If my iPhone should be lost

If your phone is not secured with a passcode, Touch ID, or Face ID, then anyone who finds your phone could easily rifle through your data, and/or turn Find My off.

You must have Find My enabled on an iPhone before that iPhone is lost. Afterwards is too late. If you lost a phone that was unlocked and that had Find My turned on, presumably the location-finding part of Find My would work in the same way as usual (with the same limitations) – until some dishonest person found the phone and turned that feature off.

So you'd be hoping that the phone

• Was merely lost, not stolen
• Was turned on, and had battery power left, and had a Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connection, or
• Was found by another very near by Apple device, AirTag-style

My iPhone 14 was stolen and jerk guessed my passcode b/c it was too easy to guess. They not only changed my pass code on CashApp but sent themselves money via CashApp, Uber and Lyft. All three did nothing to help meet the person prosecuted even when I tried to send them copy of police report. They turned off FindMy and I lost out on cost of phone plus the cost of insurance and the $450 they sent themselves. These apps are pathetic when it comes to helping out someone who phone was stolen. I would like to know any way to find phone that was stolen and Find My is off or the phone is off. I have the IMEI number.

Re: “… My iPhone 14 was stolen and jerk guessed my passcode b/c it was too easy to guess … “

While we can all have empathy for your situation, not having a secure passcode is inexcusable in this day and age.

One must take responsibility for making a reasonable effort to secure one’s own hardware and data before criticizing others.

Use the built-in privacy and security protections of iPhone – Apple Support (AU)

If you think your Apple ID has been compromised - Apple Support

seangauvin wrote:

I would like to know any way to find phone that was stolen and Find My is off or the phone is off. I have the IMEI number.

There is physically searching for the phone – which is not advisable if you have good reason to believe that the phone is in the hands of criminals. Somebody who would steal your phone might also be somebody who would violently assault you.