Help me find a lost iPad

January 10, 2018 3:21 AM

Partner just lost her iPad in a cab. They have called several cab companies and law enforcement, but without success so far. They are at work, without access to other Apple devices, so I am trying to help from my side, in order to locate their iPad via Find My Phone. Added difficulty: they forgot their Apple ID. More below the fold.

We have tried recovering that password both from iCloud on our iMac and my own iPad, typing their Apple ID and clicking on "Forgot password". However, in both cases, even after typing in the code Apple sends to their (Android) phone, I get a message asking me to type the passcode for their iPad... We know that passcode, but are we wrong to suspect this will do precisely what we don't want: unlock the iPad and make the data available to whoever has it?

We just want to locate it and activate Lost Mode.

Are we missing something?

posted by lost_lettuce to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

Are you sure it’s asking you to enter the passcode *for* their iPad (i.e. the unlock code you use when you turn it on) and not a two-factor authentication passcode that Apple has sent *to* their iPad?

Either way—you will not be magically, remotely unlocking the iPad in the hands of the thief. That’s not how this works.
posted by bcwinters at 5:10 AM on January 10, 2018

Response by poster: bcwinters, that's a relief, because that would be a dumb move on Apple's side.

They have asked me the following, after I tried to recover the Apple ID password:

1. Phone number connected to the account

2. Code sent to that phone

and then,

3. Passcode for that iPad (and they say something like "Apple doesn't know it" or such).

This is confusing, because either way it means it wouldn't be possible to recover the Apple ID password without having the iPad with us, this while we are trying to locate that same iPad...
posted by lost_lettuce at 5:25 AM on January 10, 2018

Have you called Apple? They were very helpful when I had a similar Apple ID problem.
posted by pecanpies at 6:55 PM on January 10, 2018