iPhone detection. How to return a stolen iPhone - Procedure

Deep down, it is common for every person to hope that he will never need the information described in our article; I admit honestly, I am also one of many, but...

If you read these lines carefully, most likely your beloved iPhone is not near you and, moreover, you don’t know how to find it because you may have lost it, or, worse, someone stole it.

Naturally, you want to return the device and the data on it as soon as possible. Fortunately, all is not lost! There are several ways to find your “toy”. By acting quickly and wisely, it is quite possible to achieve success.

Of course, the location of a switched-on phone can be easily tracked using special applications, or, for example, simply by calling it. Is the picture so rosy and optimistic when it is discharged or specially turned off? Let's look at the algorithm using the iPhone 4S as an example.

How to find a lost iPhone with a dead battery

The hardest part is finding a lost 4S with a dead battery. The iOS8 update provides the following option: the phone sends a message indicating the last location before disconnecting. The only drawback of the proposed option is the need to activate this function before looking for a non-working iPhone.

If it's too late and the 4S is no longer there, you can still follow the tracking directions, but the location will likely be different from the actual location. The tip will also work when trying to find a stolen iPhone with the battery disconnected (there is a high probability that someone has already taken the phone from the specified location).

Make sure that you are using the new iOS 8 option, then, if necessary, searching for a “dead” iPhone will be as convenient as possible. It is imperative to have the 8th version of the operating system (free update: model 4S and higher), since earlier versions of iOS will not be able to determine so accurately where you lost your iPhone.

In the 6th model or any other gadget with iOS 8, the application is present by default, but the convenient function is not. It's time to make sure that the program is configured to determine the location of the smartphone.

Go to Settings, then iCloud, then FindMyiPhone. Check if the main option is enabled: thus, while tracking down a lost device, it will be possible to use other devices.
Click on the program icon, then switch the “Send Last Location” option slider to “On”.

This will force the iPhone 4S to send its location information just before the battery completely cuts out. Communication is absolutely necessary, so with the “airplane” mode activated, this advice will not work. It's rare for an iPhone to be lost by someone. If it is stolen, thieves can deliberately activate airplane mode, thereby preventing the iPhone from being traced.

Once you have configured all this, you can locate your lost iPhone 4S even when it is turned off and without an alarm. This is quite enough to focus your search on the last cafe you visited, a friend’s house, or another place indicated by the application as the last one.

To detect an iPhone, you just need to use the iCloud.com service, where you can find your device on an interactive map. If this is your first time hearing about this service, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with

How else can you track a turned off smartphone?

Then sign in using your own Apple ID and password. After logging in, the application will show the location of all your Apple devices with Find My iPhone installed. Click on a gadget with the battery turned off to see its last location. When you're finished working on someone else's device, don't forget to log out of your account.

Unfortunately, when the iPhone 4S is turned off, some standard actions simply do not work (sound notification, lost/erased modes). But if you can’t find your phone, you can always activate Lost mode.

When you turn it on, when someone connects your phone to charge, they will see your message and can call you back. If you decide to erase all information, this will happen as soon as the mobile phone is connected again. But if you decide to do this, you will no longer be able to find your lost/stolen iPhone.

If everything indicates that the chances of finding your lost 4S are zero, you can use the Activation Lock function and lock the gadget. Thus, those who stole your device will not be able to use it unauthorized (to do this, you must know your Apple ID account information).

Useful innovation

By the way, quite recently it became known about a new patent from the famous Apple company. We are talking about improving security - a kind of “zombie mode”: the device seems to be turned off, but in fact it is being monitored.

Of course, some competitors immediately criticized the idea, noting that now the company would be able to monitor its users. In fact, the know-how will significantly secure smartphones and reduce the number of thefts.

It is expected that you will need to enter a password when charging the device. An incorrect code will activate a mode in which the cell phone will appear as if it is turned off, but will be able, for example, to send text messages with its location. Moreover, the iPhone camera will be able to take a photo of the person who stole it and is trying to unlock the phone.

It is very good that the trend towards increasing safety is gaining momentum. Suffice it to recall the positive statistics of the implementation of “kill switches” functions (for example, the same Activation Lock in Apple devices). We hope that the innovation will have a positive impact on minimizing crimes related to the theft of other people's iPhones.

And finally, some tips for those whose phone has already been stolen. Be sure to do the following:

Block your SIM card. If your iPhone, and therefore your phone card with a number, falls into the wrong hands, you risk both your reputation and financial well-being;
Change all passwords. Since very often our passwords (from bank accounts to social network accounts) are automatically saved in the smartphone, do not hesitate with this step;
Remove personal information from your phone. If a backup exists, you can do so immediately. Even if you did not backup the information, you will still want to erase the data if there is no chance of finding/returning the iPhone;
Warn your family and friends. This will save them from unnecessary worries and the risk of various scams from those who stole or found your device.

