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Girlfriend lost her iPhone, I have some questions

D

dodder92

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 9, 2011
98
2
Staffordshire, England
Hi guys

Unfortunately my girlfriend left her iPhone 4S on a train with 3% of battery left on it. She located it immediately with find my iPhone but obviously the battery has since died. No one from Virgin Trains has found it yet and it hasn't been handed in at any station. We've put it in lost mode and put a message on the screen saying to ring my mobile number.

So my question is will we be notified on the iPad as soon as someone charges the phone up and it powers on? Is this how Find My iPhone works? I'm not too sure because I haven't needed to use it before.

Currently the iPhone just says offline, which we presume just means that the battery is dead.

If anyone could help with this that would be great.
 
Last edited:
If whomever has the phone is aware enough they could simply put the phone in DFU mode, connect to iTunes and restore.

If you had an iCloud lock on the phone though, unless they have the password and email that will be as far as they can get. If you didn't and if you didn't have a pin code lock either then the phone has probably been restored. Find My iPhone can be switched off at any point if access is gained to the phone and no security was set.

It's also possible it's been disassembled for parts, but it's more likely that it's just off or somehow the radios have been disabled or interfered with.
 
Thanks for the reply.
I thought it could be bypassed with DFU mode.
Just say whoever has it aren't that tech savvy and charge it up until the phone booted up.
What happens then with regard to Find My iPhone? I assume it would immediately go into lost mode and display my message?
Would we also get notified that it has been located via the app for iPad?
Sorry for the amount of questions, just holding out for a bit of hope that's all :)
 
dodder92 said:
Unfortunately my girlfriend left her iPhone 4S on a train with 3% of battery left on it. She located it immediately with find my iPhone but obviously the battery has since died. No one from Virgin Trains has found it yet and it hasn't been handed in at any station. We've put it in lost mode and put a message on the screen saying to ring my mobile number.
Click to expand...
There's always a chance that a decent person has found it and would want to return if possible.

My 5-year old (then 4-year old) found iPhone 4/4S a year ago and because our household has always used iPhones we were able to charge it so that owner can call the number. If your girlfriend's iPhone was running iOS 6 or newer, I would even place the phone in lost mode with phone number to reach and say there will be a reward.
 
nutmac said:
…I would even place the phone in lost mode with phone number to reach…
Click to expand...
OP did that. His question is, will the phone be detected by Find My iPhone if it gets powered up.

Not ever having been in this position, I cannot answer that question.
 
Your title is misleading. Your girlfriend did not have her iPhone stolen, she left it on a train. Big difference.
 
Nickpocalypse said:
Can you not read? The title says she lost it, not that it was stolen.

She lost it on the train.
EDIT: Looks like I was ninja'd!

Anyway, hope your issue gets resolved OP!
Click to expand...

I accidentally put stolen the first time buddy, silly blank minded typo. Have just changed it.

----------
eyoungren said:
OP did that. His question is, will the phone be detected by Find My iPhone if it gets powered up.

Not ever having been in this position, I cannot answer that question.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I'm asking guys :)
 
as long as it was iCloud locked, yes, it will power up in whatever mode you put it in....

if it has an older version of iOS installed without a findmyiphone lock, they may be able to factory reset it
 
OP, I don't think upon booting up the phone will send out a message to you automatically. You'll likely need to keep checking Find My iPhone to see if the location changes. Whoever has the phone would need to contact you.
 
It will only be detected by find my iPhone if it's connected to the Internet. You have to keep checking.
 
You get an email dispatched that find my iPhone was used. You do not get a warnibg stating the phone was found at a later time though.
 
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