Found an Iphone

surge2 · Oct 21, 2014

Hey.
Half a year ago or so my parents found an Iphone 5s on the beach here in honolulu. I always wanted to use it but have been really busy and haven't done so. I think I tried to at some point, It had a password on it, I plugged it into a computer, updated the os and wiped the data. However it is in Japanese. This looks like a japanese made iphone 5s. Whenever I turn it on and look at the screen, it shows the data, battery charge, has three symbols where the carrier should be, followed by 3 dots. It says iphone followed by like 8 jap symbols, when I slide to unlock, it takes me to the emergency call interface. With call button and return to menu button. Anyway I can do nothing else, it looks like its locked. How do I unlock this?

ohhh I think it says "iphone is disabled"

Applejuiced · Oct 22, 2014

Its remotely wiped and basicly useless to anyone but the original owner.
You shouldn't be trying to take advantage of lost or stolen property anyway.

jahall05 · Oct 23, 2014

Exactly what the poster above said. If you found an iPhone, you should have turned it in.

The owner most likely realized they lost it, logged onto their iCloud account and remotely disabled the phone.

Congratulations, you have a paperweight and nobody in this forum or at Apple is going to assist you.

rigormortis · Oct 23, 2014

eject sim
find out who the carrier is
reinsert sim
return the iPhone to the carrier the sim card matches.

that might be faster then returning it to apple or the police

if the carrier is overseas give iPhone to apple or the police depending on your preferences.

cool tip:

if you find an iPhone and it has not been wiped, you can ask siri "who does this iPhone belong to?" and it will display your contact information. pretty cool, heh

its Dale · Oct 23, 2014

rigormortis said:
cool tip:

if you find an iPhone and it has not been wiped, you can ask siri "who does this iPhone belong to?" and it will display your contact information. pretty cool, heh

That's if you set up your info on it. Otherwise it will say it doesnt know

rigormortis · Oct 24, 2014

its Dale said:
That's if you set up your info on it. Otherwise it will say it doesnt know

well, i guess it reads your sim card for the telephone number and matches it to your phone book . i don't think i ever told siri i owned the phone.its not like Medical ID in health book, where you have to specifically set it up.

sim or no sim it knows your device.. based on iCloud i think. it knew my iPhone 6 was mine despite it not having an active sim in it. and it knew my iPad when it has a mobile data sim in it.

the real thing that prevents people from asking siri who does this iPhone belong to, is not your setup, but its the requirement you enter your passcode after the iPhone restarts that stops siri from working

its Dale · Oct 25, 2014

rigormortis said:
well, i guess it reads your sim card for the telephone number and matches it to your phone book . i don't think i ever told siri i owned the phone.its not like Medical ID in health book, where you have to specifically set it up.

sim or no sim it knows your device.. based on iCloud i think. it knew my iPhone 6 was mine despite it not having an active sim in it. and it knew my iPad when it has a mobile data sim in it.

the real thing that prevents people from asking siri who does this iPhone belong to, is not your setup, but its the requirement you enter your passcode after the iPhone restarts that stops siri from working

I asked Siri on mine and it doesn't show my info.

rigormortis · Oct 25, 2014

its Dale said:
I asked Siri on mine and it doesn't show my info.

i wonder how you set it to be sure

IrishVixen · Oct 25, 2014

rigormortis said:
i wonder how you set it to be sure

Settings > General > Siri > My Info
You may need to set up a contact for yourself to point it to, or edit the one that's already there to show only what information you want it to reveal. And of course, you need to be willing to set Siri to be used at the lockscreen, which some people won't do due to security concerns.

rigormortis · Oct 27, 2014

IrishVixen said:
Settings > General > Siri > My Info
You may need to set up a contact for yourself to point it to, or edit the one that's already there to show only what information you want it to reveal. And of course, you need to be willing to set Siri to be used at the lockscreen, which some people won't do due to security concerns.

yeah the bummer deal about the whole topic is that once you reboot an iPhone the whole siri is disabled unless you type your passcode. regardless of your siri lock screen setting, but that is still a good tip

Ramio · Oct 27, 2014

I don't mind you keeping it as long as you attempted to locate the owner first. If you can't, then keep it but seems the one you have is useless.

Brian Y · Oct 27, 2014

Yep given that the phone is of absolutely no use to you, you may as well do the right thing and help someone out.

Hand it in (either to the police or an Apple store) and hopefully they can help get it reunited with its owner.

