Stolen phone: "erase pending"

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Stolen phone: "erase pending"

My phone, an XR with facial recognition security features, was stolen yesterday. It was not unlocked when it was taken. Find my Phone did not work, as whoever took it immediately turned the phone off. I have enabled a remote erase which is still "pending" according to icloud.

My question is, when is it safe to remove this device from my account? And what happens if I remove it when the remote erase is still pending? My insurance provided a replacement immediately and I'd like to activate it, but I'm concerned about removing the stolen phone from my icloud account if my data is still on the device.

NB: There's also a warning label on the replacement phone saying that my privacy could be at risk if I don't disable Find My iPhone on the lost or damaged device before activating the new one.

iPhone XR, 12

Posted on Feb 16, 2019 2:43 PM

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Answer 1

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KiltedTim

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225,870 points

Feb 16, 2019 2:51 PM in response to TrueBlack77

My question is, when is it safe to remove this device from my account?

If you don't want the thief to be able to use the phone, never. So long as you don't remove it, it will remain activation locked. Even if the thief puts it into DFU mode and erases the device, it can not be activated without your iCloud credentials.

Also, be very skeptical of any messages, emails, etc. you may get saying your phone has been located and prompting you to use a link to log in. Those are phishing messages designed to get you to give up your credentials so the thief can remove the activation lock.

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Answer 2

TrueBlack77 Author

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Feb 16, 2019 3:39 PM in response to KiltedTim

The phone came from Asurion, Verizon's device insurance provider (I filled out the claim just last night at my Verizon store). The literature that came with it encourages you to call a toll free number for device set-up/activation support, but I wanted to do some research myself first.

Based on what I'm reading on relevant threads here, it seems like most people (yourself included) believe the smart thing to do is keep the device on icloud and the activation lock turned on.

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Answer 3

TrueBlack77 Author

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4 points

Feb 16, 2019 3:01 PM in response to KiltedTim

That makes sense. Thank you.

I am confused about the warning label on the new phone, however, which seems to be suggesting I need to turn off find-my-phone on the stolen phone before activating the new one.

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Answer 4

TrueBlack77 Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 9, 2019 10:40 AM in response to TrueBlack77

Follow-up Question:

It's been 3 weeks since my phone was stolen, and I successfully restored my replacement from a backup. The stolen phone remains offline with remote erase pending.

As predicted by KiltedTim, I am now receiving a series of suspicious-looking texts (see screenshot), so thank you for the warning. It seems like a pretty obvious phishing attempt, but I guess I'm wondering what I should do next (if anything). Block sender? Report to Apple? Just ignore?

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