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If someone steals your iPhone can't they just delete find my iPhone?

MadGoat said:
Sadly you can still turn off all location services and the GPS tracking will stop. Just tried it myself a few seconds ago. The rest of find my iPhone remains active though.

IMO find my iPhone should be completely independent of the core location services.
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Exactly why I use Cylay. If the phone is taken it cannot be turned off, and it operates invisibly sending me GPS updates as well as a photo from the front and rear camera.
 
Schtibbie said:
I feel like I have to keep asking this: why can't people just turn their PIN on? With a >4 character code, so it's not brute forced. Yes, the sim can get pulled. But WHY are you folks so willing to let thieves see all your data and you're getting wrapped around the axle trying to figure out what restrictions to set?
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4 pin is fine as long as you set it to wipe after 10 attempts.
 
Find my iPhone might catch a regular thief, but if a macrumors thief steals your phone there is no chance. All you need to do is restore the phone in dfu mode immediately.
 
bogatyr said:
4 pin is fine as long as you set it to wipe after 10 attempts.
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It's not, actually. 4-digit pin can be brute forced via a jailbreak-installed (by thief, not you) cracker that does not run up against the 10-guess limit. That's how the elcomsoft software that law enforcement uses works. But that same stuff cannot run fast enough on your phone to crack longer passcodes.
 
Question, somewhat related...
I exchanged my IP5 about a week ago at the Apple store. Just prior to the genius person going to wipe my device, I said, shouldn't we turn off iMessage etc before you erase all content and settings so it un-associates this device from my iMessage account? He said no it doesn't matter, it's wiped out regardless in Apple's servers when we do the return/repurchase exchange. I said oh alright if you say so...

Now when I log into my iCloud account, that device is still listed in "find my iPhone" accept that it is shown as "offline".

How do I remove that device from be associated to me and my iCloud account?
 
millerhifi said:
Question, somewhat related...
I exchanged my IP5 about a week ago at the Apple store. Just prior to the genius person going to wipe my device, I said, shouldn't we turn off iMessage etc before you erase all content and settings so it un-associates this device from my iMessage account? He said no it doesn't matter, it's wiped out regardless in Apple's servers when we do the return/repurchase exchange. I said oh alright if you say so...

Now when I log into my iCloud account, that device is still listed in "find my iPhone" accept that it is shown as "offline".

How do I remove that device from be associated to me and my iCloud account?
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just click the X on the right side on the device.
 
millerhifi said:
Yeah, that was my plan and I still can but when I do, I get a pop that says "this phone will re-appear if it reconnects to the internet and Find My iPhone is turned on". So really, it's still associated with my account no?
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No, only if it reconnects to the Internet with your iCloud ID.
 
You don't need the app. It must be enabled in the settings and you can't turn it off if there is a passcode set. The only way to avoid it is to turn the phone off and restore.

They should make a way to set it to "Stolen" mode and make it non-restorable.
 
auero said:
They should make a way to set it to "Stolen" mode and make it non-restorable.
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since any fresh restore via iTunes requires phoning home to Apple before letting it complete (like how they don't allow you to restore to lesser firmwares), they really ought to allow blocking the go ahead for restoration, if it is flagged as lost/stolen.
 
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Schtibbie said:
It's not, actually. 4-digit pin can be brute forced via a jailbreak-installed (by thief, not you) cracker that does not run up against the 10-guess limit. That's how the elcomsoft software that law enforcement uses works. But that same stuff cannot run fast enough on your phone to crack longer passcodes.
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The last jailbreak I ran required me to unlock the phone to perform the JB. How can someone JB a locked phone?
 
Schtibbie said:
It's not, actually. 4-digit pin can be brute forced via a jailbreak-installed (by thief, not you) cracker that does not run up against the 10-guess limit. That's how the elcomsoft software that law enforcement uses works. But that same stuff cannot run fast enough on your phone to crack longer passcodes.
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Explain how the thief can install software if it is already locked?
 
Stolen iPhone..

Hey, I've read through the posts and apologize in advance if I'm restating anything, however my phone was stolen and I could use a bit of assistance as I'm only 3 weeks new to Apple iPhones...

When it was stolen, I had find my iPhone configured already. 15 minutes after I realized my phone was stolen, I called my phone and it went straight to voicemail. Also, find my iPhone has shown it as offline for the past week. This tells me they turned it off immediately.

From the sounds of it, if they turned off the phone and did a "dfu restore(?)" then there is no chance of the find my iPhone app locating the phone. Yes?

Here is my big question, does the restore change (a) the serial number or (b) the EMIE number? (Reporting a phone as stolen will disable the EMIE number on any carrier).

Thanks in advance!
 
Im a proud person, I dont care about replacing it... I need to know if there is any way I can give this guy what he deserves?
 
ahahaha.. Not quite that extreme, but I admire your audacity.

Here is a question for you guys... do you think its probable that they are waiting a month to turn it back on, thinking that Ill have replaced the phone by then and not expecting it to still have service (find my iphone wont work without service)?

I'd like to find a list of some sort where I can report both the serial number and EMIE number as stolen. I'm appalled that as advanced as Apple is, they do not have any sort of way to flag a device as stolen...
 
matttye said:
Not theft prevention, as by the time you need to use it, it would have been stolen already.

The features are clearly for lost and/or stolen phones though.
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Agreed. The challenge is that "Find my iPhone" is not effective. The service should be outside of the operating system so that something as easy as shutting off the phone will not disable it.
 
billinaz said:
Exactly why I use Cylay. If the phone is taken it cannot be turned off, and it operates invisibly sending me GPS updates as well as a photo from the front and rear camera.
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Pardon the potentially obvious question... what is Cylay?
 
doneill220 said:
Agreed. The challenge is that "Find my iPhone" is not effective. The service should be outside of the operating system so that something as easy as shutting off the phone will not disable it.
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Or to add an extra level of security, you should not be able to power off the device without unlocking it first.
 
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