Stolen iPhone/ Question about Find My iPhone app

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Stolen iPhone/ Question about Find My iPhone app

Hey, guys!

So some nasty people stole my phone on easter (I work in a portrait studio). Pretty good/99.9% idea of who it was.

I have "Find My iPhone", and I filed a police report but here's my question:

THe "Erase iPhone" feature, When I clicked it, it had said that "An erased iPhone cannot be tracked", but when I spoke to someone at tech support, they said that it would only delete my personal information, but keep my lock code on. So does erasing the iphone make it useless to everyone, or just the person who stole it?

It's a sentimental piece, I really hope I get it back and I don't want to make it any easier for them to have it, you know?

PS: They turned it off, I have no idea what they plan to do with it because it still hasn't come back online yet. It's pretty worthless to them.

iPhone 4S

Posted on Apr 1, 2013 6:12 AM

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Answer 1

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wjosten

Level 10

95,321 points

Apr 1, 2013 6:29 AM in response to Daryanfromny

The only way to locate/disable/erase any lost/stolen iPhone is through Find My Phone or a similar app. However, this requires that Find My Phone be setup/activated, on your phone, before it was lost/stolen. You would then login at iCloud.com & try to locate it. This requires the phone be turned on & have an Internet connection. There is no other way to locate a lost/stolen iPhone. Apple can't/won't help you, nor will your carrier. Report the loss to the Police, your carrier & Insurance company. Change all of your passwords.

If your carrier offers Blacklisting & they Blacklist the phone, it will be unusable as a phone.

If locked with a passcode, all a thief has to do is force the phone into recovery mode & restore it. While this delets all data on the phone, it also removes the passcode so the phone can then be used as a phone or touch.

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