Comments: 20

Letters arrive with a variety of questions. From simple problems with the application Music to complex situations with broken networks and protocols.

Wrote to us Andrey Maksimovich. His letter describes a situation that every iPhone owner may face - theft of the device.

Read first-hand how to be and what to do.

My iPhone was stolen. What to do?

It was in August. My girlfriend and I went to another city for a walk and some shopping. We visited several attractions and went to a huge shopping center.

During the trip, calls, SMS messages and the Internet were used mainly from my phone; it was in the bag at the bottom. We were walking around the shops and suddenly she noticed something was missing.

Naturally, I immediately burst into tears and hysterics. I, as an experienced user of Apple products, immediately begin operational measures.

I called - the phone was already turned off. I went into Find iPhone and blocked him. The phone was offline, but the latest geolocation was not available.

It is important to write a statement specifically about theft, as they are obliged to initiate a criminal case. If you write vaguely, like “could have lost”, “fell out”, then the application, of course, will be accepted, but will soon be rejected.

We wrote a statement and specifically indicated that there was a theft. It was emphasized that the damage to us is significant(this is also important). You indicated your IMEI in the application. After which our application was accepted, registered and told to wait for a call.

How the police act when an iPhone is lost

As my friends explained to me, the police actions should have been as follows:

The phone is being searched for
The IMEI standard is transferred to a special department and put on search until a SIM card is inserted into it and turned on.
As soon as the smartphone is turned on, the SIM card is detected. The authorities immediately gain access to the owner of the SIM card, go to him and take our phone.

In the end, the found device is subsequently solemnly presented to the owner.

Letter of happiness

But all this is only in theory. In practice, a month and a half passed, and no notifications regarding our case were received from the police. There are also no comments like: the initiation of a criminal case has been refused, or measures are being taken.

And then a letter arrives in the iCloud mail: “iPhone **** was found at 19.55 on such and such a street. Lost mode has been activated and the phone has been locked.”

Of course, I was very happy, because the thieves now had only a few options: either ask us for a nice ransom, or take the iPhone for spare parts.

The next day we started calling the police department in order to give the executor of our case this information. They hoped that she would help him. It turned out that the operational officer refused to initiate a criminal case, and all questions had to be addressed to him. It’s just that you can’t get through to this employee, you can’t reach him.

Never rush

A day after that letter from the iCloud service, I received four SMS messages in a row. All the senders are signed as “iCloud”.

So and so, they say, the iPhone 6 16 Gb Silver was discovered. Follow the link where you can see the exact geo-location of the device.

Thus, the attacker, in a very beautiful manner, obtained the login and password from an iCloud-locked iPhone. I got caught in my emotions. I wanted to get information about the location of the discovery as soon as possible, and I was hooked.

There was nothing confusing about the SMS message. Thought it was a function Find iPhone could have sent me an SMS because I posted it in a message on the locked screen.

The domain of the site, which I went to in a hurry and where I entered my Apple ID data, looked like this: iCloud.ru.com. For some reason, at that moment I decided that this was our official Russian mirror of the iCloud service.

I hope that this diagram will help others not to fall for a similar ploy.

From the editor

Andrey, thank you for your contact. The situation you are faced with is a very common type of fraud called phishing.

Translated from English fishing means "fishing". The SMS message and the supposedly official iCloud mirror are bait, and the owner of the lost/stolen device acts as the fish.

Remember, the address of the official iCloud service looks like this:

Services like icloud.ru, icloud.com.ru, icloud.ru.com and the like are scam sites. They have nothing to do with the only official site iCloud.com.

Be careful and if you lose your smartphone, be especially vigilant about these types of messages.

P.S. If you have any questions related to Apple products and their operation, go to. The authors of the technical support site will try to solve any questions and fix problems related to your device.

Apple developers have provided the ability to track both your own iPhone and the device of a friend, relative or any other owner of an Apple smartphone.

There are two effective ways to carry out this operation. Firstly, you can use the Find My Friends mobile application, which allows you to track the iPhone’s position on the map. In this case, we are talking about the arrangement of friends, relatives, and so on. Secondly, you can track your own iPhone if it is stolen or lost. To do this, you need to use the Find iPhone app. This option is available in Apple devices and, in addition, there is an Internet version of it.

It should be noted that situations when it is necessary to find out the exact location of a friend, acquaintance or relative occur quite often. In these cases, you can use the useful function of tracking someone else's iPhone. For example, a person has an appointment in a unfamiliar place. Instead of listening for a long time to explanations from your interlocutor about how to drive or get to a certain point, you can use the free Find My Friends application. This program will indicate the location of the iPhone user. You can install the application on both your phone and iPad.

