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iPhone serial?

R

REALSuperman

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 22, 2013
4
0
Australia
Hey all.

I work at this recyclable trash plant in my town and the other day an smashed iphone came through on the belt, so i grabbed it and kept it. It had no phone sim. I took it home and connected it to itunes, it had no name, just some pictures of some random things and an app or two. It updated also reset to factory settings, now if i got the screens fixed on it and used my sim, could it be traced incase it would be stolen? surely it wouldn't be if someone threw it out.


Just want to be sure that's all.

Thanks guys.
 
I

iMikeT

macrumors 68020
Jul 8, 2006
2,304
1
California
REALSuperman, you were meant to find that very iPhone so Big Brother can see your every move. Mwhahahahahhaa!!!! :p

Joking aside.....

Can it be tracked by Apple or anyone else? Yes. However, Apple tends to stay away from getting involved if any of their devices are reported stolen.

At most, if the phone was reported stolen to the carrier, the carrier will blacklist the phone from being activated.

In all honesty though, you probably have nothing to worry about. As you said, you did find this in the trash. Also, the iPhone would have to have Find My iPhone installed in order for another user to track it. Since you restored it to factory settings, the possibility of having any software to track the phone is greatly diminished.

At this point, another man's trash..... Enjoy your find!

----------

Also, this thread shouldn't be titled "iPhone serial" as that may confuse a reader about this being about the serial number of an iPhone. This is more about tracking an iPhone that was found.
 
R

REALSuperman

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 22, 2013
4
0
Australia
iMikeT said:
REALSuperman, you were meant to find that very iPhone so Big Brother can see your every move. Mwhahahahahhaa!!!! :p
Click to expand...
- This made my night! I'm sure I'm tracked by big brother in other places to! xD

Okay thankyou!, i need to get the screen repaired before i use it, shouldn't be a problem. Question though, once you restore it, and before the setup on the iphone is it normal for itunes to say cannot be activated at this moment try again later?
 
I

iMikeT

macrumors 68020
Jul 8, 2006
2,304
1
California
REALSuperman said:
- This made my night! I'm sure I'm tracked by big brother in other places to! xD

Okay thankyou!, i need to get the screen repaired before i use it, shouldn't be a problem. Question though, once you restore it, and before the setup on the iphone is it normal for itunes to say cannot be activated at this moment try again later?
Click to expand...


I'd say it's normal until you put a SIM in it. If your iPhone continues to remain inactive after putting a SIM in it, then that's when you should probably worry.

Also, make sure that the iPhone is unlocked so you don't have any issues with putting a SIM that's a different carrier from the iPhone. You also don't want to inadvertently start a new contract with your carrier for activating an iPhone.

Definitely update us with how this turns out in the end.
 
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