iPhone 4S Find my phone

[novgirl]

Travelled on USAir on March 3, 2010. Of course on all flights you are asked to turn your phone off, I put mine in the setback and forgot to retrieve it on leaving the plane. I used the find my phone feature and of course it can't locate it because it is turned off. I have put a remote locking it and an alert to call a specific number and also to send me an email once it has been turned on. Nothing has happened yet. I emailed the airline, they say nothing has been turned in (duh), like I think they actually sent someone to look for it or someone would turn it in.

My question is do the email and remote lock actually work and will someone be able use the phone even after these precautions.

 

[Thai]

Hmmm, tough situation. You just have to wait i guess. Good luck.

 

[jmi58]

My question is do the email and remote lock actually work and will someone be able use the phone even after these precautions.

Those are some good questions to want to know the answer to. Both my wife and I have iPhone 4S's and I would like to know that if either of us misplaced our phone we would be able to retrieve it.

So here's what I'm going to do the next time my wife isn't needing her phone for awhile. I'll turn it off and than try to locate it with the find iPhone app using my phone and remote lock it and request an email. Than after an hour or two turn it back on and see what happens. After I find out the results I'll post my findings here.

I hope you end up finding your phone.

 

[Fourwheelin7]

Well pray that you actually had "Find my iPhone" enabled, because if you didn't then say goodbye to your phone. I recently left my iPhone laying in a public bathroom and several minutes later realized what I did and went back and it was gone. Now I assumed I had "Find my iPhone" enabled and tried tracking my iPhone immediately with my wife's iPhone. Sent a remote lock, sent a message, and finally after 12 hours with no luck I sent a remote wipe assuming it was gone. For 24 hours I kept checking to see if "find my iPhone" had found it, but kept showing unable to locate & that a lock was sent & wipe was sent. I had even went to AT&T and got a replacement iPhone. The following day a very nice elderly gentlemen called my wife's phone and said he had found my iPhone and was wanting to return it, I was so overjoyed! When I received it, I checked to see if "find my iPhone" was enabled and it wasn't .(Which I kinda of realized after I got a replacement iPhone and restored it with my current settings and it came up that it wasn't enabled) I turned it on and gave it a Wifi signal and still nothing, the "find my iPhone" never locked my phone, sent a message or did a remote wipe even after enabled "find my iPhone" and it was online via WiFi, now it didn't have any cell service because I had it turned off, so I don't know if that makes a difference at all, but in my case the "find my iPhone" service didn't work worth a hoot! I would highly recommend, I mean highly recommend using the passcode lock feature on your phone, yes it is a pain every time, but after a day or two it becomes second nature. Because any iPhone literate person that is dishonest knows to either put your phone in airplane mode or turn off the "find my iPhone" feature. And also make sure you can't use "Siri" when phone is locked, so you might have a fighting chance for a short period of time to find your iPhone until they erase it or a hacker gets to it. But if your "Find My iPhone" feature is enabled and gets service and becomes online then "Yes" it should work, at least has worked for me after getting my iPhone back and did some trailing of what works and doesn't work. But if you don't already have a passcode lock on it when powered back up, all they would have to do is turn the "find my iPhone" feature off and then it will not work!

 

[novgirl]

Thank you all for your responses. I really don't think I am getting it back so I purchased another. I will take the advice and put the annoying passcode lock on and just get used to it.