Having Passcode Lock on, I can power off the iPhone when the screen is locked. Is this intended or is it a bug? It can be problematic to use Find My iPhone if someone steals somebody's iPhone and shuts it down.
iPhone 4
A stolen iPhone that has Find my iPhone and thus Activation Lock enabled can never be used or activated again, unless the rightful owner releases the lock. Activation Lock survives powering off, powering on, resetting, restoring, erasing, changing the SIM. Because the lock is set in Apple's activation server, not in the phone. The point if it is to make stolen iPhones useless, so there is no benefit to stealing them.
That is definitely expected behavior. If you are worried about your device being stolen iOS 7 has activation lock. You can put the device in lost mode and essentially brick the device all while still being able to track it when it is still powered on. Its pretty rad.
You dont need to worry about getting to your computer in time, just by turning on Find my iPhone, activation lock is enabled. Once its activated, the second that device reaches the internet its locked down. Just by having find my iPhone turned on in your settings it prevents the device from being restored. And if they restore it via recovery mode they will be stuck at the set up assistant without your iCloud password. I honestly cannot see any way around it. While the device tracking can be easily thwarted by avoiding internet access, they will just have a useless brick in their posession. All the details can be found here
You've missed my point. What's the use of having find my iPhone and a phone you can't remove the battery easily , if all any unscrupulous person has to do is turn it off. Turning the iPhone off should have a password. Simple. Even some password apps , that are like alarms when anyone even moves your phone, are rendered useless when the phone is simply turned off! Get with it apple.
Then, Apple should consider adding this feature into the next version of iOS or IPhone.
Enable Passcode when Shutting down.
Then, "Find My Phone" can find a stolen phone. (In this case, the definition of STOLEN means a theft turning it off. If the dump theft didn't turn it off, it is not different from a lost phone.)
This feature also make IPhone the easiest phone to find when lost or stolen. 🙂
My friend left his phone on the table in a restaurant. When walked back the next minute, it was gone and was turned off. "Find My Phone" was useless and he never find his phone again.
Most of the time, people find out that they lost the phone in 3 - 5 minutes and keeping the phone ON for 3 minutes can make a huge difference.
It is highly unlikely for any theft to put the phone in no-service area in 3 minutes unless intentionally carrying a special metal box with him all the time and hope somebody will forget the phone.
AT&T IPhone customer (like me) may be out of luck if the theft takes the sim card out 😟 but the theft has to carry a small pin (or toothpick) to punch out the sim card.
Simple answer. Find my iPhone data and functions should not be erased when there is a full restore. So the next person who uses your lost or stolen phone cannot use it on any 3G or wifi network without getting caught .
I too am really surprised, as well as shocked & annoyed, that the iPhone is able to be turned off without any code what-so-ever. This is seriously wrong and if some people don't care for it anyway, there should at least be the choice for those that do! Anything that will help with the security of the iPhone, even if it's limited. After all, they are so flippin expensive! And more what with all the information that can be stored on them!
This is my first iPhone, after more than a decade of having a Nokia where I couldn't switch my mobile off without a code, it seems somewhat pointless having the security apps at all! 😠
Unlimited but the only information they get is this...
Apple ID: r*******@*****.com
Possibly the domain name too, but its been a while since Ive seen it.
But they would have to be able to guess the email address and password combo. Complete with password capitolization and special characters. Its pretty much impossible.
You are correct about people not setting it up. That is the biggest hole in the security. But during the set up assistant(even after an update) everyone is asked to set it up and I think its a two tap process to say no so they really have to mean it lol.
Activation lock was a step in the right direction for mobile security thats for sure.
If you want to suggest something to Apple, post it on the Feedback page. Apple doesn't read these posts:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html
FYI, check out the words "theft" and "thief" in a dictionary. Also, "dump" and "dumb."
Unlimited. But how many guesses would you need to guess the owner's Apple ID email address and the associated password? Could you do it in the remaining lifetime of the universe?
So the only time youll have to use the apple ID is if you try to:
...if Im remembering correctly. Ill admit I havent played around with it for a few months now.
But assuming most data protective people use a passcode lock, the only way around that passcode is to forced recovery restore. Thus requiring them to enter your apple ID to complete the set up assistant.
If you dont have a passcode on the phone though, they could of course use your phone exactly how it is. But not remove your account or turn of find my iPhone. Which in turn allows you to set up a passcode remotely unless they lock down the internet. So really the only fatal flaw is locking down network connectivity which makes the phone pretty useless, and with SIM cards it is almost impossible to prevent.
Works as intended. It's problematic not to be able to shut the phone down when locked in various situations (like on an airplane or needed when troubleshooting).
No one has access to your data or use of the phone when it's shut off. You then have time to call your carrier and report it stolen to cancel service. Since the phone is passcode locked and can't be used by the thief, he will just restore it as new, and it won't be locatable by Find My Phone anyway.
The purpose of Find My Phone is primarily to find lost, not stolen phones. While many thieves are also total morons, it doesn't take too many digits in your IQ to defeat Find My Phone.
Message was edited by: modular747
Thank you all for your answers.
It just came to my mind that, even if the iPhone had the feature of requesting the code in order to shut down the device, there's always the reset/reboot option (the simultaneous press on power and home buttons). If you have sim lock code enabled, you first have to unlock the screen and then input the sim code which leads to the phone not being able to register itself on the network making impossible to track.
Any kind of software based remote tracking feature has limitations. If you are seriously relying on it or blindly trusting to it as some form of primary security, DON'T. It is a nice feature, especially for free, but it is inherently limited. Yes, the thief can power the device off (and I for one, want my phone to go off when I turn it off, not some period of time AFTER i turn it off). If it is a GSM phone, they can remove the SIM card (wifi can still connect, if set up to connect to open networks, or if in range of a remembered network). They can restore it as new, which at least blows away your information, but makes finding it impossible.
By far the best security you can use is a good, strong (ie. not simple 4-digit) passcode on the device, and have it set to wipe data after 10 failed attempts. But so many people complain that is too inconvenient, and end up placing far to much, and completely unwarranted, trust in something like find-my-iPhone because it is simple and does not impede their easy use of their device.
iPhone can be shut down with screen locked and passcode set
