Regarding Erasure of a Stolen iPhone
Someone that I have been helping has had their iPhone 12 Pro Max stolen a little over a week ago. Since we had known it was stolen, I panicked a bit and opted to immediately try and erase the phone from Find My iPhone. I am learning that this may have been a mistake. The person who stole the phone has yet to connect it to any source of internet, so it has not erased yet. Does the activation lock work on the iPhone if you just erase it, or does it need to be put into lost mode first? If it does need to be put into lost mode, what should I do? I need to cancel the erase to put it in lost mode, but I worry that if I cancel the erase to do so, some issues may arise. To start, if I were to cancel the erase, would there be a cooldown period before I can try to erase it again? I would like to ideally cancel the erase, put the phone into lost mode, and then try to erase it again. Is this a risk worth taking or should I just leave it as is? I wouldn’t want to give the person who has stolen the phone a chance to fully use the phone with access to the internet, but I worry if they have a way to get past the normal 4 digit passcode they could still access plenty of information without connecting to the internet. And just to add, we have already notified the service provider, but I don’t think that changes much regarding this issue. Thanks.
iPhone 12 Pro Max