Tracking an iPhone using this program is subject to several requirements. Firstly, the application must be installed on both devices - the one from which the tracking is carried out, and the one whose geographical location is determined. Secondly, the mobile phone number of the device that needs to be tracked must be in the other user's contact list.

If the conditions are met, then you need to launch the Find My Friends application, and then click the “Add” button in the upper right corner of the program interface. In this way, you can send an invitation to another person, after accepting which the user will be able to track the geoposition of the other subscriber on the map.

How to track your own iPhone?

To track your own iPhone, you will need such a convenient option as “Find iPhone” or as it is also called Find My iPhone. Many people ask whether network access must be present for this functionality to work. The answer is yes. Find My iPhone cannot work without an Internet connection. To transmit data about the coordinates of the geographical position of a mobile device, access to the web is simply necessary. In addition, to activate all commands that are sent through Find iPhone, you also need the Internet. These include turning on lost mode, playing audio files, or destroying personal information.

Find My iPhone feature

Of course, such measures will not protect the owner of the phone from theft or loss, but they will help to significantly simplify the task of finding such a device. Simply put, “Find iPhone” will allow you to get ahead of the iPhone’s location. True, some attackers, in addition to basic skills, have good abilities in working with Apple devices. To prevent a thief from disabling the “Find iPhone” option on your iPhone, you must set a password to unlock your smartphone. To do this, go to the settings section, “General”, then go to “Password protection” and select the “Enable password” menu item.

How to find the location of an iPhone?

There are several ways to track the location of your own phone using the Find My iPhone option. The first option involves using the functionality of the iCould.com website.

On this page you need to launch the “Find iPhone” application and use it to find your own device.

The second method is to launch the Find iPhone mobile application on any device with the iOS operating system.

Provided that the iPhone was previously registered in the iCould system and is currently connected to the Internet, “Find iPhone” will show the device’s location on the map. In addition, if the device does not have access to the World Wide Web, you can enable receiving a notification the moment the phone appears on the network. This information message will be sent by e-mail.

We don’t wish this on anyone and we hope that you will never need this instruction. Nevertheless, everyone should know the actions that need to be taken in the event of the loss of an expensive device.

Imagine something terrible happened - you lost your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. What should you do to not only maintain the confidentiality of information, but also try to get your gadget back? Especially for such situations, we have prepared step by step instructions.

With the release of iOS 4.2.1, all owners of Apple mobile devices now have access to the service "Find iPhone". True, in order for it to be used, the service must be activated on your device. Based on this condition, there are 2 possible scenarios.

1. Find My iPhone is enabled

In order to use the Find iPhone function, you need to go to this address or launch the application of the same name on your iOS device. To authorize, you need to use the Apple ID to which the lost device is linked.

Step 1 - Search for your device

Launch the Find My iPhone app to select your device and view its location. All devices that are linked to your Apple ID will be displayed on the map. Those that are online are highlighted in green, and those that are offline are highlighted in gray. The latter also display the time at which they last connected to the network.

If the device is nearby, you can play it on it sound signal to find it by sound. To do this, select the device you are looking for and in the menu that opens in the upper right corner, click on the “Play sound” button.

Taking into account the fact that it is impossible to use Apple maps, you must select the “Hybrid” mode in the lower right corner. As a result of this action, you will at least see houses and street names. By overlaying this data on any other map, you can accurately determine the position of the device.

If the lost iOS device is offline, you can activate the function "Notify me of a find". In this case, when the device is connected to the network, a notification will be sent to the email specified in your Apple account that the device has been detected. However, it is more advisable to use the next step.

Step 2 – Turn on Lost Mode

With its help, you can not only remotely lock your device with a 4-digit password, but also track its geolocation, and also display a custom message with a contact phone number on the device screen.

A feature of this mode is that when activated, if geolocation services are disabled on the device, they will immediately included to determine the geoposition of the device.

In order to use this mode, you need to select the lost device and click on the button in the menu that opens "Lost Mode". After this, you need to indicate a telephone number for contact, and also write a short message. If your gadget does not have a 4-digit unlock password, you must enter that as well.

By clicking on the “Finish” button, the online device is immediately put into lost mode - all notifications are blocked, and the data you entered appears on its screen.

If the device is offline, blocking and tracking (if possible) will be activated when it is connected to the network.

You will be notified of the successful activation of Lost Mode by email specified in your Apple account.

Now comes the fun part. Everyone knows very well that in many countries there are no houses on Apple maps, which is why in some cases the company still uses Google maps.

A similar letter arrives after discovering a device with “Lost Mode” activated. As you can see from this screenshot, there are houses on the map. In addition the letter contains the exact address locating the device.

