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iPhone SE (2020) iPhone lost for over a week

thewhitehart

thewhitehart

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 9, 2005
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The town without George Bailey
This is not so much a question but request for advice.

I lost my iPhone SE 2nd gen. last Friday. It shows up in FindMy in the same location I lost it. The battery died before I could mark it as lost, so that's still "pending" in FindMy. It hasn't appeared online since, and nobody spent the express transit electronic money I had on it. It was passcode protected and activation locked. I'm guessing nobody's bothered to plug it in since it went missing.

Can I remove it from my Devices list? It's running iOS 16.4.1, so if I erase it remotely and someone does plug it in, I can still track it after it's erased, right? I'm guessing it's been stripped down for parts or is genuinely lost in a gutter or something. 😥
 
thewhitehart said:
This is not so much a question but request for advice.

I lost my iPhone SE 2nd gen. last Friday. It shows up in FindMy in the same location I lost it. The battery died before I could mark it as lost, so that's still "pending" in FindMy. It hasn't appeared online since, and nobody spent the express transit electronic money I had on it. It was passcode protected and activation locked. I'm guessing nobody's bothered to plug it in since it went missing.

Can I remove it from my Devices list? It's running iOS 16.4.1, so if I erase it remotely and someone does plug it in, I can still track it after it's erased, right? I'm guessing it's been stripped down for parts or is genuinely lost in a gutter or something. 😥
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If you know where you lost it, have you gone back and asked around any stores or people there to see if it was turned in? I would wait to see if it gets powered back on before setting it to erase. But definitely put it in lost mode so when it does get turned on, the person knows it's locked.
 
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Thanks. Yeah, I called the restaurant and then bar I was at where I think I lost it. I’m guessing it fell out of my jacket pocket. But no luck. I’ll hold off on erasing it, but I definitely put it in lost mode.

I’m really surprised nobody has charged it and turned it on. I already transferred the SIM to my new iPhone, so I guess it would need Wi-Fi to connect to FindMy. Or can it reveal its location by proximity in the same way an AirTag does?
 
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thewhitehart said:
Thanks. Yeah, I called the restaurant and then bar I was at where I think I lost it. I’m guessing it fell out of my jacket pocket. But no luck. I’ll hold off on erasing it, but I definitely put it in lost mode.

I’m really surprised nobody has charged it and turned it on. I already transferred the SIM to my new iPhone, so I guess it would need Wi-Fi to connect to FindMy. Or can it reveal its location by proximity in the same way an AirTag does?
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I hope you can recover it!

Yes, if you kept the Find My Network on, it can be found even without having wifi or cellular by pinging off of other Find My devices. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210400

Here's some more info on what to do when your device is lost or stolen: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201472
 
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Usually thieves power it off immediately so it can’t be erased or tracked. I’ve had the same thing happen years ago.
 
This is unfortunately a two edged sword but I'll explain my recommendation: You should erase it.

Erasing means that if someone ever tried to get to the data stored on your iPhone, they won't even if you have a common 4 digit code set and by mere chance someone guesses it. It removes any doubts about the status of your data.

The device will remain bricked until your AppleID credentials are entered, so the device will remain useless except for spare parts.

You will lose the ability to track through Find My. This sounds bad, but imagine what has to happen to get it back through FindMy: You will need an honest finder to not (!) hand it in to a lost&found, because these places usually just put the phone in a drawer and wait for someone to come claim it. Instead, the honest finder needs to own a Lightning charger or even go through the effort of buying one, charge the device, turn it on and then check it for a message you can send to the device "please mail device to address xyz, finders fee...." or "please call me at <phone no>"

Any other way won't get you the phone back, and personally if I found it, I would charge it and check for messages, however I'd be very aware that it's an older iPhone that was relatively cheap to begin with and I'd make an assumption that the owner probably replaced it already and doesn't even really know how Find My works.

And even if they know how to use Find My, I would not want them to show up at my doorstep either, perhaps accusing me of theft. So I might hand it into lost&found directly without charging it.

If this were my iPhone, I'd erase it immediately and replace it since it was relatively cheap. Perhaps I'd make more of an effort if it was a new Pro Max, but otherwise... the location doesn't always tell you much. And unless you have the original invoice with a serial number showing, the lost&found might not hand over the phone (though this is surely debatable, if they can prove they can unlock it...) even if the device actually shows up at a location you can go to.

Locked devices are usually taken apart for spare parts, no chance of retrieval.
 
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russell_314 said:
Usually thieves power it off immediately so it can’t be erased or tracked. I’ve had the same thing happen years ago.
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thewhitehart said:
That’s what I was thinking. 🙁
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My daughter was pickpocketed in France last autumn and her Xr was turned off immediately, and stayed that way. Probably ended up as parts. I suppose criminals adapt to Apple's security measures.
 
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Thanks for all your replies. Actually, I just got home today and found a letter in my mailbox from my phone carrier. Someone returned it to the carrier's retail store. I guess they found it while it was still powered and saw the network logo in the corner.

I'm really lucky. I know others aren't so lucky. If you ever lose a phone, I hope you can get it back too.
 
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thewhitehart said:
Thanks for all your replies. Actually, I just got home today and found a letter in my mailbox from my phone carrier. Someone returned it to the carrier's retail store. I guess they found it while it was still powered and saw the network logo in the corner.

I'm really lucky. I know others aren't so lucky. If you ever lose a phone, I hope you can get it back too.
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Great! 😃 🙏🏻
 
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I lost an Apple Watch for over a week on the shore of a beach.

I set the phone number for contact info. I wrote it off and bought a new one when someone called and said they had my watch and would mail it so me free of charge. I had them mail it to my work.

They didn’t think much of it and didn’t have a charger on their trip. They waited til they got home and plugged it in as a second thought. They didn’t even know that there could be a return message on a device. They wouldn’t even accept a “reward”.

Sometimes….
 
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thewhitehart said:
Thanks for all your replies. Actually, I just got home today and found a letter in my mailbox from my phone carrier. Someone returned it to the carrier's retail store. I guess they found it while it was still powered and saw the network logo in the corner.

I'm really lucky. I know others aren't so lucky. If you ever lose a phone, I hope you can get it back too.
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That's great! Hopefully it gets back to you in one piece too. :)
 
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Glad someone found it.

I was training with a new service dog in Ilorida right before the pandemic hit. My XR fell out of my pocket in a bathroom and I didn't realize I didn't have it until I got back to the facility and my APP wouldn't connect to anything. I told my trainer about it and she called my phone and no one answered. A kind soul had found it and turned it in though because the lost ed found called her and told her they had my phone but couldn't answwer it. Gotta love the little tweaks that VoiceOver does to the standard interface lol.

Another staff member picked my phone up and I had it back the next afternoon, still with quite a bit of charge left.
 
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