen automatically, thus wiping your iPhone.
I know I had “Find my iPhone” enabled but I’m not sure if I ever had “location services” turned on. It always shows “offline”. Is there a way to tell when I log onto iCloud if I ever did enable “location services”or not?
I just lost my iPad at McDonald. I have the iCloud and location service on. However, no 3g thus no internet access. To protect info, I can do the remote lock. But if I do that, anyone having or found it, tries to connect to internet, can they do so ? If they can’t, then meaning I willnot be able to track it anymore.
If they can’t, meaning, in order to track it, I can’t set remote lock. Someone please confirm
Thanks for all the useful information.
I’m just trying out the Find my ipad function. Everything is switched on; ie “Find my iPad” and the location services also. In fact my ipad is sitting right next to me – on and even connected to Wi-fi.
When I use the tracing function it simply comes up with “offline” (been trying for last few hours. Would you have any ideas why this would be?
I have not changed any icloud settings or re-set my ipad lately.
Many thanks
Why does tracking my kid’s iPhone not work when they are on a call? It shows a location when they start a call and keeps that location until it ends, then shows a new location.
She just got a new iPhone, her blackberry was stolen, and we were testing the tracking. She made a call to me from the school parking lot, which is where her location showed. She drove to the store 10 miles away and her location was still the school (still on the call with me). When we ended the call, her location updated to the store. I called her back as she was going to another location and it still showed the store, It updated again when the call ended. Is there a setting step that we missed?
Hi Renee,
Thanks for your comment, that’s a very interesting (and curious) finding. You’re definitely not doing anything wrong as you are succeeding in getting a location. It’s possible that either the GPS or the connection to iCloud servers gets paused whilst on a phone call… although I don’t see any reason for this apart from conserving battery life.
I’m not currently in a position to test this, but if you (or anyone else) are able to test this with another iPhone it would be very interesting. If the same behaviour is observed, I would be tempted to submit a bug report to Apple, although they may come back and say that this is expected behaviour.
@Rosalie, does the GPS work normally on your iPad (ie. Google Maps)? Make sure that not only are “Location Services” turned on, but also scroll down to ensure that it’s on for Find My iPhone as well!
I was wondering what happens if say my boyfriend tries to track my location using the Find My iPhone app with my info. If he had my information, could he log in to track my location and if so, would I know he was doing it?
Yes, “Find my ipad” was on. I tried it when I got home and it worked straight away. I wonder if it’s simply a case of a weak GPS signal.
Thanks. :-)
Hi, i lost my iphone today and i logged into icloud, i click the find my iphone but it was off, i dont know how to exit so i just click the remove my devices. Now i read your article to set a lock for the phone but unfortunately my device name doesnt appear on my find my iphone, is there anyway to turn it back so i can set a lock or wipe my datas from my stolen phone? Also if ever they did inserted a new sim card in the phone as i can see my contacts through icloud is my contacts be automatically deleted? Please help. Many thanks.
Hey I got this on my iPod and it’s really useful when my mom confisticates my iPod. However, the iCloud account is my mom’s ( since i’m not 18 yet) and whenever I do this, my mom gets a email notifying her that it was found. Is there a way to not let her receive this e-mail? Thanks.
Is it possible to access emails on iphone on a SIM and phone that has been disabled ? I do not want anybody accessing my emails. Help!
If i had Location Service turned OFF but Find my iPhone in Cloud was on. Can I find my iphone?
pls help.
My iPhone was stolen. I have filed a claim with my insurance company and will receive a new one soon, so at some point (today, maybe) the new phone will activate and my previous one will be deactivated. I had location services on and Find My iPhone installed on the old device. I remotely locked it, asked for an email when “found” and sent a message to the device. I’ve received no “found” or “message displayed” emails. It sounds like it could still be “found” if it is eventually turned on and connected to wifi (and not wiped). Is this correct? (at this point it shows as “offline” and has shown this since it was stolen). Secondly, my iCloud was set to auto backup anytime I was connected to a power source w/ a wifi connection. Will my old phone, if “found” (and not wiped), do an auto backup (or even update to my photo stream) that will upload to my iCloud even though it has been deactivated and remotely locked?
I found an iPod that was locked and I put an AD on criags-list and got some responses but were not the right poeple had a plastic case that was a certain color. Doesn’t anyone had an Idea?
Hi. I’m wondering if u can answer this for me… If I have find my iPhone app installed on my ipad and iPhone and ICloud is set up etc…. What would happen if my iPhone is stolen and the person goes into settings/ iCloud/ and turns off find my iPhone, before I have realize that it is stolen. It would be nearly impossible for me to track down the phone wouldn’t it?? Is there anyway that I can set up a lock for the settings screen.. I’ve looked into restrictions and I can’t seem to figure this out…. It seems too easy for a thief to turn off find my iPhone. …. I have a lock for my home screen but what if my phone was unlocked when stolen…. Hmmmmm. Sorry for the long and strangely stated sort of question.. Thanks for any advice…
S ive answered my own question…. In the iPhone “Settings” app, go to the “General” menu and turn “Restrictions” on. Set a passcode (don’t pick and easy one). Scroll down to the “Allow Changes” section and touch the “Location” setting. Make sure the “Find My iPhone” option is set to “ON” and then scroll to the top of the page and choose “Don’t Allow Changes”.
Hi Tim,
Thanks for posting. This is good info for others to know, so I’ll add it to my article!
Hi,
I lost my Iphone two days ago and I blocked it through Find my Iphone app. I was out of the country where I live so It had no service. Do the messages I have send to my Iphone will arrive? How can I unblock the Iphone so the person who has it can connet it?
Thanks for your aswers.
Hi there~Question. I lost my iPhone and did not use the iCloud find my phone app to check it until ten hours later after I called Verizon and reported it lost. I went online to the iCloud site and it said my phone was offline. I initiated a remote wipe and it is still pending. I called Verizon and asked what they did when they suspend a phone. They told me they don’t deactivate the SIM card. Is there a chance the remote wipe will work? I have ALL kinds of personal data on that phone. Thanks!
@Adriana: No, if your phone had no service, then your phone will not have received the messages and won’t be blocked. There isn’t much you can do if the phone can’t get online.
@kate: Depends on what Verizon did. If your phone is on, and has internet access (and has Find My iPhone turned on), then you can remote wipe. Otherwise you won’t be able to. Thieves will usually wipe a phone once they get it anyway. You DID have a passcode set right?
SJ~My phone was deactivated and I activated my number on an old phone . I had no other phone so they suspended the iPhone. So no internet access. Verizon also said they do not deactivate SIM cards if that is anything to consider. Apple told me the remote wipe would work if someone tried to plug it in. I did not have a lock set that day. UGH. I think it was about to die anyway. I am more concerned about my personal data than the phone itself which still is a MAJOR bummer because it ain’t cheap.
hi all, my phone got stolen last night,
i rang up vodafone to get it blocked.
i had photo stream turned on on my iphone 4.
but i can find the photos from yesterday on my laptop.
Does photostream not work once phone has been blocked?
CANT*
Hi I lost my iphone, when i tried to locate it, it was offline. I remotely set the block and erase function. I have since found the phone. Will i automatically lose all the information. I had holiday photos that were not synced that i would like to recover.