As soon as you receive this data, you must immediately hand them over to law enforcement agencies. In most cases, this will be enough to find the missing device.

Step 3 – Erase all data from your device

This is an extreme measure that must be used if it is not possible to obtain information about the location of the lost gadget, or it is located in a hard-to-reach place, for example, far abroad. All you need to do for this action is to select the desired device and click on the appropriate button in the drop-down menu.

Attention! Once you delete all data from the device, you will no longer be able to obtain its geolocation, and accordingly, the device cannot be tracked.

If the device is online, the data will be deleted immediately, offline - the first time you connect to the Internet. Also, under no circumstances You should not delete the “cleaned” gadget from your account. In this case, activation lock will be disabled and attackers will be able to activate and use your iPhone or iPad.

2. Find My iPhone is not activated

Unfortunately, if you have not previously activated this feature, you will not be able to find your lost device using it. However, it is still possible to protect some data.

Step 1 - Change Account Passwords

First of all, we are talking about the password for the Apple ID, changing which prevents third parties from gaining access to iCloud, iMessage or iTunes data. Other important accounts that require updating access include email accounts, social networks, etc.

Step 2 – Block the ability to send messages and make calls

To do this, contact your mobile operator. This step will protect you from possible costs for calls that could be made by attackers.

Step 3 – Report your lost or stolen device to law enforcement

Although it seems trivial and useless, it is still worth doing. At a minimum, you will have a chance, albeit small, to return your favorite gadget.

If it is your iPhone that is lost, then the first thing you need to do is call it. The likelihood that you will get an answer is quite high.

Finally, some tips, which will not only help protect your personal data, but will also significantly increase the chances of returning your lost device.

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We all hope that we won't need information on how to return a lost or stolen item. This also explains the carelessness with which iPhone owners neglect such a useful function as the “Find iPhone” function.

For the same reason, iPhone owners for the time being believe that information on how to find an iPhone if it is stolen, but the Find iPhone function is not turned on, is of no use to them.

I dare to assume that since you are already reading this article, then you have already been affected by this problem, and you are looking for ways to solve it.

How to find an iPhone if it was stolen, but the Find My iPhone function is not enabled

Friends, you have come to the right place, today we will look in detail at what steps need to be taken to return the iPhone to its rightful owner.

The Find iPhone feature seems to be the fastest, most reliable way to find a missing iPhone today. If you did not activate the “Find iPhone” function before losing your gadget, you will complicate the task of tracking your iPhone.

But not everything is as hopeless as it seems at first glance. There are several ways to try to get your device back, and we will look at them now.

If you are firmly convinced that the phone was not lost in the depths of your apartment, but was lost or stolen, immediately contact the police; the sooner you do this, the higher the chances of finding the device.

But contacting the police does not mean that you should sit idly by. You can and should try to find the loss.

Determining location by geolocation

Let's imagine that the lost iPhone is turned on without an active search. In this case, there is a chance to find it using the Geolocation application. If you have this function activated, Google map, Yandex navigator are installed, then your chances of finding the device increase.

Log into your Google account from any other device and turn on location detection.

What can you do if the battery is dead or the iPhone has been disabled by thieves?

The battery is low, what should I do?

In this case, a lot depends on the iPhone model; the higher the brand, the greater the chances of detecting a mobile phone. The most difficult thing will be to detect an iPhone 4S with a dead battery. Newer models are equipped with increased safety features.

If your mobile phone has the eighth version of the operating system installed, which includes the new iOS8 option, then there is hope of accurately determining the location of the device.

Log in using your username and password to your personal support account from apple at: support.apple.com/ru-ru/icloud. From your personal account, activate the “Find iPhone” function.

To do this, visit the settings section - iCloud - FindMyiPhone. Set the position of the “Send Last Location” parameter to “ON”, click “allow”.

After this you will have the opportunity

Determine the location of the device;
Send a beep;
Activate lost mode;
Send a message to your Apple (you can promise a reward for returning);
Lock the device;
Erase all data from the device.

Someone else's device

There is another way to find out where your mobile phone is by using someone else's iPhone or iPad. If you and your friends have a mobile gadget from an Apple company, then you can download the free Find My iPhone program from the App Store.

Log in with your own Apple ID and password. After downloading the program, the application will determine where your Apple device is located. Press the gadget with the battery turned off and you will see its last location. When finished, be sure to log out of your account.

How to find an iPhone if it was stolen but the Find iPhone function is not enabled, tips

If you are one hundred percent sure that your gadget is in the wrong hands, immediately block your SIM card! Since all logins and passwords from payment systems are automatically saved on the Apple device, you can lose your funds along with your iPhone.

Change all your passwords for the services you used on your iPhone. This applies not only to finance, mail, social networks, but also to other Internet services.

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