Lost iPhone on airplane mode

Read this support guide:

If your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch is lost or stolen - Apple Support

Regards

Giulio

Since it is in airplane mode, it cannot connect to the internet. In that case, there is nothing you can do remotely with it, sorry. You need an internet connection to send any remote commands to it or receive any remote location information from it.

Michael Black wrote:

Since it is in airplane mode, it cannot connect to the internet. In that case, there is nothing you can do remotely with it, sorry. You need an internet connection to send any remote commands to it or receive any remote location information from it.

As stated in the link I posted, I think that if the OP had Find My iPhone turned on on the lost device, he still can do the steps provided in section: "What if your device is off or offline?".

Am I missing something?

Regards

Giulio

He can issue the commands. They do absolutely nothing until that device is back online. They just sit idling waiting for the device to connect so they can execute.

They might, or they might not. I am not saying not to use the features of find my iPhone to help protect your data. Just don’t count on them.

The comment in the original post that caught my attention was the “can I lock it”. If your device doesn’t already have a screen lock passcode (preferable a strong passphrase if you use fingerprint or face recognition) then locking it remotely later, after it’s lost, is often wholly pointless. Why would a thief bother disabling airplane mode if they already have access to everything on it?

In that scenario, no screen lock passcode, I’d be far more concerned with getting online, changing passcodes, enabling 2 factor logins or authentication if not already in use, contacting banks or credit card companies, etc. I would not be wasting time trying to lock the barn door after the horses have fled.

Depending on the phone's configuration, the "phone finder" can use Control Center to turn Airplane Mode off. I would think that even a dishonest person would do that at least to determine if he/she can use the phone.

Identity theives don’t care a tinkers dang about such things. And more and more, iPhone theft and smart phone theft is about identify theft more than anything else. An unsecured iPhone is a wealth of contacts and data, without ever enabling any radio communucations on it at all.

According to the FBI, the majority of smart phone theives are not interested at all in using the device themselves. They merely care about selling it quickly for whatever they can get, or mining its data if it is unsecured (as sadly, most smart phones are).

And they often do, or dump them in an inexpensive faraday bag - about $20 on Amazon or eBay, tigerdirect, etc. Or they turn them off (until in an enclosed space with no wifi or cellular signal), remove the SIM and use airplane mode.

Sure some smart phone theives are just stupid thugs, but many are very knowledgeable of the technology they target.

Michael Black wrote:

Why would a thief bother disabling airplane mode if they already have access to everything on it?

"Everything" includes Wifi/cellular/Bluetooth voice/data transfer.

Hmmm...

I would not have drawn that conclusion. Oh well, I've been wrong before and I'll be wrong again!

Mulling over your response, I would then expect that a thief would immediately put a stolen phone INTO airplane mode.

Ok, he can send them as a precaution's measure.

Thanks, Michael.

Giulio