What makes you think Apple would want to do all that work for you instead of making more money with selling you another iPhone? In the end it's just a cellphone.
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Huge design flaws (IMO) with Find My iPhone
- Thread starter JulianL
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What makes you think Apple would want to do all that work for you instead of making more money with selling you another iPhone? In the end it's just a cellphone.
it is a cellphone, worth $600+ . why do banks have systems to make sure your money is secure
Its not the only cellphone out there thats worth over $600 and nothing to do with a bank or securing your money.
If I leave my iphone in some other place and someone gets it... how can he access the location service if the iphone is locked with password?...
it was an example. i don't see why you would object to apple introducing some kind of protection or help for cases of theft
Yes, yes and hell yes. Give me a break if you claim to care about security but are too lazy for a code. I can unlock my phone in two seconds max.
No but he can turn it off. A stolen phone is usually gone unless stolen by a dumb ass.
Sums it up right here. OP must not have known about the restrictions options because that's what they're used for.
I think the Find iPhone app is awesome except for the couple of minor bugs it has. One of them is that it's crashing on the first launch for some people. As soon as you enter your password and click GO, it crashes. It opens fine in the second launch.
I'm using a gmail Apple ID. Others using a MM Apple ID don't seem to be having the crash so it would be interesting to know if this is a compatibility issue with the gmail Apple ID only.
Unfortunately the app also times out. After not using it for a while you have to re-enter your password and sometimes you even have to enter your Apple ID again. Not the best coding IMHO.
Settings --> Restrictions --> "Allow Changes"/Accounts toggle set to OFF. (Will ask for a new pin.)
Doing this will lock you out of altering any of the account settings without this pin (and therefore the toggle to turn "Find my iPhone" should be inaccessable.)
I know that the "Find my iPhone" toggle is located under MobileMe settings for MobileMe users. Is it located in the same spot for free "Find my iPhone" users?
Doing this will lock you out of altering any of the account settings without this pin (and therefore the toggle to turn "Find my iPhone" should be inaccessable.)
I know that the "Find my iPhone" toggle is located under MobileMe settings for MobileMe users. Is it located in the same spot for free "Find my iPhone" users?
Also toggle the Location restrictions to off, otherwise location service can be turned off and the phone will not be trackable.
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There is no MM specific restriction option. For free users you'd have to set a restriction either for location services or the app itself. Obviously, location services taking priority. Come to think of it, it would be good to set another restriction to prohibit the deletion of all apps as well. That option exists. Of course as mentioned above just setting a global pw for restrictions would be best.
vandozza said:
There is no MM specific restriction option. For free users you'd have to set a restriction either for location services or the app itself. Obviously, location services taking priority. Come to think of it, it would be good to set another restriction to prohibit the deletion of all apps as well. That option exists. Of course as mentioned above just setting a global pw for restrictions would be best.
I agree with the op. However, apple didnt intend for this service to be used as a way to recover a phone from a thief. Apple cant be endorsing its users to find the theif and confront them/ steal it back. Its supposed to serve as a way to find a misplaced phone. Therefore, location services wouldnt be switched off after its lost according to Apple's eyes
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It does, and I didn't. In my defense I did put in my original post "... I wonder if ... I've somehow missed the place(s) where I can set up the above in the current (iOS 4.2.1) software." and that's exactly the situation.
Both of my original concerns are already covered completely by going into the Settings/General/Restrictions, enabling restrictions, and setting "Allow Changes" to off for both "Location" and "Accounts". The Location restriction prevents anyone turning off the location services and the Accounts restriction prevents the disabling of the Find My iPhone service. In fact the Accounts restriction goes even further because it prevents anyone from even viewing the settings for accounts so all that can be seen is a greyed out MobileMe entry and, without the ability to click down into it, it's not even possible to see that the Find My iPhone service is installed at all.
Thanks to everyone who pointed out these settings and, for the people who were agreeing with my concerns, hopefully knowing about these settings will be helpful to you too.
- Julian
Apple can't win here.
If you turned off location services and Find My iPhone did override these settings, you'd all accuse Apple of lying and saying that disabling location services doesn't disable them at all.
Conversely, if you turn off location services and expect Find My iPhone to work and it doesn't, then you've got what you've asked for.
If you turned off location services and Find My iPhone did override these settings, you'd all accuse Apple of lying and saying that disabling location services doesn't disable them at all.
Conversely, if you turn off location services and expect Find My iPhone to work and it doesn't, then you've got what you've asked for.