Thank you
@abi: If Vodafone blocked your account (ie. the SIM is deactivated), then your phone will not have internet access and thus photo stream should not work.
@Mark: Best thing to do is to remove the SIM card, and turn off any Wifi networks nearby that your phone had access to. You will then be able to plug your phone into your computer to perform a backup and copy off the photos. Then allow your phone to go online, get wiped, and then plug it back into your computer to perform a restore using the latest backup. I know it’s not the best solution, but the remote wipe is intended to be the last resort!
Hope this helps.
Hey, my boyfriend bought me an iPhone for my birthday.. We’ve now split, I’ve removed my sim card but could it still be blocked, as far as I’m aware he has no tracker thing in place?
I was waondering, if my iphone was stolen and I used the remote lock action would I still be able to track it or does that block me from doing so?
@Aimee: Just make sure Find My iPhone is turned off, and that no other tracking Apps are installed.
@Stephan: You can still track it even if you lock it. It’s only if you wipe the device that it becomes untrackable.
Hi! Please please help me on these questions..
1. How would I know if my iPad has been restored? Will I still be able to see it on iCloud as offline or my iPad will not appear at iCloud at all?
2. Is it possible for apple to give me the name and address of the new registered owner?
btw, it’s the new iPad wifi only devise..Thanks a lot!
If my iPhone was stolen and the thieves do an iTunes factory restore and try to take it to at&t the next day to try and buy a new sim card and have info from their old phone transfered onto the new sim card, Can at&t realize that the iPhone is not theirs (stolen) by looking at the iPhone’s serial number or emei.
@Jes: 1) You wouldn’t know. It would still appear on iCloud as offline. 2) No, Apple won’t give you any information.
@Steven: No, AT&T won’t realise the iPhone is stolen. You can try contacting them to report your iPhone stolen and give them the IMEI, but chances are they won’t do anything with it.
ithought i lost my itouch4 but have found it i requested that it be wiped when connected can i undo this as there are pictures and videos i would like to keep?
A friend of mine recently lost an iphone 4s (updated with iOs 6). I have read this thread and found it very helpful, but my question is: if the phone is restored to factory settings, then jailbroken to another carrier, is all hope lost in finding it?
Also, I have heard that all new iPhones come with iOs 5 which means they “don’t need find my iphone”…
I’m confused, because the app didn’t come on my friend’s phone, and he didn’t get around to downloading it. Can it be still be tracked? (somehow with the apple ID or IMEI even if its wiped and jailbroken)?
I read your guidelines, but I’m mainly confused about the question of jailbreaking
i know i had icloud, bc everytime i tried to put my iphone on the charger a message would pop up saying not enough storage available (this is from when i tried to upload my pixs) wondering why when i try to login into icloud it says it is not set on my device, two days before my phone was stolen i had dowloaded the new io6 on my iphone 4 was i suppose to set up icloud again? also my phone is deactiviated bc im out of the country can i still locate it or do i need to reactivite my phone in order to find my iphone? can the app work in another country if im in the country using an ipad or iphone to find it? if they take my sim out and put in their sim card can they use the phone? (i had a password lock on my phone)
Is there a way to set up a password to stop someone from shutting off my phone so I can locate it
@glenn: I answered the same question to Mark earlier in these comments.
@gabrielle: For the most part, yes. And you don’t need to have Find My iPhone app installed to track it, you just need to have it enabled in Settings > iCloud. Jailbreaking doesn’t really make a difference to trackability.
@EA: You should’ve checked Find My iPhone was enabled, but if it was before, then it should still have been. If the device is in another country and/or they removed the SIM, you will probably have difficulty tracking it.
@Jonathon: Unfortunately no… this would be a nice feature to have, but not yet.
Hi
I sent an erase request to an old iPhone device tonight as I have sold it as I got an iPhone 5. As the iPhone 5 has been restored via iTunes from my iPhone 4, when it does get wiped it won’t wipe the content on the new iPhone as well will it?
Thanks
Hi Will,
Nope, devices are unique by ID. Your iPhone 5 will show up as a new device in Find My iPhone.
Thanks
I think had my iphone stolen yesterday but I am hoping that I set it down while I was shopping and someone will contact the # I left on the message when I acctivated “find my phone”.
Now I am thinking that I should remotely erase all data. My question is, if I erase all data, I know I wont be able to “find” the phone but will the message still appear in the case someone did turn it on?
Thanks in advance!!
Hi Erin,
If you wipe the device, it will be as if you did a ‘factory restore’, so the message with the phone number will no longer appear. Are you not able to track your phone?
When I discovered it was gone, I went to a payphone (was excited I found one so close) and had my husband enable the “find my phone”. Since then (which was approx 20 mins since I last used it) it has been offline. I can’t recall if I had wifi on or not.
I dont have a good feeling about it, I am sure someone swiped it from my purse when I wasn’t paying attention. Should I just erase everything?
Thanks again!!!
Yeah, it also depends on whether you had location services turned on as well. I guess with regards to wiping you have to decide on how sensitive your data is, and whether securing that is more important than the device itself. I hope you had a passcode set at least. Remember that if you do want to wipe it, you’ll usually have to do it sooner rather than later, because if it runs out of battery, you could lose the chance.
The majority of the time a thief will simply go away and wipe the device themselves.
My husband said it allowed him to set a passcode remotely?
I am torn, I keep holding onto a little glimmer of hope that it will be found. I think I will just erase everything and upgrade.
Now I have to deal with the iphone 5 being on backorder for two weeks. I had a 4 and was happy with it but since I am now forced to get a new phone, I dont know if I should get a 4s or keep using my old cell until the 5 comes off backorder. Any recommendations one way or another?
Thank you again for your help!!!!
If you can afford to get an iPhone 5, I’d go with that. With the rate at which technology moves nowadays (particularly Apple), there’s very little reason to start with an older device. Two weeks isn’t that long to way ;)
Besides, maybe you have some friends who’ve already upgraded and thus have a spare 4 or 4S you could borrow while you wait.
I’m guessing nobody picks up when you call the phone? Have you tried also making it play a loud sound using Find My iPhone? If it is indeed just lost somewhere, then someone may find and return it.
You’re right, I need to suck it up and wait two weeks for the 5.
We had the number moved to an old “smartphone” I had from when I upgraded to an iPhone (Now I realize even more how much I LOVE iPhones). So I can’t call the phone and prior to switching the number, when we called the phone it went directly to voicemail.
Would it play the loud sound if the phone is offline?
BTW, you’re awesome!!! So happy I found your page =)
I had my iphone stolen this morning, it had the pass lock on it so hoping this makes it difficult for them to get into, however stupidly it was last backed up in June to itunes and although having find my iphone and photostream enabled I have never actually used iCloud before.
So after this mornings events I logged into iCloud, did find my phone, the person had turned it off so didn’t show up. In a panic of not being able to get my phone back I hit the remote erase. Now I want to try and get my pictures post June back, have downloaded the iCloud control Panel for my PC but it’s not pulling any pictures through. I def had a photostream album in my pictures. any ideas?
Will you be able to find an ipad using its wifi address???
