What happened to my kid's iPhone?
March 22, 2016 4:30 PM   Subscribe

Vacationing in Mexico. Kid BlahLaLa has misplaced his phone. When I go to Apple's "Find My Phone" I'm not even seeing his phone on the list of our devices. Halp?

So: it's an old iPhone 4s. 4G has been off since we crossed into Mexico several days ago (airplane mode). It requires a 4-digit password to log in.

When I sign in to Find My Phone I see all of our various devices -- including my phone and hubby's, both registering as "offline" since our 4G is off and we are in airplane mode. I see our various devices back at home like iPad and the like. But kid's phone isn't even on the list. Does that mean someone stole it, cracked the login password and has already unregistered it or something? Or pulled out the sim card? Or...?

I'd love to find the phone, but more importantly I want to know if there are other security issues I need to be aware of right now. Thanks.
posted by BlahLaLa to Computers & Internet (16 answers total)
 
if they kept trying and trying the password, did you have the 10 try wipe turned on? that could be why.
posted by koroshiya at 4:37 PM on March 22, 2016


Response by poster: I don't know about the 10 try wipe thing, but the phone's software is up to date, if that makes any difference.
posted by BlahLaLa at 4:40 PM on March 22, 2016


Find My Phone periodically logs you out (often after an iOS update) but doesn't tell you it's done so and as such your device will no longer appear in your list of devices because it's currently not activated.
posted by Hermione Granger at 4:41 PM on March 22, 2016


Best answer: What Apple ID does the kid use on the phone? Maybe it's on a different account and you can find it on Find My Phone if you log in to the right acccount?
posted by zachlipton at 4:46 PM on March 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Okay, found the phone in a stupid place, meaning it was never actually gone to begin with. But would love to hear why it's not showing on Find My Phone. His phone is logged into the same Apple ID.
posted by BlahLaLa at 4:52 PM on March 22, 2016 [2 favorites]


Are your phones on wifi? They'll send location to Find my iPhone via wifi even if they aren't connected to the cellular network. But I believe they'll only do that if they're either unlocked (meaning you're actively using it), or plugged into power. So if you're periodically using your phones on wifi, that's why they're checking in. They have to be connected to the internet somehow to send their location, so if it's working for your phones, they must not be totally offline. If your kid's phone was misplaced, it wasn't being used, and probably would never connect with wifi to share its location.
posted by primethyme at 4:57 PM on March 22, 2016


Oh, sorry, I think I mis-read. You're only seeing locations for your devices back at home that are on the network? That makes sense. If the device isn't on the network (either cellular or wifi), there's no possible way for Find my iPhone to work. It has to be able to connect to the Internet to send its location to the service.
posted by primethyme at 4:58 PM on March 22, 2016


If you go to the Settings app, tap on iCloud and scroll down a little bit, is 'Find my iPhone' actually turned on?
posted by jaffacakerhubarb at 5:00 PM on March 22, 2016


Glad to hear it's not gone!

You might confirm under Settings > iCloud > Find My iPhone that it's currently enabled. An iOS update just came out yesterday, and depending on your settings it may have installed automatically. After an iOS update, location services need to be re-enabled and iCloud authentication is reset. Kid BlahLaLa might have "next"ed through those screens next time it was used.

When you say I go to Apple's "Find My Phone", are you going to Find My Phone at icloud.com on the web, or are you opening the "Find iPhone" app on another iOS device? Either way I'd be curious if it's appearing on the other one.

If you are comfortable doing so, you can memail me the device serial number and I can check if Find My iPhone is showing as active on Apple's backend.
posted by churl at 5:01 PM on March 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


(To clarify; I can only check if the Find My iPhone service shows as enabled or not -- I emphatically cannot see where the device is located or any other info you might get from Find My iPhone)
posted by churl at 5:10 PM on March 22, 2016


Have you opened up the app on your son's phone to make sure it's logged into his account? The app itself has to be logged in, not just the phone in general.
posted by Hermione Granger at 5:25 PM on March 22, 2016


Response by poster: Okay, so here's the answer: Find My Phone was on, but he's signed into his own iCloud account, which honestly I didn't even know was a thing. Like, KidBlahLaLa@iCloud.com.

So that's separate from the Apple ID that we use to, say, purchase apps on his phone. (That is my Apple ID, the one, when I log in to Find My Phone, shows me literally every other bit of tech we own: our desktop computer, our laptops, the iPad, all the other phones, etc.) So the solution is to sign him out of his iCloud and sign his phone into my login.

But may I ask you helpful people: what difference does it make to have his phone signed into a different iCloud?

Jesus, technology has really gotten ahead of me.
posted by BlahLaLa at 5:35 PM on March 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Mystery solved!

So, yeah, you can authenticate to different services with different Apple IDs at the same time. For example, you might be signed in as bob@example.com within the App and iTunes Stores, but ricky@icloud.com in GameCenter. In other words, the whole "phone" isn't logged into one account or the other, strictly speaking, but the individual services are.

During first-time setup it asks for one Apple ID (or for you to create one) which it propagates out to the various services that might use it. Afterward, however, there's no enforcement that they all be the same. Sounds like somewhere along the way, he was prompted to log in again and created a new one as prompted. Probably GameCenter if I had to guess.

Going forward, you might find it handy to reconcile this new Apple ID to your "main" one by making it a child account.
posted by churl at 5:48 PM on March 22, 2016 [3 favorites]


what difference does it make to have his phone signed into a different iCloud?

He would have to be the one doing 'Find my iPhone' from the website (with his iCloud account) instead of you.
posted by destructive cactus at 12:07 AM on March 23, 2016


Another option is to set up his iCloud account as part of your's as "Family sharing" - then you can use the Find Friends app to see where the devices are.
posted by mikepop at 8:39 AM on March 23, 2016


mikepop and others are on the right track, Family Sharing is what you need to set up.

Make sure Family Sharing is enabled first (Settings > iCloud > Family). Also, while you are in there, make sure you turn on the option for "Send Last Location" (Settings > iCloud > Find My iPhone) so you'll have an idea of where the device last was before the battery died.

Then share the location information via Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Share My Location. Toggle that on and make sure locations are shared with the Family. If you do this with all your devices, then all Family devices show up on each device's Find My iPhone app, and on icloud.com.
posted by hankscorpio83 at 12:56 PM on March 23, 2016


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