Lost iPhone 15 Pro Max, Find My Not Working For Lost iPhone

Re: “… At the very least, I believe Apple needs to step up and address this issue …”

Apple has already made the phones not only VERY secure … but economically worthless to steal.

Apple’s backup and recovery processes can and do restore a replacement phone to a state which is virtually indistinguishable from the original lost/damaged/stolen device.

But EVEN Apple can’t alter the laws of physics to counter a thief.

All that is required is to block or otherwise inhibit a fairly low-power RF signal.

FindMy exits to help us recover from our own occasional absent-mindedness AND to allow an honest finder to return the device to it’s rightful owner.

I actually had my own iPhone — left in a cab in Las Vegas — returned to me within 2 Hrs.

If it had been a less-than-honest finder, the outcome would have been different.

Finally … users need to practice what to do BEFORE they loose or damage their device. Most of the many posts to which you correctly refer are clearly the result of this simple failure to plan.

As with any reasonably foreseeable “crisis” in life … the time to think it thru and practice is NOT when you need to do it for real.

Chloe3k wrote:

I’ve always heard stories of people losing their iPhones and never being able to recover them. A friend of mine once left their iPhone in a taxi, and despite having all the tracking features enabled, they couldn’t locate it. It’s frustrating to think that something like this could happen, but I never imagined it would hit so close to home.

Recently, our son lost his fully charged iPhone 15 Pro Max on a bus while traveling through the city with his friends. Despite having everything turned on—location sharing, Find My, and a fully charged MagSafe—the phone's last known location showed only that it was on the bus with him. We immediately tried pinging it and had friends attempt to track it, but there was no luck. The GPS only provided an approximate location with a timestamp of '33 minutes ago,' and after that, we received no further updates or tracking data, making it impossible to recover the phone. It feels like these features, which are meant to help recover lost or stolen devices, are failing when they’re needed most.

We tried everything available on this page Find your lost iPhone or iPad, and nothing helped. The suggestions to use Find My and put the device in Lost Mode to protect personal information didn’t work for us like many other people. It seems like these are more like gimmicks rather than actual tools that can help in these situations.

What’s even more troubling is how many others are experiencing the same issues. There are countless posts online about stolen devices and similar struggles with recovery. It really makes me wonder: Is Apple’s system working the way it’s supposed to? Or is there more to it?

It raises a concerning question: Are we being forced into situations where we need to erase our phones just to protect our data, even though no one wants to wipe a $1,500 device? It almost feels like Apple might be pushing customers into buying new devices, especially when so many people are sharing the same frustrations.

At the very least, I believe Apple needs to step up and address this issue. There should be a better way to help users recover their stolen or lost devices without leaving us with the feeling that we’re left with no option but to buy a replacement. My son had over 30 thousand pictures, multiple notes and journals!

How many of you have experienced similar issues? Do you think Apple could do more to improve device recovery and prevent this from happening to others?

Said device needs to be connected to wifi or cellular data for those features to work, can't use it if the device is powered off, or put in airplane mode.

IF your son set up a 6 digit passcode that isn't easily guess then his data is safe.