Hi, my iphone 4s was stolen and I tried to use the find my iphone app to erase the phone. About 20 min later, I called to get the line disconnected, now if I log into icloud it tells me Erase phone: pending. Does that mean it may possibly not have got deleted? Or does it just mean I can’t view when it was completed because I disconnected it? My data in my iphone is sensitive.
Hi aaron,
If it says Erase phone: pending, then it means the phone was not able to sync with iCloud to receive the erase command. It may be the phone ran out of battery, was turned off, or simply restored (in which case your data should be safe).
Back to my question with the find my iphone app, an employee at the phone store tracked my phone, then she sent the erase my iphone command, she says that SHE received a confirmation when she did that stating it is complete, but shouldn’t I have been the one to receive any email confirmation. And I am confused since the icloud shows erase iphone pending, and my phone is now disconnected.. is it true that once the erase is complete, it sends the confirmation statement to the person deleting it?
Hi Aaron,
I’m not sure if it sends an email upon successful erasure. If she says she received a confirmation, then it could be the case that it was erased. In which case, sending another erase command would always result in that request being ‘pending’. That said, if you send a successful request, I’m not sure whether or not it then removes that device from Find My iPhone.
It’s worth testing, but I don’t feel like erasing my iPhone at the moment ;)
My wife lost her phone on a trip to Miami so we initiated the lock mode then the erase mode. We learned this morning the phone has been found and is being mailed to us. Is there any way to reverse the erase mode
I misplaced my phone and used the erase function, just recovered it and whenever I try to sync with my exchange mail account it automatically wipes out all data again. Any solution please.
Is it possible to locate your iPhone using find my iPhone app if the phone has been erased but still activated?
@Neil: I added point 15 to the FAQ, as your question was asked a couple times before.
@Daniel: you may need to check your Exchange settings (can do this in OWA) to check your device isn’t set to be wiped.
@Madison: Point 6 in the FAQ says no.
My iphone was lost/stolen earlier today.. I have the find my iphone app but it is OFFLINE.. how can i locate my phone?? yes there is a lock
I lost mine recently and did the remote wipe, but I was wondering… after the wipe has been done would my iPod still be showing up in the devices on iCloud?
Bethany: the device may still show up in iCloud even if the wipe has been successful.
Point 11 “That said, someone with with the necessary technical knowledge, and access to specialised forensics tools would be able to brute force it and gain access to the data.”
Can you enlighten us on this?
ctaya: http://www.howtoarena.com/xry-is-not-the-only-software-which-can-crack-your-iphones-passcode/
How long is the location of your phone stored for on i cloud?
Looks like 24 hours but i cant tell. How do you access it?
Thanks
So my iPhone 5 was robbed when I tried to sell it and I’ve been trying to track it via iCloud. My question is the phone has been offline since I lost it, does that mean it the ugly thief has not restored the phone?
Bernie: I think it is 24 hours.
Remy: Unfortunately it’s most likely the opposite is true, and the thief has indeed restored it. There’s a chance they haven’t, but there’s no way to find out (apart from monitoring Find My iPhone).
If my iphone has a dead battery will it show a incorrect location?
Hi there, my phone was stolen and is still showing as no location found. In order to find it does the phone only need to be turned on? Or does it need to connect to the internet?
Also is there a way to see the last location logged? Location services and findmyiphone were both active. Thanks!
Hola! Desde ya muchas gracias por tu aporte a la comunidad, veo que le fue de mucha utilidad a muchas personas. En mi caso, hacernos días me robaron mi iPod touch. Entre en find my iphon desde el iPad y coloque las primeras dos opciones,( alerta y bloquear y dejar mensaje). Hasta ahi perfecto, el tema es que por accidente marque la tercera opcion, ( borrar). Existe la posibilidad o de poder desacer esta opcion, o una vez llevada a cavo volver a rastrearlo?
Hi I’ve been reading these post because I too have lost my iphone4s. So If I’m reading this right…if I lost my iPhone and haven’t set up find iPhone ap and passcode anybody can pick it up and take it to any computer with iTunes and restore it to factory settings? That means there is no way to track it after right because if so I’m outta luck.
Federico…Post in “ENGLISH” what country do you think your in? If you don’t know it…learn it!
Joey: ANY iPhone can be restored to factory settings. Unfortunately if you didn’t have a passcode set or Find My iPhone installed, then your data is vulnerable, and you can’t remotely track or wipe your device.
I lost my iPhone 4 . It had location on and find my phone on, my question is if someone has restored it can it still be tracked?
nina: Please read the actual FAQ before posting questions. Your question is answered very clearly by item number 6.
Hi SJ,
I’ve read through this entire article/comments, as well as the article regarding how to protect and recover your iPhone and iPad from lost and theft… so my apologies if you’ve mentioned the answer to my question below already!
I stupidly left my (Wi-Fi only) iPad on a flight and have been hopelessly tracking it on Find My iPhone since Monday. It continues to say it’s offline. Once I realized later that evening that I left it behind, I immediately changed my iTunes password to prevent any unauthorized purchases on my account.
That night I also tested out Find My iPhone with an old iPhone 4 next to me. I have no cell service on that phone but Wi-Fi was enabled. However, Find My iPhone still said it was offline… even though I was able to surf the internet. I then updated my iCloud password on the iPhone 4, powered the phone off and turned it back on. I immediately received the emails, messages and alerts for the phone saying it was found, etc.
My question is: If I changed my iTunes/iCloud password, will Find My iPhone still work or does the specific device need the password updated as well and/or does the device also need to be powered off and on for it to work?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Is there anything on my iPhone 4S that can be manually disabled to make my iPhone show offline in the find my iPhone app? I notice that sometimes one of my kids phone shows offline when I try to find them so I’m wondering if they are disabling something in settings.
Thanks for any advice
Lisa: They could be disabling Find My iPhone itself, or disabling Location Services. Both of these would have the effect of making a device appear offline.
That’s what I thought but when I went on their phone and disabled
Location service it actual says location services off and if you disable find my I phone then their device disappears from the list. When I look for their phone it actually says offline under their device on find my iPhone. So, I don’t know if they figured out some way to put the phone offline or they are legitimately in a dead cell area.
Actually you’re right. Disabling location services will show up as disabled in Find My iPhone.
It’s very likely that they are in dead or weak cell areas. You could always try tracking, and seeing if their phones go offline in particular areas. I’m not aware of any other way of making an iPhone appear offline (unless the iPhone is jailbroken then it may be possible).
Also you can set restrictions in Settings > General > Restrictions, to ensure that Find My iPhone and Location Services can’t be disabled.
My iPhone has been missing for a month. I’d like to suspend service, but I’m concerned that if I do I won’t be able to track it (figuring since it won’t connect to 3g while suspended). If I give up tracking it because the phone has been off for a month, if I send a wipe message to the iPhone and suspend the service will it still wipe it if its turned off?
Hi! My daughter lost her Ipod Touch somewhere in the house, I thought. It is long out of power; however, it is not showing me the last known location. All it says is “location unavailable”. The last known should be the currect location because this is not a case of it being stolen. All of our other devices are showing locations in the house, but not this one. Any thoughts?
After I sit my iPhone 3 done I typically would get the SLIDE SCREEN TO LOG INTO. This only happens now when I turn on my iPhone.
