I lost my iPhone 5. Now what?

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BlueToothKiwi

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#112509 11-Dec-2012 13:52

I lost my iPhone 5 yesterday. The Find iPhone tells me the last known location (movenpick, parnell) - but the shop has not seen / or have anything handed to them.

On the Find iPhone, it shows up as offline now and it probably has no charge. I have got Vodafone to block all outgoing calls. I used Find iPhone from my iPad to put my iPhone into 'lost mode' to broadcast my land number so that whoever got it can get in touch with me if they want to return it and get a reward and some karma. However, these cool stuff are pretty useless on a phone that is not even on!

Is there anything else I can do to recover it?

I really want it back as I got some pics from the weekend that are valuable to me that are not yet backed up to iCloud or my media library.

Tim M, Auckland
Blog: http://paddler.co.nz

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#730457 11-Dec-2012 13:55

If someone has picked it up they should be able to find a charger pretty easily. And if not, if they're the kind to return it they'll hand it in to the police. If they're NOT the type to return it... well, sooner or later they will plug it in. At that point it will email you, and you can ask the police to go round and visit.

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BlueToothKiwi

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#730459 11-Dec-2012 14:01

SaltyNZ: t... well, sooner or later they will plug it in. At that point it will email you... .

Will that still work even if the SIM is blocked? I would have thought blocking outgoing calls will also block the wireless data on the SIM?

I think I will initiate a remote wipe now - just in case.

Tim M, Auckland
Blog: http://paddler.co.nz

SaltyNZ

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#730469 11-Dec-2012 14:13

It works if it attaches to a Wifi network too. If someone wants to keep it to use it they will either put a new SIM in it, or attach it to their Wifi network. Either way it pops up and lets you know.

Maybe don't do a remote wipe just yet. You can also do a remote lock. That makes it unusable to them while still preserving a chance of getting your photos back.

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BlueToothKiwi

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#730475 11-Dec-2012 14:19

SaltyNZ:
Maybe don't do a remote wipe just yet. You can also do a remote lock.

I think putting it in 'Lost mode' does that. So it should already be 'locked'.

Tim M, Auckland
Blog: http://paddler.co.nz

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#730478 11-Dec-2012 14:23

BlueToothKiwi:
SaltyNZ:
Maybe don't do a remote wipe just yet. You can also do a remote lock.

I think putting it in 'Lost mode' does that. So it should already be 'locked'.

Possibly. I haven't fiddled with one running iOS 6 yet. My wife's one is still on iOS 5.

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myopinion

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#730482 11-Dec-2012 14:26

Its pretty easy to put it in DFU mode though and bypass the lock to wipe the device completely. This would stop Find My iPhone from working wouldn't it?

Can you put a block on it using the IMEI?

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SaltyNZ

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#730484 11-Dec-2012 14:28

myopinion: Its pretty easy to put it in DFU mode though and bypass the lock to wipe the device completely. This would stop Find My iPhone from working wouldn't it?

Can you put a block on it using the IMEI?

A thief that cluey isn't going to get caught. But the most likely thief is a f***wit who won't know his DFU from his DUI.

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BlueToothKiwi

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#730490 11-Dec-2012 14:32

OK - if anyone reading this can reunite me with my iPhone5, there is a $200 reward [cash / Paypal). No questions asked.

The phone was lost in Parnell between 5:30 and 6:00 yesterday while walking from Movenpick --> Paperplus --> swings across the road --> Bath Street.

It was last seen on my five year old, who was playing with it in Movenpick - and I am guessing she did not put it back in my pocket properly and it must have dropped.

Tim M, Auckland
Blog: http://paddler.co.nz

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#730492 11-Dec-2012 14:36

Doh I wouldn't trust my 6 year old with my new iPhone 5!

BlueToothKiwi

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#730494 11-Dec-2012 14:39

myopinion: Doh I wouldn't trust my 6 year old with my new iPhone 5!

I blame the Smurf's

Tim M, Auckland
Blog: http://paddler.co.nz

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#730499 11-Dec-2012 14:42

BlueToothKiwi:

I blame the Smurf's

Truly, we live in the End Times.

//Off to write a tin foil app.

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dickytim

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#731056 12-Dec-2012 08:01

SaltyNZ: If someone has picked it up they should be able to find a charger pretty easily. And if not, if they're the kind to return it they'll hand it in to the police. If they're NOT the type to return it... well, sooner or later they will plug it in. At that point it will email you, and you can ask the police to go round and visit.

sorry to tell you the Police will not do a thing, I told them where the phone was, who owned the building and who the tenants were and all they did was send me a form to send to the insurance company and said they couldn't help.

I ended up phoning the trust that owned the house and they went in and got the phone back for me!

Solving crimes is not high on the agenda for the police these days.

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#731060 12-Dec-2012 08:08

dickytim: [

sorry to tell you the Police will not do a thing,

Oh, you're right, I know that. But 'call the police' is the only safe advice to give, even if it IS 99% useless. :-(

On the other hand I, for one, feel safer in my bed at night knowing the police have flocks of safety cameras out there protecting us from people doing 111km/hr on the motorways.

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dickytim

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#731095 12-Dec-2012 08:54

you should absolutely call the police and report it as missing, just that they wont go and get it for you even if you tell them where it is.

Benjip

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#731130 12-Dec-2012 09:30

Call Auckland Central Police, they should help you out. We were burgaled a few months ago and I had Undercover on both my iMac and MacBook Air, and Find my iPhone on my iPod touch (which must've just got wiped straight away - it had a PIN so I wasn't concerned about my personal data). Long story short, Undercover was a godsend and I received photos of the 'burglars' (taken with the webcam), location data and screenshots including their Facebook pages, bank accounts and everything, which I supplied to the Police. They put together search warrants for a couple of houses near each other which were showing up on Undercover (and they even liaised with Orbicule, who make the software, as there were some discrepancies with those locations), and ended up going in and recovering both my stolen computers.

Turns out the people with the Macs had just bought them from the guy I assumed burgaled us, so two people were charged with receiving stolen goods and my Macs were returned to my insurance company (as they had already replaced them).

Anyway, sorry for the slight thread de-railing, but just thought I'd let you know that the Police often are helpful in these situations. You just need to do a bit of groundwork yourself (they can't just sit there on their iPads all day waiting for a signal from your iPhone etc.).

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