Anitramane · Oct 28, 2014

You should make a video that you try to bend it in.

surge2 · Oct 29, 2014

hey

so the iphone is locked in japanese. a japanese tourist dropped it a long time ago. I live in america and he probably lives in japan. When I got it, it was locked with a passcode. Instead of fiddling with it and unlocking it, first thing I did was put it into recovery mode and tried to factory reset it. This is how it was icloud locked. by my itunes.

itkindaworks · Oct 30, 2014

surge2 said:
so the iphone is locked in japanese. a japanese tourist dropped it a long time ago. I live in america and he probably lives in japan. When I got it, it was locked with a passcode. Instead of fiddling with it and unlocking it, first thing I did was put it into recovery mode and tried to factory reset it. This is how it was icloud locked. by my itunes.

Oh I see, so you're the good guy in this saga?

surge2 · Oct 30, 2014

itkindaworks said:
Oh I see, so you're the good guy in this saga?

I don't see how this contributes in anyway or answers my question. Please don't make trashy posts.

Applejuiced · Oct 30, 2014

Great.
First thing I do is restore it

Looks like you got what you deserved in the end.
What else is there to discuss? You have a useless brick. Enjoy.
And the posts are not trashy, your actions are.

Trebuin · Oct 30, 2014

Japan has Docomo, AU, and Softbank as their common large carriers. Take the sim card out to identify it and then contact them. Someone paid quite a bit of money for that phone. Just do the right thing. There's a few other possibilities of countries that came from too.

BR3W · Nov 2, 2014

The Siri tip is a good one except when I tried it everything was displayed on my home screen--including my home address and all my twitter/facebook/chat info...so not something I want anyone being able to see. I wish I could control what it does and does not show.

trlyka · Nov 3, 2014

BL4zD said:
The Siri tip is a good one except when I tried it everything was displayed on my home screen--including my home address and all my twitter/facebook/chat info...so not something I want anyone being able to see. I wish I could control what it does and does not show.

I created my own contact with just my first name, home number (since they obviously can't call my cell), yahoo IM name and email address. Plus a note that says if you find this iPhone please call the home number and send and email. Then I went into Siri and chose my skeleton profile as My Info in Siri.

b3av3r · Nov 3, 2014

surge2 said:
Hey.
Half a year ago or so my parents found an Iphone 5s on the beach here in honolulu. I always wanted to use it but have been really busy and haven't done so. I think I tried to at some point, It had a password on it, I plugged it into a computer, updated the os and wiped the data. However it is in Japanese. This looks like a japanese made iphone 5s. Whenever I turn it on and look at the screen, it shows the data, battery charge, has three symbols where the carrier should be, followed by 3 dots. It says iphone followed by like 8 jap symbols, when I slide to unlock, it takes me to the emergency call interface. With call button and return to menu button. Anyway I can do nothing else, it looks like its locked. How do I unlock this?

ohhh I think it says "iphone is disabled"

Based on the bolded info, you never planned on attempting to get the phone to its proper owner and I'm glad the iCloud lock feature kept you from using the phone. Hopefully, you realize the phone is completely useless to you now and make an attempt to do the right thing. I would bring the phone to an Apple store and let them try to get the phone back to its proper owner.

The-Real-Deal82 · Nov 4, 2014

surge2 said:
so the iphone is locked in japanese. a japanese tourist dropped it a long time ago. I live in america and he probably lives in japan. When I got it, it was locked with a passcode. Instead of fiddling with it and unlocking it, first thing I did was put it into recovery mode and tried to factory reset it. This is how it was icloud locked. by my itunes.

Why did you not try and find a contact using Siri and texting or calling it to find the phones owner?

I am glad the iPhone has this facility because it stops people using phones they find that are not their property. I have found a couple of iPhone's in the past and have handed them in.

MNR · Nov 4, 2014

The iPhone 6 is my first iPhone. I was wondering how do you set up the wipe at distance thing if you loose or if the phone get stolen. I think that for such an expensive phone it feels good to know that nobody can use it if it gets stolen. Thank you,

deeddawg · Nov 4, 2014

MNR said:
I was wondering how do you set up the wipe at distance thing if you loose or if the phone get stolen.

iCloud: Set up Find My iPhone

MNR · Nov 4, 2014

deeddawg said:
iCloud: Set up Find My iPhone

Thank you !

Found an Iphone

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