Is there something I can do to fix this?
My phone was stolen yesterday and my boss said he called and had it wiped. ATT also said a code was sent to it so if anyone tries to turn it on it will become unusable. There is very important information on there and I just want to make sure there is no way someone could get my info. If the person did have my pass code to the phone could they still get on there or is it completely wiped? I really really appreciate your response.
Ali: No, the phone must be on and have an internet connection in order to be wiped.
Laura: It’s probably showing ‘unknown’ as it only keeps the last known location if you access Find My iPhone while the device is still online.
Bob: Check Settings > General > Passcode Lock
Alex: The phone will only have been wiped if it still had internet access when the wipe request was sent. Otherwise if the thief removed the SIM, then it’s possible they could still access your data if they know your PIN.
Hello,
I had lost my iphone about a week ago. I filed a police report but suspect that the sim was removed and the phone was already restored/wiped, I’m not sure if the law works the same everywhere but is there a good chance the police can find my phone?
James: If the sim was removed and phone already wiped, then unless you gave the police your phone’s serial number and it happens to fall into their hands somehow, I’m afraid you’re out of luck.
My iPhone 5 was stolen 2 days ago. If they wipe it are they still able to use it even though MY number is still attached to it? I have not called Verizon and disconnected it yet. If so, how is that possible??
I lost my iPhone on Friday night, and it seems that someone has since used it to try to access my Paypal account details. It had a SIM but wasn’t active, I had been using it as a mini computer. It seems I had not set up Find My iPhone properly.
I have changed all passwords I can think of and O2 have blocked the IMEI number. I have reported it to the police so that I can be identified as the owner if it is every recovered. I’m still worried, though, and wondering what else I can do.
I have set up forwarding on all email accounts associated to the phone so that new emails are forwarded to a new email address. If I delete apps via iTunes will they be removed from the iPhone the next time it connects over any wifi network? What else can I do?
Something strange is happening! My son lost his phone so I tried to track it with find my iPhone. Of course he didn’t tell me until it was too late for his battery life. I locked the phone and checked play a tone and left my number on the screen. Subsequently his friends couch coughed up the phone. Now whenever someone sends an SMS txt to me it also goes to my sons phone. Does anyone know what’s going on and how to get out of that???
I am hoping you can help me! My 4s was stolen last night. When I got home, maybe 2 hours later, I tried to locate it with Find My iPhone and it was offline. I locked it and sent a message. Then just a minute later, I wiped it. I immediately received an email stating: iPhone is being erased. The erase of iPhone started at 3:27 AM on March 16, 2013. All media, data, and settings will be permanently erased. Does this mean that it has actually been wiped, or that it will be once it is turned on again? I also reported the theft to AT&T, suspended my line, and “blocked” my phone. Is there a way that this a-hole could still get any of my information? I could care less about finding the actual phone, it was a POS, I am just deathly afraid of someone having access to all of my pictures, text messages, emails, etc. I mean I’ve reset all my passwords and done everything I can do to wipe the phone clean, but I’m still paranoid. OH! I almost forgot, my phone was running iOS6 and was jailbroken with evasi0n. Does the jailbreak effect the remote wipe function?
Hi
Iv had my phone stolen and if I think the person who’s stole it is right they no my pin is there anyway of changing this?
Hi, I lost my iPhone 4 2 days ago at my fathers fire station, I’ve logged into find my Iphone but it says My device is offline, and at the bottom it says location services have been disabled. I’ve looked online and found a couple ways you can bypass the 4 digit security code for the iPhone and am getting a little worried since It went offline yesterday around 4:00pm (was making calls to it, but wasnt able to check find my iphone at time since it was my mothers old one and she didn’t know the password then) I don’t recall turning on find my iphone since I just got it back in January and reinstalled all my apps from my previous iphone, would installing it onto a phone turn it on for you? I’ve reporeted it on 3gadget and let AT&T be aware that the device is missing. I locked it and put a message. Last time I plugged my phone in to sync was Feb 19 ( not sure If i’ve updated it from ios5 But I don’t have the lost mode option that some others have). Is there anything else I should do? or can do? I’ve tried searching everything to find last possible location known, but providers like AT&T and Apple who clearly have the info logged refuse to share.
By using find my ipad to erase everything will it erase the Internet I was on and wipe away the last thing I was on. On the Internet
Hi
I have ledt my ipad with someone and switched on and i dont want them to see my messages on there, i did find my ipad and erased, does this mean everything is wiped off ipad and it goes back to factory settings?
thanks
If I erase everything using the find my iPhone app will my text messages and pictures still be visible in the lost iPhone? Or does the “erase iPhone” option deletes EVERYTHING?
If i turn off location services so I can’t be tracked via find my iphone, will an email notification go to the person who set it up that its been turned off? And if that doesn’t trigger anything will they get one when it comes back online. Basically I want to be able to turn it off periodically without anyone being notified its been turned off. All was setup on one account i assume because I see all our family devices when I log in to the find my iphone. FYI
hi, i left my phone at my friends house 4 days ago & i still have not found it. i went back over there the next morning to look for it & it wasnt there. i kept trying to call it, but it was dead & kept going straight to voicemail. so, i tracked it on findmyiphone & at first it tracked it to that house & the dot was green which means its online.
but then, the next day, it was a grey dot which means its offline. it still showed that the location my phone was at was my friends house. but we literally looked everywhere for it & still never found it. was it only saying that it was at that location still because that was the last place it was when it was online or is it still there?
i keep checking back on findmyiphone everyday & it now says it can not be located. and all of the messages i sent to my phone from the first day are still pending. so, no one has turned my phone on yet? and if they restored it already, would the messages ever say that they got sent?
thanks :)
HELP PLEASE!!!! my brothers hid my ipod somewhere and they dont know where they put it.. they’re very young. I tried using Find my iphone on icloud but it won’t work since my ipod was totally out of battery.. any chances i can find it still using find my iphone? Am I screwed..?
when I log on Icloud and Find my Iphone, will whoever stole the phone know I”m searching for it? what do they see on their end, when I search for the phone?
my iphone got stolen so i disconnected it and totally forgot about icloud can i reconnect it and still be able to track it? what if it gets jail broken or something?
tin: It depends on what you have set in Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Find My iPhone
Obviously Find My iPhone should be set to “ON”, but your question is answered by the second switch which says “Status Bar Icon”. If this is on it will “show the Location Services icon in the status bar when you are tracking this iPhone from another device.”
In short: the thief would only see the little location services arrow/triangle that appears when GPS is on.
