Slowly calming down after lost iPhone panic attack this morning.

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johno1234

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#323306 17-Nov-2025 10:37

I think I may be losing my marbles.

Woke up this morning - looked at my iPhone to get the time, quick scan of the news. Get up, let the cat out. Get dressed. Go to find my phone and cannot find it anywhere. Bit of a major as I need it to 2FA lots of things especially work logins. Tearing the house apart - cannot find it. Ring it from other phones - silent. I expected it to switch off silent after multiple missed calls but that didn't seem to happen.

Log onto my PC and I know the iPhone is switched on and in the house as the PC Bluetooth phoneConnect app sees it. OK, sign into iCloud and use "find my iPhone". Of course I can't - that login would require the iPhone to 2FA! Alternate 2FA is a text message - no good without the phone. But... phone Connect on PC gets the text message! So can log onto iCloud but phone is not in device list. Grab another iPhone and log into my Apple account with it and I can see "find my iPhone" is disabled on my main phone and it can only be turned on on the actual phone.

What a nightmare. Hate to think what my blood pressure was peaking at.

Things learnt: Enable find my iPhone on your phone. Have a second 2FA option for iCloud for when you don't have access to your phone. iPhone on silent doesn't switch silent off after multiple missed calls.

So where was it? Black iPhone in a black case sitting on a pile of black clothes - almost invisible.

I need to go back to bed and reboot.

mrgsm021

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#3435161 17-Nov-2025 10:42

Hope you feel better soon.

Moral of the story - do not get black phones with black case 😁

Jiriteach

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#3435163 17-Nov-2025 10:51

Or the most useful accessory - Apple Watch which allows you to find your iPhone even when its on silent and have a beep crazily loud! :)
Cannot remember how many times I've used that feature.

-- opinions expressed by me are solely my own. ie - personal

MrGadget

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#3435164 17-Nov-2025 10:53

Glad you have settled down - definitely panic worthy.
maybe consider a shortcut like this with a trigger based off “when I receive a text message with text” type trigger.
https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/9635f69a916d4ffdb8eaa2c0f3a9aed4

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Dairusire

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#3435165 17-Nov-2025 10:54

I can sympathise because I've done it to myself before as well haha.

On that note, had a recent thing like this for my mum. Shes come down to stay for a few days go out for dinner about 25-30 minutes away, chill out on the beach. Nice evening.

Get home and decided we wanted to watch a movie and get about 45 minutes in and she realises shes missing her phone. Queue looking in the cars, around the house, bit of everywhere.
I go "I know we'll sign into your google account and find your phone". Can't log into her google account. Password isn't right. 15 minutes later and I'm about to reset the password mum goes "OH you mean THAT password"......

Finally logged in ping the phone and sure as heck it was where we decided to take a seat near the beach. She must've put it down and forgot about it and thankfully no-one took it.

Drive another 25mins ish to pick up the phone and 25 mins back.

Behodar

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#3435166 17-Nov-2025 10:54

johno1234:

OK, sign into iCloud and use "find my iPhone". Of course I can't - that login would require the iPhone to 2FA!

"Would require" rather than "required" makes it sound like you didn't try it. You can (at least if they haven't subsequently broken it) log into Find My iPhone without 2FA.

johno1234

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#3435172 17-Nov-2025 11:21

Behodar:

johno1234:

OK, sign into iCloud and use "find my iPhone". Of course I can't - that login would require the iPhone to 2FA!

"Would require" rather than "required" makes it sound like you didn't try it. You can (at least if they haven't subsequently broken it) log into Find My iPhone without 2FA.

My bad - you are correct. I can log into it without 2FA... but "find my iPhone" was disabled on the phone itself so the device was not listed.

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johno1234

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#3435173 17-Nov-2025 11:24

MrGadget:

Glad you have settled down - definitely panic worthy.
maybe consider a shortcut like this with a trigger based off “when I receive a text message with text” type trigger.
https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/9635f69a916d4ffdb8eaa2c0f3a9aed4

Good idea!

johno1234

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#3435174 17-Nov-2025 11:25

mrgsm021:

Hope you feel better soon.

Moral of the story - do not get black phones with black case 😁

Sold on that idea, yes.

tripper1000

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#3435207 17-Nov-2025 13:02

Android user here, so slightly O.T. but possibly translatable.

I use an App called Airdroid. It allows me to login to my phone from a PC or another phone and take control like it is in my hand. You can change all the usual setting (to turn up the volume) or turn on the camera app to see what it sees. If I leave my phone at home, I can still access the 2fa apps. I guess if it got lost or stolen I could use google maps to see where it is.

Primarily I use this app on an old phone that controls Bluetooth devices at home that don't integrate with home automation. The above is an added bonus I've needed to use only a couple of times.

I don't know how people manage who have 100% of their payment option in their phone and then loose it mid way through a bus journey or similar.

duckDecoy

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#3435237 17-Nov-2025 13:39

MrGadget:

Glad you have settled down - definitely panic worthy.
maybe consider a shortcut like this with a trigger based off “when I receive a text message with text” type trigger.
https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/9635f69a916d4ffdb8eaa2c0f3a9aed4

For the non phone technical here, does this enable you to set something up that will make the phone make a noise if it receives a special text message even if its on silent?

