Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
To be fair, this doesn't actually disable Find my Phone. It just interrupts the connectivity of the device. Which they could also do by powering off the phone, or putting in an area with no service?
I don't think the 'news' here is that a person is capable of turning off a phone. The news is that you can disable it while still having the phone on and connecting it to a computer or trying to hack into it in some way without the phone being able to broadcast it's location. Everyone knows you can turn the phone off.
 
Ok, so would it be better if the story read "Siri can activate Airplane Mode, which in turn disables Find My iPhone?
No. First, you can turn airplane mode off via control center so the Siri aspect is moot. Especially when Siri can and should be disabled when the phone is locked. Second, turning airplane mode off does not turn find my iphone off. This is a non issue/story and someone should be fired.
 
Solution solved!

Just give me the extra ability to "confirm" that I want to enable airplane mode or turn off my phone via siri/control center/lock screen by prompting me to enter a password or use Touch ID. I could see this function only appear should I have the security setting enabled. That should solve the "problem" right there.
 
"Security flaw" number two: Find my iPhone can be disabled by smashing the phone!

The point is that a stolen device is now useless to the the of, which this doesn't bypass by any means.
 
To be fair, this doesn't actually disable Find my Phone. It just interrupts the connectivity of the device. Which they could also do by powering off the phone, or putting in an area with no service?

Along the same lines, you should have an option to require passcode/Touch ID to power off the phone (I mean shut down, not sleep). Then a phone could still be tracked even if stolen, at least until the battery runs out.
 
They should remove the functionality from Siri, but being that Airplane Mode is also controlled by control center, that won't really help the average user.

Apple should necessitate a passcode to turn on airplane mode and to turn off the phone. Will be easier for users to swallow once the fingerprint sensor becomes more ubiquitous but this is really the only way we can fully prevent thieves from disabling find my iphone quickly.

Well, apart from they can just remove the sim card...

----------

Along the same lines, you should have an option to require passcode/Touch ID to power off the phone (I mean shut down, not sleep). Then a phone could still be tracked even if stolen, at least until the battery runs out.

Unless they remove the sim card...
 
This isn't a bug or even news worthy. You can also enable airplane mode by swiping up on the lock screen WITHOUT your pass code . It's a feature, not a bug lol...

I find it quite convenient...

You can also, get this, turn off the phone! ELITE HACKS!
 
Wait a minute? Wasn't there something to do with Find My iPhone still working when Apple issued the iOS 7 beta in the Dev Portal?
 
I don't think the 'news' here is that a person is capable of turning off a phone. The news is that you can disable it while still having the phone on and connecting it to a computer or trying to hack into it in some way without the phone being able to broadcast it's location. Everyone knows you can turn the phone off.

You can remove the SIM card to achieve the same effect and still be able to keep the phone on, connect it to a computer and "try to hack into it", so your point is moot.
 
What about those times when your phone isn't responding properly and you have to do a hard reset on it? I'm not waiting for hours for my battery to die just so I can restart...

oh gosh...the phone should require a passcode before the battery is allowed to die. (i was thinking the exact same thing about the hard reset...great minds)

----------

It's not a flaw. It's the way that it was designed to work. A thief cannot sell a functional iPhone with iOS 7. When they wipe the phone they will need the password to the previous owner's Apple ID .

the best they can get is an iphone constantly in airplane mode and hope that they like your taste in music and games.

Edit: I guess they could connect to the internet with wifi too.
 
oh gosh...the phone should require a passcode before the battery is allowed to die. (i was thinking the exact same thing about the hard reset...great minds)

----------



the best they can get is an iphone constantly in airplane mode and hope that they like your taste in music and games.

Edit: I guess they could connect to the internet with wifi too.

Connecting to WiFi would broadcast the iPhone location to Find my iPhone servers, it doesn't require a cellular connection to work.
 
Misleading title is misleading.

In other news, breathing causes cancer! (insert an article here about cigarette smoke)
 
Because it isn't a flaw with Find My iPhone. It doesn't disable the app or the functionality. Someone is just jumping up and down because a theif can use siri to disable the phones radios, thereby hindering Find my iPhone from tracking the device. ... Which, the theif can just as easily do by turning the device off.

I didn't say it was a flaw, I'm just wondering why one of us never realised it.
 
Maybe I'm missing something but I just deleted Find My iPhone from my ipad and you can't locate it. Find my iPhone isn't a perfect solution, especially if you don't use a password. Apple should require Apple ID verification to delete the app or do anything disabling its functionality.
 
You can't disable Activation Lock without signing into iCloud.

You also can't disable PreyProject without its own password, so that's worth adding too.
 
Maybe I'm missing something but I just deleted Find My iPhone from my ipad and you can't locate it. Find my iPhone isn't a perfect solution, especially if you don't use a password. Apple should require Apple ID verification to delete the app or do anything disabling its functionality.

Find My iPhone functionality is dependent on your settings under iCloud. Nothing to do with the app. The app allows you to track iDevices, which you can do so anyway from any other iDevice with the app, or via iCloud.com.
 
Last edited:
Turn them off

I believe you can turn off Control Center and Siri at the lock screen!!

Control Center:
Settings -> Control Center -> Access on Lock Screen

Siri:
Settings -> General -> Passcode Lock -> Siri (ALLOW ACCESS WHEN LOCKED)
- Enable passcode and switch Siri Off
 
Last edited:
Sometimes, I think its worse to announce things, such as this, allowing a thief to effectively do this. I'm not saying things don't fall through, but how is it that all of us developers( and even more non-developers) had iOS7 for 3 months now, and it hasn't come up until now?

You could also just turn the iPhone off, which is much more obvious.

----------

I believe you can turn off Control Center and Siri at the lock screen!!

Control Center:
Settings -> Control Center -> Access on Lock Screen

Siri:
Settings -> General -> Passcode Lock -> Siri (ALLOW ACCESS WHEN LOCKED)
- Enable passcode and switch Siri Off

Yeah, which has always been useful since you can send messages with Siri and troll in other ways like deleting alarms. Siri on the lock screen is a sacrifice of security for a lot of convenience.
 
Find my iOS device prior to iOS 7:

When set could be turned off, or the account deleted with no login required, so wiping the device was an easy way around it, passcode only stopped thieves from getting into the phone, and restrictions could stop the service from being turned off and the account from being removed, but if the device could still be wiped.

After iOS 7:

To turn off, to remove the account, to wipe the device, or in the event the device is wiped, to re-activate the device, all require logging into the iCloud account the device had the Find my iOS device service enabled for.

What remains unaffected:

Anything that disables the devices ability to call home, such as removing the sim card, turning off the phone, airplane mode, turning off wifi, turning off mobile data, placing the device into a metal box, taking the device out of range of wifi or cellular (where possible) services, and most importantly, turning the device off.

Through Siri and/or Control Center, some of the above has been made easier to access, so long as Siri and/or Control Center have been enabled on the lock screen.

But in the end the average thief with even half a brain will probably just turn the device off until they can get the device wiped. With iOS 7, if the find my device service is enabled, even if the thief manages to wipe the device, they will still need the AppleID to log into when attempting to re-activate the device. And as long as they can not get around that, all they end up with is a brick.

Long story short, this story has been blown way out of proportion.
 
Connecting to WiFi would broadcast the iPhone location to Find my iPhone servers, it doesn't require a cellular connection to work.

so then they get a device that they can never update, download anything new, or get on the internet. Sounds like stealing it would be a big waste of time.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.