I lost an iPad without 3G (only wifi), and it is password protected. I sent the remote wipe command through Find my IPad app. Just need to understand – it cannot be wiped unless the finder connects it to wifi,which he/she cannot do without getting through thepascode first, right? If they manage to hack into the device, it will only remote wipe if they connect to wifi, right? Does anyone know whether the methods the hack through apasscode also erase the iPad anyway?
if my location service was turned off by a thief will the remote lock still activate when they log on to the net?
nevermind i tested it out on my iphone and it does still lock. just doesnt give you a location
I used to be able to check up on my young son every so often using find my iPhone. Since he had it factory reset for whatever reason, I cannot see him any longer. Is there a way to reconnect to his phone? Also if he gets a new iPhone will find my phone work once again? Thank you
can someone please help me? (I couldn’t figure out where to post a question) I lost my iphone 4 to water damage, Icloud didn’t back up all my pics. I ordered a new phone, did a restore. only got my contacts back. had old iphone in rice, it came back to life with all my pics on it. so my question is, will Icloud still stream my photos from my old phone? or does that phone have to be activated?
thanks in advance
@Geegee: You need to make sure that the iPhone is configured with the same iCloud account that you are logging into to check. Naturally make sure that Location Services and Find My iPhone are enabled.
@Crystal: Do you have a Mac? You can use iPhoto or the Image Capture app to simply import all of the pics from your phone.
Previous owner had Find My iPhone downloaded, when I bought it, and connected to my apple ID. Find My iPhone was still downloaded, I deleted it, and downloaded it on my own apple ID. Will the previous owner still be able to track this iPhone? Please answer ASAP, thank you.
I’ve been tracking my iPhone 4S since the day it was stolen (3 miserably long days now). They obviously know how the tracking works, and they are not just a kid who found a new phone. Nothing on it is worth anything to anyone else, so I’ve been tracking it rather than wipe it… still hoping it will pop back up on FindMyPhone (the only hit was 1:30AM of the night it was taken).
Yesterday, I “Suspended” and “Blocked” (“Blacklisted”) it via AT&T. Today I was able to change the Lock Screen Message to say “you are in possession of a Stolen Phone… reward offered… please call…”.
QUESTION: if they’ve already wiped it, will the Lock Screen Message still appear? Do I really still have access to edit that message, even after I’ve suspended/blocked the phone?
By the way, your info is FAR more useful than the app’s own info! Thanks!!
hi there, my iphone was stolen a week ago , can i track it if the thief erases the phone and restores it to factory setting? can i track it if after they erase the phone when they install find my iphone and connect it to their i-cloud account… ????????
@Sasha: No, your phone will only be trackable from the account which is logged into iCloud on the device.
@Carol: No, if they’ve wiped it, your lockscreen message will not appear. If you’ve suspended your phone service, then your phone will not have internet access and thus won’t get any of the updates from Find My iPhone on iCloud – unless they connect the iPhone to a wifi network.
@james: Your question is covered by point 6 in this article. You can only track devices which are logged into your own iCloud account.
Thanks for the quick response!
thank you … i wqas hoping for a yes to bve honest …. i hope apple changes their policy … to stop these thiefs aye…. im just hating how these people just make other people unhappy……….
hey SJ
so my phone was stolen yesterday i located it to a spot 4 blocks from my house. the phone is off and i checked the email box if found and made a police report and message to be displayed if found. i have verizon so i dont have a sim card. my delema is i have some private things and information due to work. i want to swipe it clean but wont be able to track it if i do. i have a passcode but and worried what the theif will do with my phone. like i said it doenst have a sim card so can it be used by a theif ? i read above that with the passcode in order to bypass it they would have to erase all of the info on the phone, so should i be worried about the info on the phone getting out ? it was also on for a max of 2 hours after it was stolen
thanks
Hi clement,
In your situation, it sounds most likely that the thieves will just try to wipe the phone. You may want to report your phone’s ID to Verizon. They may be able to blacklist it (making it unusable), or they could get alerted if someone tries to get a new service with them.
Good luck!
ok i did report it with verizon as stolen they blacklisted it for me but i asked them to not diactivate it so i can still track it , they said they will notify me if someone brings it in and they told me the info could not be leaked so i think i am just out of a phone does that sound about right ?
@clement: It’s nice of them to offer to notify you if someone brings it in. Most providers don’t do that. But yes, it sounds like you’re most likely just out of a phone.
ok thanks for getting back sounds like a dumb question cause your not a thief but what would one do with a phone that has been blacklisted with no sim card and a passcode ?
@clement: I would personally restore it and use it like an iPod Touch over wifi.
ok over wifi i can track it still but how would they restore it with a passcode and no sim card to restore ?
@clement: You can restore ANY iOS device (regardless of whether or not it has a passcode set) by connecting it to iTunes and choosing ‘Restore’. If they do this, you won’t be able to track it, even if they get on Wifi.
oh so most likely that what they did and theres nothing i can do. i located it to an address but i dont think i will get an update on its location now but atleast when they restore it all my info gets deleted, man this sucks but thanks for your help !
is there any way of knowing when they restored it ? or any sign to just give up on getting the stolen phone back ?
where is the option to email me once my ipad is located?
thanks in advance
@clement: No, currently with iOS 6 there is no way of knowing if they restored it.
@nadia: If you put your iPhone into Lost Mode it should automatically email you if/when its location is found.
I’ve read a few bits online about the “Find My iPhone” stuff ! I still cannot see my iPhone 3GS online. It’s jailbroken and has cydia installed ! Is that the reason? I am on wi-fi most of the time. Does it work on wi-fi? Please help as i have loads of data that i wouldn’t want to get into unsafe hands ! What do i do to make it work? i have put all necessary settings in place on iCloud as well as the phone. Thanks in advance.
they stole my iphone i had 2 security options just in case this happen to me 1st after 10 erroneous passcodes try it will be wiped and 2nd i remotley wiped my iphone on FMi iCloud page.
but i have a question.. can they log into my pictures in a PC even if the iPhone is blocked? thanks
My Ipad was stolen from my home on friday. I have the “find my iphone” through icloud set up on the device. I have the app on my iphone 5, I have been checking every so many hours to see if it has been found. I have listed it as lost and locked it, clicked the “notify me when found” box.. I’m just waiting now. My questions is if it were factory reset, would it still show up under my devices in the app Find my Iphone? it has said offline the entire time and Im not sure if i should just give up, or if they are that stupid that they haven’t wiped it yet and there is still a chance? I just really need to know if it will still show under my devices once the reset has been done?
@lindsay: It’ll continue appearing in your Find My iPhone until you remove it. It is not removed if the device is restored.
OMG – my daughter wiped her hard drive while trying to use find my iPhone on her MacBook Pro … I think we are screwed. Trying to tether her macbook pro to another mac to see if we can retrieve the files – they seem to still be in her puter because the drive is NOT EMPTY … any other ideas?
What does it mean when you get an “iPhone Found” alert? Does this mean someone tried to use it? Or moved it? Or what? My iPhone was taken yesterday at a bar.. Find My iPhone says it is in a neighborhood that is about a 10 minute drive from the bar, but the exact pinpoint has been moving around a bit (though never near an actual house)… I went earlier and knocked on every door while the phone was still on/online and no one had it (also, mostly families and older couples lived there and I knew that none of them frequent the particular establishment I was at). I also looked in the grass and bushes in case someone decided to drunkenly throw it in the woods… about an hour later, the phone died… now it is saying it’s online again, but the pinpoint is still in the middle of the street… I’m so confused. I called Apple, but the girl didn’t seem to know too much about the app or its capabilities. Help please!
@Dana: “iPhone Found” means that it was geolocated. Your iPhone is most likely in the area indicated on the map, and if you had GPS enabled, this is usually accurate to +- 5-15 meters. Best of luck!