That's why I love forums. When you ask questions you either end up answering your own questions or you find the answers you're looking for...mostly.
You lost me. The iPhone does the opposite of exactly what both your sentences say. If you turn off location services, Find My iPhone can't override that restriction. If you turn off location services, Find My iPhone won't work.
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Because I rarely use them so it was a "might as well switch it off" kind of decision in case the setting isn't just a software switch and iOS does actually tell some part of the electronics (presumeably the GPS hardware) to power down when location services are set to off. I don't think that Apple releases this level of detail about how their products work so we'll never know for sure but I hear lots of anecdotal evidence that battery life is unaffected so it would appear to be a software-only switch and I've now reverted to the "might as well leave it on" philosophy (and protected that setting with a restriction).
I take your point about Apple can't win and did address that on my second post (5th post on page 1 in reply to Phil A.) but it's such a minor point, now that I know that setting the right restrictions solve 99.9% of the problem, that such an enhancement request would be far too trivial to spend time on so as far as I'm concerned this thread has ended up pointing me towards capabilities that I didn't know were already in the device. I just wish I could edit this wretched thread title because that is a bit embarassing
.- Julian
now that things have settled an the op found his answer/seen the errors of his title
a)passcode lock is the safest way to lock your phone (I recommend setting the feature to erase data after 10 failed attempts)
b) the passcode lock is not as annoying as you might think. you don't have to set it to automatically lock your phone everytime it goes to sleep. I have it set for 5mins, but you can set it for up to an hour of sleep where you don't have to put in your passcode to unlock.
c) Restrictions and passcode lock are two separate things. Restrictions will not protect tour phone, but can add limits to certain functions. I believe it's original intent was to give a parent/3rd party the ability to block certain content on the phone, not for the intention the OP had in mind
a)passcode lock is the safest way to lock your phone (I recommend setting the feature to erase data after 10 failed attempts)
b) the passcode lock is not as annoying as you might think. you don't have to set it to automatically lock your phone everytime it goes to sleep. I have it set for 5mins, but you can set it for up to an hour of sleep where you don't have to put in your passcode to unlock.
c) Restrictions and passcode lock are two separate things. Restrictions will not protect tour phone, but can add limits to certain functions. I believe it's original intent was to give a parent/3rd party the ability to block certain content on the phone, not for the intention the OP had in mind
1. As already said, Find My iPhone is for lost iPhones only, provided that there's no one trying to steal it.
2. What Apple should really do to make it even more useful is give us option to password-protect Settings app as well as require password in order to switch off, restart or restore the device.
2. What Apple should really do to make it even more useful is give us option to password-protect Settings app as well as require password in order to switch off, restart or restore the device.
Hi All,
The option to restrict "accounts" must be something new in 4.2 right? Cause I dont see it in restrictions. I do see the locations one though. I had no idea that restricting it meant that you needed a passcode to turn it off, I misunderstood and though it restricted apps from locating you, which doesnt make sense come to think of it since there are other settings that do that.
Anyway, even though a lot of you gave the OP a hard time, I would have never figured it out if it werent for this thread, so thanks OP. I am using 4.1 still since Im waiting for 4.2 to be jailbroken, as soon as it is I will be using Find My Phone. At the moment I am using IHound, which I like, but I really want the feature to make my phone make a sound even when on silent, that will help me alot since I misplace my phone a lot around the house and usually it is on silent...
BY the way, someone mentioned you can set your phone not to need a passcode even for an hour after it goes to sleep? Is that also new on 4.2? Because the most I can find is 15 minutes...
The option to restrict "accounts" must be something new in 4.2 right? Cause I dont see it in restrictions. I do see the locations one though. I had no idea that restricting it meant that you needed a passcode to turn it off, I misunderstood and though it restricted apps from locating you, which doesnt make sense come to think of it since there are other settings that do that.
Anyway, even though a lot of you gave the OP a hard time, I would have never figured it out if it werent for this thread, so thanks OP. I am using 4.1 still since Im waiting for 4.2 to be jailbroken, as soon as it is I will be using Find My Phone. At the moment I am using IHound, which I like, but I really want the feature to make my phone make a sound even when on silent, that will help me alot since I misplace my phone a lot around the house and usually it is on silent...
BY the way, someone mentioned you can set your phone not to need a passcode even for an hour after it goes to sleep? Is that also new on 4.2? Because the most I can find is 15 minutes...