How do I locate my stolen IPad based on the Serial Number?

You don't.

Find My iPhone will find the stolen device provided the app was turned on initially and the device is on and connected to the internet. No serial number is needed.

There is no way to track it except via your iCloud account and the associated find my iphone feature of that account. After 3 years, your phone has certianly been restored, wiping out your icloud account and thus rendering the phone completely untrackable by any remote means. It may already be on another continent for all you know (and for stolen phones, thats a very likely event).

There is no remote tracking by hardware ID, not for individual private citizens acting on their own at least. Find my iPhone doesn't use hardware ID for tracking either - it tracks simply based on a secure, authenticated internet data connection between Apple's servers and your device via your iCloud login credentials.

Why doesn't Apple track units by Serial Number???? If someone steals an iPhone the first thing they are going to do is power it off and try to use it with a different SIM (i.e. Phone Number) ? This would be extremely easy to do and would deter thefts of phones.

Also since I have Location Services turned on why not offer to store this on Apple's servers as a user option and specify how often this show be updated???

Thank you.....

12voltmanXX wrote:

Why doesn't Apple track units by Serial Number???? If someone steals an iPhone the first thing they are going to do is power it off and try to use it with a different SIM (i.e. Phone Number) ? This would be extremely easy to do and would deter thefts of phones.

Also since I have Location Services turned on why not offer to store this on Apple's servers as a user option and specify how often this show be updated???

Asked and answered hundreds of times in these forums.....

Apple provides you with a means for tracking phones and iPads. It's not possible to track any device if it's turned off. If you have Find My iPhone enabled, no one else can activate the device with a new SIM.

Meg,

Thank you for the reply and I didn't mean to be repetitive - my search landed me on this tread.

Just a couple of points in case anyone from Apple reads these conversations:

• In Location Servers please add a feature to store my location at user specified intervals for the last 48 hours.
• Consider adding a power off PIN coded that a user could turn on.
• In iCloud Find my iPhone add a feature to lock the phone if it has already been turned off the next time the phone (based on serial number) powers on, connects to the internet and connects with an Apple server.
• Add an automatic Selfie Picture when in Lost Mode sent to the owner as well....

Merely my thoughts....

Submit your feedback directly to Apple using the appropriate link on the Feedback page:

http://www.apple.com/feedback