I’ve lost my phone and its turned off. I think all my internet was working before hand. I’ve asked for it to be wiped. Will it wipe say voice memos and text messages and if so how quick will it do it once turned on ?
Does it need to be open as in usable or just on, locked with my wallpaper / home page showing ?
Hello sir, got a lot of questions in mind. I really hope u can help me up and answer my concerns..
Iphone got stolen and it took me a week to put it in ‘lost’ mode and put a message to what number they can contact me.. Now its been 9 days and I know I wont be able to get it back bec. the effin thief is now asking for my icloud account and password to activate the iphone (ofcouse i won’t give it). Now here are my questions:
1. If by any chance he already wiped out/restore the device to its factory setings, can i still track his location once he connected the device in wifi or 3g? (bec I understand u need a connection to activate the iphone right?)
2. I read in some articles that if the device has been offline for a week or two, it will be erased in my list of device – is this true? Will it still appear under my list of devices once it go online or have internet connection?
3. Also read in the internet that I can only activate 1 device in Find My iPhone using my icloud account?? What if I buy a new iphone and use my icloud account, can I still track the device that was stolen?
4.If the iphone has been wiped out/restored or If the Location Service and Find My iPhone are disabled or OFF, but the device has a good wifi connection, is there any way I can getor track the location of my stolen iphone??
One more question.
If by any chance the effin thief already restore/wipe out my device BEFORE I put it in ‘lost mode’, can I still track his location once he connects it in wifi or 3g while activating the iphone? Because if my memory serves me right after we Erase ALL SETTINGS AND CONTENTS it’ll go to the setup page that says Hello – Select ur Language – Setup Connection before putting the associated icloud account.. Am I right?
Appreciate ur quick response on this :)
today i have purchased a uesd apple iphone 4 that person fully restarted a device n than gave it to me now i have created a new apple id n use it at night time that person said i have lock ur device by my old apple wheather is ti possible plz answer to plz plz plz……………,
hi please i lost my ipad last week and am suspecting one african huy like that. i have already locked the icloud but my question is , can he be able to use it in africa? please reply thanks
How can I make v opts of my photos off my iPhone 4 and second ghost ow long will my pictures stay on my phone was it . Disconnected from sorry sprint?
Can I track an iPhone that is not synched on my iTunes account?
Hi Paul, you can track any device that is logged in to your Apple ID in Settings > iCloud and has Find My iPhone enabled.
My Ipad Mini was stolen. My question is; if it is turned on in a wifi enabled area, will the lock mode auto turn on if the wifi password is not keyed into the Ipad or the network accepted? Can this be done without the security 4 digit code?
HI Jim,
If I understand your question correctly, no, Lost Mode will not turn on as your iPad won’t have network connectivity to receive the notification from the iCloud servers.
So whats the point of lock mode unless it connects to my wifi network? The likelihood of the guy who stole my Ipad coming back to my house or office to use my wifi are extremely slim.
If you wipe your device clean and you don’t put a message or a number does it still show up that your device has been wiped
So my iphone was stolen. Shows in a bad part of town. I locked it and put another cell as a contact nnumber with a message that we are offering a reward. Soon after it was plugged in to charge I got a call from that phone saying they “found” it and wanted to return it. SAid they would call to make arrangements later. I could see the battery was low. Now its obviously dead. If I activate another phone I have, will my contact number and displayed message still show up on the stolen phone when its plugged back in, in case they legit want to return it for ther “reward” I promised? Thanks!!
Hi Mary,
Yes, if you activate another phone, that phone will simply show up as an additional phone in iCloud. The original phone (did you put it in Lost mode?) should still display the message if plugged back in. Hope this helps, good luck!
Just want to know. My iPad was stolen today, I put it in lost mode. My question is this. Can the thief still see my emails and messages that is in notifaction centre and/or new ones that is send to my email ?
My iPhone was stolen last week in Greece, I had no service with 3 network while there. My find iPhone is still showing offline . I phoned 3 and cancelled the sim and think the phone is blocked now? If I did ask them to activate my signal while over there or now do you think I have a chance of getting my iCloud photos back I took while there and locating the iPhone . The photos I took on holiday on my iCloud are not showing up only the ones I took before left for the holiday .
If i activate another phone through my provider, would i still be able to use the app? or would the phone itself no longer connect to the internet ?
Hi SJ,
I lost my iPhone 5 this morning and have beeen running in circles trying to get answers to some questions,
I have an iCloud account with my iPhone and iPad registered. Both are showing “offline”. I’m not sure if I had location services enabled on my phone. However, when I spoke to an Apple technician, they were able to tell me that they see that my Find my Phone service was on. They also said that putting the phone in lost mode would essentially “force” location services back on. The only reason they could see for it showing off line is if the phone has died, been turned off or is not connected to the internet.
Is this true? Do location services have to be enabled for Find my Phone to work or will lost mode “lorce” it to locate?
Thanks in advance.
I left my ipad for charging for 24 hours, does it harm my ipad
I recently got an iPhone from my mom and did not want to set there deleting one contact at a time so I restored it to factory settings. I now only get a screen that says iTunes and after I slide it tells me emergency calls. Can some one please help.
Hi,
Here’s my question. My laptop is broken and I had a crack in my iPhone screen. Prior to sending it in to repair I backed up using iCloud and before restoring my phone to factory settings decided to do the software update. Half way through the update it asked me to connect to iTunes. So here’s were it gets complicated…
My charger is also broken, so in my panic at the stranger fixing my phone seeing my personal stuff I used the erase everything on the find my iPhone app, thinking iCloud had my back. It was still asking to be connected to iTunes so my friend have me their laptop nod charger (automatic sync not turned on) I plugged it in, the command went away and I sent my phone to be repaired.
It came back all shiny and new, but iCloud back up disppeared along with four years of photos, videos, etc etc. I contacted apple who had engineers go through their servers to find nothing from my iPhone backed up. I searched my friends laptop for music I have bought and even plugged the phone into their laptop but comes up with their phones name and their last back up. I have restored from iCloud and set up as a new phone.
I am worried my friend will have my information from my iPhone. Is it possible and if not has it just been erased forever?
My iPhone was stolen overseas. in find my iPhone i have it set to auto erase but to date has shown no activity. Once I activate new substitute phone, is it possible to add new phone to iCloud without removing old so it will auto erase if connected? Afraid to remove it from account because don’t want to lose auto erase command. also is there a way to prevent old phone from syncing ?
My daughter’s iPhone fell out of her purse on a bus to the airport. We tried to get it back but to no avail. This was six months ago. Just got a text from a man in Cabo who apparently turned it in, and then after six months sitting in lost and found, it was turned over to him. (I think this is true because he tried calling me in the beginning but the language barrier kept us from connecting.) Anyway, he offered to 1)send it back or 2) send a payment and then we “remove the icloud account” so he can use it, I guess. The phone was reported stolen at the time, of course, and my daughter got a replacement through insurance. I have no idea what I should do. Please help. Is it bad to have all her info on the phone, so maybe we shouldn’t unlock it for that reason. Is there a way to erase everything? Is his idea about the icloud account reasonable? feasible? safe? wise? HELP!
