Lost phone - can public track it?

[sophyc]

This probably isn’t the right place to ask, but I lost my phone last night, and didn’t have “find my iPhone” turned on - so is there any way public can trace where it last was? The phone does still ring for quite a bit before going to voicemail

[roberto24]

next time be smarter and download de app "find my device" in play store .it help you locate your device and can also block it  for security. now anyone can use it taking out your sim card.be happy.Fon now think the next phone you is going to get will be better than  the lost one.

[Korth]

@Camera4617 

Cannot find location of the iPhone. As in you can't see which restaurant table or couch pillow or car seat it's transmitting from. The downside of turning that software off.

But can find the location of the network. If the phone is turned on, even briefly, and pings a wireless network then the event is logged and the email is sent (describing the time and the location of the network site). It can be enough to identify which part of town or perhaps which building the phone was (and perhaps still is) connecting from. It can be enough to identify when the phone was last seen by the network, when it completely vanished or lost power.

[Camera4617]

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@Korth wrote:

Apparently you can turn Find My iPhone on remotely. This assumes that you can login to the Apple account registered for the iPhone.

This Find My Phone option can't help if the phone is unpowered. But apparently you will receive an email if/when the iPhone ever connects to a wireless network (along with the location of the network site). Apparently you can also configure the iPhone to "lock" itself with a password and display a custom message ("reward if found" or whatever) once it touches a cellular network.

https://www.rd.com/article/how-to-find-a-lost-phone-thats-turned-off/

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I'm not sure that's correct as based on 'Apple', that is not possible. You might be able to lock it with a message but cannot find location. 

"If you didn't turn on Find My [device] before your device was lost or stolen, it can't be used to locate your device.
Find My [device] is the only way that you can track or locate a lost or missing device. If Find My [device] isn't enabled on your device before it goes missing, there's no other Apple service that can find, track, or flag your device for you."

[Korth]

Apparently you can turn Find My iPhone on remotely. This assumes that you can login to the Apple account registered for the iPhone.

This Find My Phone option can't help if the phone is unpowered. But apparently you will receive an email if/when the iPhone ever connects to a wireless network (along with the location of the network site). Apparently you can also configure the iPhone to "lock" itself with a password and display a custom message ("reward if found" or whatever) once it touches a cellular network.

https://www.rd.com/article/how-to-find-a-lost-phone-thats-turned-off/

[Camera4617]

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@computergeek541 wrote:Marking a phone as lost or stolen in the Public Mobile self serve account does not prevent someone from using another SIM card in the device. Even after that has been done, someone could replace the SIM card with another and use the device. Public Mobile customer service must be contacted to have the device's IMEI added to the national lost and stolen device database.

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Apple really made it hard to use somebody else device so it is not just simple plug in SiM and you are done. Long in past, you could get away with it by completely reinstalling iOS but now even if you do that, you cannot activate it unless you know iCloud password of the original account, so for anyone else, they will not gain anything. They could use it for parts or if they are some super tech people, there could be a way (not that I know one) to get away with it. I always have 'find my iphone' for that reason ON, but you also depend on battery, is it able to send signal (not in water or something) or something else. 

[toa]

For sure they can track it per cell phone's signal, but I bet they will only release such info to certain authorities. If you're concern about losing the contents on the phone, you can get them back on cloud if you're been backing up.

[computergeek541]

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@stevenanto wrote:

I dont think you will be able to find it, you should mark it as lost or stolen on your PM account and if someone tries to reregister it on another carrier then the IMEI will come up as lost or stolen. 

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Marking a phone as lost or stolen in the Public Mobile self serve account does not prevent someone from using another SIM card in the device. Even after that has been done, someone could replace the SIM card with another and use the device. Public Mobile customer service must be contacted to have the device's IMEI added to the national lost and stolen device database.

[stevenanto]

I dont think you will be able to find it, you should mark it as lost or stolen on your PM account and if someone tries to reregister it on another carrier then the IMEI will come up as lost or stolen. 

[jivetalker]

Oops sorry according to this if you don't have find my device enabled there's nothing Apple can do for you.

https://www.apple.com/ca/

Unless you have a google account as well then you can use your timeline to find it.

[jivetalker]

I'm not 100% sure how Apple phones work but  with an Android phone you can log into your Google account and find your phone without having the find my phone app enabled. You can at least trace it to a generally smaller area that you can search for it at. If you've just lost it don't call it too often though you don't want to kill the battery you need it to be able to still ping off the towers.

[sheytoon · Accepted solution]

They certainly have the ability to identify which cell site every phone is connected to, but I doubt they would provide this info to customers.

[computergeek541]

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@sophyc wrote:

This probably isn’t the right place to ask, but I lost my phone last night, and didn’t have “find my iPhone” turned on - so is there any way public can trace where it last was? The phone does still ring for quite a bit before going to voicemail

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Sorry, but Public Mobile cannot help you to find your phone. That's between you and Apple. The find your phone option is something that Apple offers but requires the phone to be turned on and be connected to the internet.  While Telus does have records of where your phone was last connected to the network, they're unlikely to provide that information unless law enforcement is involved, and since you say that the phone was lost (and not stolen), I'm not sure that Telus would get involved.   

Unless you've left your phone at a place of someone you know (such as a friend's place or at work), you might not get your phone back. Public Mobile does offer some pre-owned phones for sale if you do end up needing a replacement.

[HALIMACS]

The first thing you should do, @sophyc , is place your phone in Lost/Stolen mode on your Self-Serve.

That option is under the Plan and Add-Ons tab.

When you find it (hopefully you will) reverse it.