Quinny

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#3435257 17-Nov-2025 14:55

Huawei watches also offer a "Find My Phone" feature, which plays a very annoying and childish "I'm Here" over and over. It's super funny every time I use it, which itself is a comment on how often I forget where I put the phone. I luckily also have an old iPad with Find My enabled, so I can see it's in the house.

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MikeB4

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#3435258 17-Nov-2025 15:02

johno1234:

I think I may be losing my marbles.

Woke up this morning - looked at my iPhone to get the time, quick scan of the news. Get up, let the cat out. Get dressed. Go to find my phone and cannot find it anywhere. Bit of a major as I need it to 2FA lots of things especially work logins. Tearing the house apart - cannot find it. Ring it from other phones - silent. I expected it to switch off silent after multiple missed calls but that didn't seem to happen.

Log onto my PC and I know the iPhone is switched on and in the house as the PC Bluetooth phoneConnect app sees it. OK, sign into iCloud and use "find my iPhone". Of course I can't - that login would require the iPhone to 2FA! Alternate 2FA is a text message - no good without the phone. But... phone Connect on PC gets the text message! So can log onto iCloud but phone is not in device list. Grab another iPhone and log into my Apple account with it and I can see "find my iPhone" is disabled on my main phone and it can only be turned on on the actual phone.

What a nightmare. Hate to think what my blood pressure was peaking at.

Things learnt: Enable find my iPhone on your phone. Have a second 2FA option for iCloud for when you don't have access to your phone. iPhone on silent doesn't switch silent off after multiple missed calls.

So where was it? Black iPhone in a black case sitting on a pile of black clothes - almost invisible.

I need to go back to bed and reboot.

At least you were not looking for glasses that were sitting on your head😀

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

Dulouz

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#3435272 17-Nov-2025 15:30

Jiriteach:

Or the most useful accessory - Apple Watch which allows you to find your iPhone even when its on silent and have a beep crazily loud! :)
Cannot remember how many times I've used that feature.

I get a lot of stick using this function from family members but it's very handy.

Amanon

johno1234

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#3435273 17-Nov-2025 15:34

MikeB4:

johno1234:

I think I may be losing my marbles.

Woke up this morning - looked at my iPhone to get the time, quick scan of the news. Get up, let the cat out. Get dressed. Go to find my phone and cannot find it anywhere. Bit of a major as I need it to 2FA lots of things especially work logins. Tearing the house apart - cannot find it. Ring it from other phones - silent. I expected it to switch off silent after multiple missed calls but that didn't seem to happen.

Log onto my PC and I know the iPhone is switched on and in the house as the PC Bluetooth phoneConnect app sees it. OK, sign into iCloud and use "find my iPhone". Of course I can't - that login would require the iPhone to 2FA! Alternate 2FA is a text message - no good without the phone. But... phone Connect on PC gets the text message! So can log onto iCloud but phone is not in device list. Grab another iPhone and log into my Apple account with it and I can see "find my iPhone" is disabled on my main phone and it can only be turned on on the actual phone.

What a nightmare. Hate to think what my blood pressure was peaking at.

Things learnt: Enable find my iPhone on your phone. Have a second 2FA option for iCloud for when you don't have access to your phone. iPhone on silent doesn't switch silent off after multiple missed calls.

So where was it? Black iPhone in a black case sitting on a pile of black clothes - almost invisible.

I need to go back to bed and reboot.

At least you were not looking for glasses that were sitting on your head😀

My sight is bad enough that my glasses are on all day for close and distance vision so I'm protected from that scenario... otherwise it would certainly have happened plenty of times!

Geekeneer

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#3435875 18-Nov-2025 23:17

Not entirely the same, but my phone screen stopped working while on holiday, it took a swim in the ocean.

The phone was still on but the screen was fried.

First issue, we were in Raro and I only bought 1 data eSim, loaded in my phone. Hotel didn't have wifi as common in raro. Had to find a place with wifi to get connected from wife's phone.

I tried to use my wife's phone for access to emails (as all travel bookings etc was in my emails), couldn't do as it required 2FA, which was being sent to my other email. Tried logging into other email, 2FA was being sent to first email!

Thought about putting my eSim into wife's phone. Can't. The email was on my phone, couldn't retrieve QR code.

I chose the Text option to receive a code on my eSim NZ number. My only saving grace was my Watch being able to read texts. If I didn't have my watch, there was no way I could do anything.

Multiple lessons learnt:

2FA - maybe set it to partners email and vice versa. What if you lose your phone entirely and have no access to your mobile number for texts even?

ESims - made us think if this situation had to happen again, there's no easy way to transfer an eSim while abroad. If local, maybe you can go into providers store.

Phone backups! - I was always super strict on this. Not sure what happened. But that phone had over 2 years of images on it, and pictures of both my kids since birth. Every single Pic was not backed up. I would have lost every Pic of both my kids.

When I got home, I managed to connect the phone to a PC monitor to be able to see what's happening on the screen and also managed to connect it to pc to transfer my data out. Close call though.