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I wish there was a remote wipe option for the iPhone...

TheSpaz

TheSpaz

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jun 20, 2005
7,032
1
... or at least a way to deactivate MobileMe on it from anywhere. I don't like having a password lock on my iPhone but, if someone found it, they could go ahead and look at my email and my contact list. I know that if you disable the MobileMe account from the iPhone, it removes all your contacts and emails from the device, but is there any way to do that without being near the iPhone? I don't think there is, but that would be a handy thing if Apple could implement it.

If my iPhone did get lost or stolen, I could change my MobileMe password, but that wouldn't help because all of my previous email would still be stored locally on the device.
 
I suppose, if you backed up, you could delete all your email and contacts on mobile me. When the iPhone syncs (if he looks at mail) they'll all disappear - same for contacts.

People do this by accident all the time. Remote wipe would only cause problems, in my opinion.
 
cellocello said:
Set the passcode lock timer to like 15 minutes - that's what I do. Best of both worlds in my mind.
Click to expand...

Agreed. This is what I do.

To the OP, your plan only works if the phone is stolen. I'd be just as worried about someone you know sneaking onto it, getting information, and leaving the phone where they found it.

Using the passcode prevents both situations.. A remote-wipe is only good for one of them.
 
Honestly, having a passcode lock is the best idea. You set it so it will automatically erase the phone after a certain amount of failed passcode attempts.
 
They should at least allow MobileMe subscribers to do this. if you are running your iPhone on an exchange server you can do a remote wipe. They showed that off when they first introduced 2.0 last year.
 
dissdnt said:
They should at least allow MobileMe subscribers to do this. if you are running your iPhone on an exchange server you can do a remote wipe. They showed that off when they first introduced 2.0 last year.
Click to expand...

I agree... I'm paying $99 a year... I should be able to remote wipe if I want to. I guess I could just delete all of my emails and contacts... hmm... I might also like that 15 minute passcode lock. I was using that for a little bit... I can't remember why I took it off.
 
TheSpaz said:
I agree... I'm paying $99 a year... I should be able to remote wipe if I want to. I guess I could just delete all of my emails and contacts... hmm... I might also like that 15 minute passcode lock. I was using that for a little bit... I can't remember why I took it off.
Click to expand...

Having 'instant' passcode is annoying - but 15 min isn't so bad.
 
instant passcode isn't so bad when it's only 4 digits. i installed a profile on my iphone to get on my employer's vpn. they put in a "strong passcode", it's like 8 digits alphanumeric. it's so annoying, i will probably do without the vpn lol
 
psingh01 said:
instant passcode isn't so bad when it's only 4 digits. i installed a profile on my iphone to get on my employer's vpn. they put in a "strong passcode", it's like 8 digits alphanumeric. it's so annoying, i will probably do without the vpn lol
Click to expand...

The 'slide to unlock' passcode can be something other than 4 numbers?
 
I have pass code lock set to instant. I can't see how 15 minutes can be beneficial. If someone was to pick it up, I am sure they would look into it within 15 minutes.

If they are knowledgeable of the iPhone, they can easily just set it to never lock. You don't even need a pass code to do so, and this completely disables the security a pass code would provide.

It takes two seconds to enter 4 digits. I think it is worth the security that it provides.
 
I believe I read somewhere that, with the new 3.0 software, MobileMe users will be able to find a lost/stolen iPhone and remotely wipe it (if so desired).
 
iPhone Savvy said:
I have pass code lock set to instant. I can't see how 15 minutes can be beneficial. If someone was to pick it up, I am sure they would look into it within 15 minutes.
Click to expand...

No one is going to steal it while I'm using it.

The point is that after I finish touching my phone, it's pretty much always at least 15 minutes before there's an opportunity for it to go missing.

For example, I may leave my phone at my desk when I go up to get lunch sometimes. Why did I do that? Because I forgot it was on my desk. Why did I forget? Because it's been more than 15 minutes since I touched it.

That's just one example, but they pretty much all work the same:
<15 minutes since touched - My phone is safely in my sight
>15 minutes since touched - It might be possible to steal my phone

I never use my phone, set it down, and walk away on purpose.
 
Hate to burst your bubble...

but if you do a hard reset on a passcode locked phone, guess what? Passcode is removed!!! It's been that way since the newest update... yeah, it sucks but is the truth... try it and see how unsecure our iPhones really are!
 
also a good tip...

if your contacts are stored in outlook on a windows pc and you DO have mobileme, you can quickly erase your contacts and email from a computer if your phone goes missing... that would definitely get rid of contacts. (not sure about emails) then you can just reload your contacts from outlook if you find the iPhone.
 
Passcode is good but not foolproof. The idea of being able to disconnect your iphone from mobileme is a great idea. Just like you can de-register your computers from mobileme sync. Let's hope Apple finds a way.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPod touch 32GB: Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11a Safari/525.20)

The iPhone does support remote wipe - the ability to kick it off from MobileMe is what is missing. I tested it out once (we run kerio mailserver via exchange activesync) and it's very impressive: within seconds of kicking it off on the server, the phone restarted into it's wipe mode.

After it had finished the phone was completely wiped of any and all data :)
 
Having remote wipe for MobileMe might persuade me to pay the $99 a year for the service... as it is right now, I feel for me it's a waste of money
 
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