Sorry, I forgot to say she lost it in Mexico.
I turned on lost mode but found it and it’s now dead. How to I turn lost mode off without losing my data?
Hi guys, I lost my iPhone and tried to find out its location by using FindMyiPhone. Although it’s been instructed in the apple website that the app would show the last place before the battery was turned down, it did not work and the only thing it said was your device is offline.
Can anyone help on how to see the last place on the app?
I cannot get sound on my IPad when using IPhone.’find my IPad’ (just posts a message), but I can get sound on my IPhone when tracking via IPad. I have compared settings on both devices…deleted and re downloaded app on both devices, but just cannot get the sound to track my IPad. It used to work (I frequently misplace my IPad in the house) but since I uploaded IOS8 it just won’t work. Please advise. Thanks
I have a work Iphone 5s. I have been told find my phone has been installed the find my phone app in case we lose the phone. I asked if it will be used to track us outside sales folks and they said no. Recently a colleague was dismissed due to being tracked with this app. I cannot turn it off because the ICloud is under the work phone. If I turn off the Location Services and wi-fi can I be tracked. E-mail is set up on the phone. The gray arrow never disappears beside the app when I check. The say they never use the app?? Feel like Big Brother is always watching me. I work 8-5 and app is always with gray arrow on.
Hi Dave,
It’s shameful that your employer is tracking people without a clear need to do so, or at the very least being transparent about it. Find My iPhone can nonetheless be useful to wipe someone’s phone, if stolen, to protect corporate data.
If you turn off Location Services however, there shouldn’t be any way for them to get your location unless they enable Lost Mode:
“In iOS 7 (and 8), if you turn off Location Services and use Find My iPhone Lost Mode, Location Services will be re-enabled on the device as long as the device is in Lost Mode. Once Lost Mode is disabled, Location Services will return to its previous state.”
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5594
I hope this helps!
Thanks for the info. I did notice that on a few occasions my Location Services was “on” when I always set to off. I then checked my find my iphone under system services and the grey arrow was present. I guess there is no way of getting them to stop checking on me as I will not know unless I am checking constantly if my services are off or on? Thanks for replying.
I lost my iPhone,If someone was able to turn off find my iPhone and delete my iCloud account,can I still track it or wipe it?
I was reading a lot of info on how thieves can bypass the “find my iPhone bypass hack,it actually works,my friend followed the exact instructions for the hack on iOS 7.0.6,we were able to turn off find my iPhone and had the option to delete the iCloud account.
I stopped receiving email notifications when i use Find my Iphone app to locate my phone. is something wrong? How do i enable it back?
I set my phone with 10 incorrect passwords and the phone would be wiped so when I remotely wiped my phone, it said offline. Could this be why?
Someone stole my iphone 5s 3 days ago and they turned it off. If they used https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-7rrVkyR7c <— that method on their own itunes, can i be able to track the ip address or check who owns the itunes? or just somehow find a way to still track my iphone? i have important things on the phone and i would do anything to get it back.
Hello….
Security question….I dialed out once on my cell phone to my son,
When my son answered his cell phone, he saw that my number
showed up twice on his caller id…it showed up that I had dialed
twice,too.
Also when I had made some phone calls, a different number
showed up on my caller id at the same time that I had placed
the call.
There was also beeping, echo sound when I had talked to some
people on the phone.
Do you think my phone calls could be “tracing or tracking my calls?
Who could do this?
Thank You
My company pays my phone bills and I was going on a study leave abroad as at the time I upgraded my iphone5 to iphone6 and gave the iphone5 to my wife. I didn’t really know much about these gadgets but while I was experimenting with the features I actually wiped my iphone5 and my wife had to call me sometime later that she could no longer use the phone. How can I make the phone usable again?
The issue is that my wife cannot even access anything except just switching it on, how then can we get it to work again?my son had sometime ago put a back up on my laptop, would this be of any help?
Can you set your IPhone 4s to notify you if someone has been looking through your phone to see what all information they can find on your phone? Like tracking what you do with your phone by someone other than you.
@Bonny: No, as far as I know there is no way to achieve this in iOS.
Is it possible that the find my iphone setting will automatically be deactivated? or if your iphone was jailbreak is this possible? or you really have to navigate it in order to be disabled? Thank you
I had the touch password on my iphone, is there any way someone can access it? its been a week now and noone has returned it.
Just to let anyone know who might not, if you use a pass code on any iOS device prior to version 7, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. I know from experience. My iPod was stolen with Find My iPhone enabled and with a lock on the screen. I’ve received no notifications whatsoever because the thief cannot connect to their WiFi unless they reformat it and either way, I can’t send a message that will be received or locate it. Finding it by triangulation may be possible, but not if it’s dead or off and certainly not after a wipe.
Liss, yes they can. I really wish they would access my data, rather than destroy. It means a great deal to me, but it’s not too sensitive. I’ve changed linked passwords, anyway. iFunBox can allow viewing, adding or editing files stored on any Apple device. It never had to contend with my lock screen.
Once again, if you have an older, WiFi-only device with iOS 6 and under, do NOT use a pass code but if you do, choose a custom lock screen image with your contact info. I so regret not leaving it unlocked with a custom lock screen photo… It may deter them from ‘restoring’ AND if they connect to a hotspot, give you windows of opportunity for tracking them down.
Hi
I found an iphone 6
Can i use it?
I have found iphone 6.. can i use it????
I wanted to try and sell my old iPhone 5, but now i’m not sure if I should. It would only be for parts because it has hardware issues, It won’t boot up past the white screen with the black Apple. I took out the SIM card, but I’m worried if someone has it and they find a way to fix it, they will be able to get all my other info cause I can’t turn it on to hard wipe it. I’ve opened it up, but I can’t see anything that says memory card or SD card. Is there something I can remove from the back that would erase or damage all the internal memory? even if i just want to destroy it and not sell it, I want to make sure my info is not recoverable.
My son is turning off data to prevent us from tracking his phone on find my iphone. Is there a way I can prevent this?
Hi , please help.
I got new iPhone & ipad but still use the same mobile number and email address.
I gave the old iPhone & iPad to someone & I have deleted all infos.
That someone request for my password to open iPhone & ipad so they can change to theirs details. I believed them & gave them my password.
Can they access to my current mobile info & account and current iPad details?
Please advice, am very very worried. Thank you sooo much. Chanel
Hi Chanel, if you’re referring to your iCloud password then they could access any data stored in iCloud. I would recommend changing your password immediately.
can I find my iPhone without the iCloud ,just with the serial number ?
hi i’m doris, i had my friend help me hack my ex’s email cause i suspected he was cheating. all he asked for was a his phone number. he’s email is [email protected],com..IF u need help tell him doris clerck referred you to him and he’ll help. good luck
cant get my iPhone 2 get service
I lost my favorite iPhone a few days ago. I got it back using iLostFinder. It works better.
Hi, i recently purchased my Iphone 6 and unfortunately missplaced it at a bar….thou i had a passcode on it .. i had turned on the find my Iphone on and share location data.i jus received one mail after that …No Mail..still waiting.i have sent all possible msg of wipe lock ring etc.. but no response
Probably smart thief must have restored it before he has started using the phone ..
i would like to know what is the possible way to get my iPhone back.
