Is it possible to cancel a remote erase command set in the Find my iPhone app?

Question

Level 1

5 points

Is it possible to cancel a remote erase command set in the Find my iPhone app?

I have recently been reunited with my 17" MacBook Pro by the police after it was lost.

To cut a long story short I initiated the "erase mac" element as I thought I wouldnt be seeing my MacBook again.

Sooooo........... now having the computer in my possession again, I d like to know if there is anyway that I can either:

1. Stop the erase command from initiating?

or

2. Recover the relatively small amount of information that has not been backed up (due to travelling) possibly by

turning my network connection off and taking off before connecting to the internet again?

I ve contacted Apple Support and they have advised that (1) is not possible as far as they (the operator spoken with)

are concerned, but (2) was a very good question that they have had no training on or information available about.

As such, thought I would ask the Guru's here to see what are the possibilities, or have I just got to bite the bullet and

accept the losses?

I wondered if the erase command can be sent via an unauthorised network connection such as when wifi looks up what

networks are available??

I ve not turned the MBP on since getting it back and am assuming, as there is no notification from the Find my iPhone app

that it has been located that way, that it has not had network access if it has been turned on at any time since I activated

the locate and erase facility.

Many thanks for you kind attention and hopefully positive response. :-)

Kind regards

Bob

MacBook Pro (17-inch Early 2011), OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)

Posted on Jan 18, 2014 7:27 AM

Reply

Answer 1

John Guo

Level 5

5,353 points

Jan 18, 2014 8:25 AM in response to CdoBob

There is one way you can try... it should work in theory. It's called Target Disk Mode. What this does is that you have to connect your computer to another Mac and your computer will show up on the other Mac as an external hard drive. You can then transfer everything to the other Mac.

Here is where its going to get complicated. You would need another Mac. Since you said your MacBook Pro is a 17" then you still have the old FireWire ports. You need to find out what kind of FireWire port it is (400 or 800). Get a FireWire cable (it's going to be hard nowadays but try Amazon, eBay, Newegg). You might need a FireWire to Thunderbolt converter is the other Mac only has Thunderbolt ports.

Once you plugged the computers in with the right cable. Turn the other computer on first then turn yours on with the "T" key down. That will enable Target Disk Mode. (http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10725)

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Answer 2

BobRz

Level 5

6,138 points

Jan 18, 2014 8:35 AM in response to CdoBob

Bob,

Another possibility... I'm pretty sure what initiates the erase is when the Mac is able to connect to wifi. If there's no network and it hasn't received the command, it doesn't know to erase. I'd think if you connect an external drive and run Carbon Copy Cloner, you should have an exact dupe of your drive. You could then bring your stuff back with Migration Assistant after a reinstall.

As for staying off wifi... it seems like the easiest way would be to find an area with horrible reception. Maybe a basement or something. When you boot up, immediately turn off wifi. I don't think wired ethernet would trip the wipe anyway, but don't use it.

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