Reinstall retired, stolen iPhone to find my phone?

We should be told not to delete retired phones unless selling them... I am heartbroken to lose original recordings of my late mother playing the piano, when Apple still cannot solve my startup disc problem with my Mac so I can be assured it won’t crash!! I can’t copy onto disk, the recordings because there is no space, and the iCloud Drive is all messed up after countless hours at the Genius Bar. So disappointed...losing this old phone was like a back up copy! Devastated!!

Yes, and I did, however, Apple was never able to solve the issue of “startup disk is full. Delete some files to create space” from my Mac, despite having purchased more space on the cloud, the, changing all the necessary setting to optimize space within the photo storage, and many hours spent at the Genius Bar. I have deleted, and deleted hordes of photos, and videos, this past year, but the Mac “wants” to update its OS, and there is not enough room! So frustrating!

No, not quite. The retired iPhone 6+, was turned off through AT & T, sitting in a drawer, and then stolen by someone working in my home! I activated, and use my iPhone 7. Earlier this month, I went to charge the I phone 6+, only to view and remove via Bluetooth, which I thought could still be done if the phone was inactive, but maybe it was possible, if plugged directly into the Mac, but I thought I had done it with an old phone once before, but it was gone!

I had caught some workers in my house 2 weeks ago, on my security cameras, stealing, and fired them! Then I realized that, 2 weeks before that, we had discovered some drawers in our bedroom had been opened, & not been closed completely, that shouldn’t have been touched, on a day another group of those workers were in my home, workers from the same company!

Unfortunately, the iPhone 6+, wasn’t stored where there was a security camera, and it’s disappearance took place between the drawer incident and the firing of the employees, because I had just removed an item from the drawer where the phone was, used it and returned it, the day before the employees were due to arrive in my home to work, and it was in the drawer when I opened it that day! It had been since I bought my iPhone 7.

I’ve had an iPhone since the iPhone 3, and know you can’t just turn it on and use it on a network, but I have been able to see photos or music , or items stored.

But I didn’t know that you have to keep all your old phones listed on the “find my phone” app. I assumed that as you disconnect them from use, you delete them from that app. I never intended to sell them, so I never erased them. So I reported it to the fraud department as stolen, and they “blacklisted” the phone. It is now “activation locked,” associated with my email, etc, so it cannot be used, and I have the proof of purchase.

Does this explain my situation better?

Limnos wrote:

I guess I have not really been following what is going on. It seemed to me you had an old phone that was activation locked and you now wanted to use. You can't just turn on the phone, have it connect to your wi-fi and then have it realize you have deleted it from Find My in iCloud which means it is also removed from the phone too?

Since I have the original receipt, I reported the phone as stolen, and the phone is “blacklisted” by fraud department , I guess I’m protected? All I want is the phone returned, no questions asked...