:(
Hi,
I lost my I phone and can’t remember if I turned on my Find My Phone, however, I went on to Icloud and selected Find My Phone and I get the pic of my phone, notify when found and lost mode. I entered a number and message. Does that mean that my Find My Phone was turned on in my phone? Right now my device is offline and it says lost mode pending.
If I sign onto nearby friends via someone else’s cell will it update later when I sign on from my cell?
My friend and I decided to share locations she did not have her cell so she used her mothers and turned on nearby friends and then sent me a notification to share precise location until “you choose to stop” and I did the same but from my cell. Now only get the feed from when she used her mom’s cell and it does not update she has signed into FB from her cell.
Please advise, thanks!
Help!!
If I sign onto nearby friends via someone else’s cell will it update later when I sign on from my cell?
My friend and I decided to share locations she did not have her cell so she used her mothers and turned on nearby friends and then sent me a notification to share precise location until “you choose to stop” and I did the same but from my cell. Now only get the feed from when she used her mom’s cell and it does not update she has signed into FB from her cell.
Please advise, thanks!
So difficult to figure out!
If I sign onto nearby friends via someone else’s cell will it update later when I sign on from my cell?
My friend and I decided to share locations and she did not have her cell so she used her mothers to sign into FB and turned on her nearby friends and then sent me a notification to share her precise location until “you choose to stop” and I did the same but from my cell. Now I only get the feed from when she used her mom’s cell and it does not update though she has signed into FB from her cell since.
Please advise, thanks!
Hi,
I lost my iphone today and tried to use icloud to track/lock the phone.
However, I can’t find the phone at Icloud. Is there anyway I can lock or clear the phone?
ICloud only holds the last location of the iPhone for 24 hrs. after it does. Is there any other way around this??
if my iphone got stolen and i had Verizon suspend it, can whoever stole it hook it up to a computer and wipe its memory?
I got my iPhone stolen on monday, and my phone is currently offline. Would I be able to track the SIM card to find my device?
I lost my iPhone just recently on Monday. It’s offline on find my iPhone, but do you think I could track my SIM card to find my device’s location?
I didnt have find my iphone on my lost phone but a message from icare showed me a notification saying my phone was turned ON,
How is that possible? And how do i track it?
Hello,
I just have a question which abviously concern ‘Find my Iphone’. Doest it work when I am 8000 km away ? Because I show the application to my husband who is in business trip in another continent and when he enter my details, It show him a completely different location of where I was really.
I have tracked my iPhone down with the app, that goodness. Now i don’t know how to get back into my mobile. i sent a msg to it which is on the screen with my home number. i called this thinking it would de activate lost iPhone and it hasn’t. Can someone help me plleeaassee???
Did you disable Lost Mode in Find My iPhone? Otherwise try rebooting the phone.
Hi!
If my iPhone has cellular connection but is in standby mode (not turn off but in standby), can the Find My iPhone app detect its location?
My phone is offline. If i go on find my phone and delete iphone will it tell them that i deleted the iphone or will it do it without them knowing?
I lost my phone and have it set to wipe when it’s connected to a computer, I have insurance so I’m getting a new phone in the mail. Does this affect my iCloud when I get my new phone ? Like will it all be wiped ?
Hay I had my iPad mini 2 stolen, it has not came online at all. It still says lost mode activation block and sound pending. no last location. It is also still in my find my iPhone devices? If someone were to wipe it would it disappear from my devices. it has been a couple of months now and nothing I check every single day and I have it set to notify me if it comes online or is found
Help! What happens when you remove a device when it is pending for erase? I accidentally removed it and I don’t know how to undo it and I don’t have the device please help?!
My iPhone was stolen, I used find my iPhone to set a security code and left a message to be delivered back to me in case somebody’s found it.
I got an email from find my iPhone a day later saying that a loud noise played on my iPhone and it gave me the location, which it was the railway station. I then blocked the terminal with my service provider.
Decided to fix a previous iPhone I had at home for months, when I fixed it and connected it to wifi, a loud noise came up and the message I left on the phone that was stolen before too!
I have no idea how this could happen! Now I can’t use this phone cause I don’t remember the passcode I set up with find my iPhone for the phone that was actually stolen.
Can anyone help???
Can I find my last iPhone?
Why is it possible that my stolen locked iPhone can switch off???
how to track my iphone 6s plus it was stolen,
Theft was using only wifi without putting any simcard
I lost my Iphone set findmyphone right away. called police as soon as phone came online. my phone was stolen by kids so they had no idea to get by the lock mode.. when they tried to trade my phone someone reconized my phone and took it from the thief…I have my phone back!!!!
Hi. Can still get notification if someone tries to login to my IPad threw iCloud even if it was wiped
Hey there
A few days ago I had my iPhone 6 stolen I was able to track it’s last location in find my phone. The phone went flat and I put it in lost mode, after a few days of not seeing it I decided to set it to erase, today I received a message that the phone had been erased in the middle of night, the thing is it didn’t say Shane’s iPhone has been erased but someone else’s name. I’m wondering how this is possible without them hacking the phone first ? so is it correct they would have access to my Apple ID to this? It seems all this apple security has failed me.
i lost my iPhone last month ,it was theft from my bag as soon as i realised i activated lost mode and done all the steps as recommended in the apple site even lodge a police complain in local police station, almost after one month i got info of its location but its now in other country ,i immediately informed local police with detail mail and map but they told we could not help as its now in some other country, i am really very very upset don’t know what to do ………………
I’m trying to test the find my iPhone on my pc I can see where my phone is but no address comes up is this cause I’m next to the phone
I have trying to see what information my iPad retains about previous locations.
1. How long does the iPad store that info so it is available on the iPad?
2. How do I access it from the iPad itself?
I had my Macbook Pro stolen and I set up the notify when found and I also locked it out when it connects to the internet. I noticed someone connected to the internet and it sent me the emails and locked the computer out but I couldnt get on the find my iphone app fast enough to get a location. I called apple support and they say they have no information on where it was when it connected to the internet. There has to be a way to get the last location from when it connected but I just dont know how.
If my phone was once blacklist can y do a backup restore because lots of viruses?
I’ve found my IPAD after being stolen. is their a way to generate 24 hours location after it’s been stolen to find out the possibility who uses the IPAD. because it suddenly appeared out of the blue after being stolen.
With find my iPhone is the location perfectly accurate. I show the phone in front of where my daughter is supposed to be also it showed up about half a mile away from where she said she was. Is this accurate or is there wiggle room? Thank you in advance
Why did an old location display using find my iphone when my phone was miles away at the time? Feel free to reply via email to [email protected] Thanks!
This can happen if Find My iPhone can’t geolocate your phone, it’ll display its last known location.
Amazing article, Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work.
So I lost an iPad mini 4 recently and tracked its last location at a McDonald’s. After that couldn’t pin it. Could it be possible that whoever had it could’ve restored it on iTunes and wiped the “find my” or any programs on there from tracking it?
Thanks
I forgot my password
There are a few ways users can get their iPhone back without doing much of the hard work. Let’s check some of the working methods to fix Forgot iPhone passcode. https://ifonegyaan.com/forgot-iphone-passcode/