You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Stolen iPhone

So today my iPhone was stolen and stupidly I had not enabled "Find my iPhone" so there was no way to trace it or remote wipe it. I logged into iCloud through my PC and changed my Apple ID password and removed the iPhone from my Apple ID. I'm not exactly tech-savvy, but my intention was to stop any potential access to my data on my iPhone. However now I feel that I just made life easier for the theives by removing all my data and practically giving them a fresh phone that they can use their own Apple ID on, but I'm not sure and wanted to see if that is the case? I know I cannot do anything about it now so oh well but just curious to know if I did the right thing. Thanks.

Posted on Jun 29, 2022 4:00 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 29, 2022 4:36 PM

Did you remove the device from your iCloud account at https://www.iCloud.com/find ? That would disable the use of Find My.


If you also removed the device from your trusted devices under your AppleID at https://appleid.apple.com/ then you also disabled activation lock.


So your device is linked to your AppleID in two places. Your iCloud account for Find My services, but directly to your AppleID as a trusted device for Activation Lock.


If that is the case that you removed it at both, then yes, they can restore it with a computer, which erases it, and then activate it under their AppleID.


If you only removed it in iCloud and it is still a trusted device under your AppleID then activation lock will prevent them from using it after they restore it.

Similar questions

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 29, 2022 4:36 PM in response to 6asap9

Did you remove the device from your iCloud account at https://www.iCloud.com/find ? That would disable the use of Find My.


If you also removed the device from your trusted devices under your AppleID at https://appleid.apple.com/ then you also disabled activation lock.


So your device is linked to your AppleID in two places. Your iCloud account for Find My services, but directly to your AppleID as a trusted device for Activation Lock.


If that is the case that you removed it at both, then yes, they can restore it with a computer, which erases it, and then activate it under their AppleID.


If you only removed it in iCloud and it is still a trusted device under your AppleID then activation lock will prevent them from using it after they restore it.

Stolen iPhone

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.