Find my iphone feature / Activation

[Lit3s]

would like to get some understanding/advise. A late family member's iphone 13 & 14 was among the belongings as we were clearing things. We tried to unlock to no avail; contacted apple and its taking a tremendous effort in trying to get their help to unlock the phones. My understanding was apple could probably only unlock the cloud activation but we will still have a problem trying to figure the phone's passkeys; and in any case, data would be wipe off.

A family friend offered his help and we're not sure what he did, but he did managed to unlock and reset one of the phone. He was showing to us that the phone was as good as good after testing. Anyway we use an existing apple id and can log on etc however, we realize the phone was still showing in the friend's find my iphone with last seen etc....

If this phone is currently being in used by another apple id already, how would it still show in his find my iphone app and if he does not remove it, does it mean he still have access to the phone via lost mode/erase etc?

 

[froztheart]

would like to get some understanding/advise. A late family member's iphone 13 & 14 was among the belongings as we were clearing things. We tried to unlock to no avail; contacted apple and its taking a tremendous effort in trying to get their help to unlock the phones. My understanding was apple could probably only unlock the cloud activation but we will still have a problem trying to figure the phone's passkeys; and in any case, data would be wipe off.

A family friend offered his help and we're not sure what he did, but he did managed to unlock and reset one of the phone. He was showing to us that the phone was as good as good after testing. Anyway we use an existing apple id and can log on etc however, we realize the phone was still showing in the friend's find my iphone with last seen etc....

If this phone is currently being in used by another apple id already, how would it still show in his find my iphone app and if he does not remove it, does it mean he still have access to the phone via lost mode/erase etc?

Since you mentioned it's a family friend, likely either "Legacy Contact" where he/she will have access to your late family member since it requires designating contact with consent/access provided.
Or if you are implying why is the Apple ID still in this said family friend's "Find My" app, then location might have previously shared prior to him/her.
No way that anyone can access without prior consent with Apple's IOS.

You might want to clarify, what do you mean by "Anyway we use an existing apple id and can log on etc however, we realize the phone was still showing in the friend's find my iphone with last seen etc....".
Like under where/what did you find out this info etc. From what I read and presume, it's in the "Find My" app.

 

[Lit3s]

Since you mentioned it's a family friend, likely either "Legacy Contact" where he/she will have access to your late family member since it requires designating contact with consent/access provided.
Or if you are implying why is the Apple ID still in this said family friend's "Find My" app, then location might have previously shared prior to him/her.
No way that anyone can access without prior consent with Apple's IOS.

You might want to clarify, what do you mean by "Anyway we use an existing apple id and can log on etc however, we realize the phone was still showing in the friend's find my iphone with last seen etc....".
Like under where/what did you find out this info etc. From what I read and presume, it's in the "Find My" app.

Ok pardon if the details aren't clear enough. I'll try to simplify. We have 2 iphones (13 pro and 14 pro max). We do not have access to the phones and contacted apple. The process was pretty complicated requiring a lot of documents etc to prove and proceed.

A family friend said he could try to "break in and reset" for us which apparently he managed to. He showed to us the phone was as good as new logging in his own apple ID. There after he reset again for us to login with our apple ID. However on his own device, the phone still showed up in his "Find My" app with its last seen location.

So we were wondering despite the phone has been login with a new apple ID, can his app still track etc. At the same time, we were quite amazed how he managed to break through since we know by right you can't without knowing the owner's ID and passwords. By right, I thought apple phones were quite secured for eg. losing your phone etc.

Anyway, he has since removed the phone details from his own device

 

[froztheart]

Ok pardon if the details aren't clear enough. I'll try to simplify. We have 2 iphones (13 pro and 14 pro max). We do not have access to the phones and contacted apple. The process was pretty complicated requiring a lot of documents etc to prove and proceed.

A family friend said he could try to "break in and reset" for us which apparently he managed to. He showed to us the phone was as good as new logging in his own apple ID. There after he reset again for us to login with our apple ID. However on his own device, the phone still showed up in his "Find My" app with its last seen location.

So we were wondering despite the phone has been login with a new apple ID, can his app still track etc. At the same time, we were quite amazed how he managed to break through since we know by right you can't without knowing the owner's ID and passwords. By right, I thought apple phones were quite secured for eg. losing your phone etc.

Anyway, he has since removed the phone details from his own device

From my knowledge, in the past, it's possible to break but haven't been following the scene for quite some time.
Since he has reset the device, the location should no longer be "reflecting" on his end logically speaking.
Also, since you mentioned that he has since removed access from his own device, should no longer be a concern then.

Did you seek clarity on how and what was done by him to "break in and reset"?
That's the easiest instead of guessing how and what was done, and you verify that it's entirely clean without him accessing.

 

[reddevil0728]

Ok pardon if the details aren't clear enough. I'll try to simplify. We have 2 iphones (13 pro and 14 pro max). We do not have access to the phones and contacted apple. The process was pretty complicated requiring a lot of documents etc to prove and proceed.

A family friend said he could try to "break in and reset" for us which apparently he managed to. He showed to us the phone was as good as new logging in his own apple ID. There after he reset again for us to login with our apple ID. However on his own device, the phone still showed up in his "Find My" app with its last seen location.

So we were wondering despite the phone has been login with a new apple ID, can his app still track etc. At the same time, we were quite amazed how he managed to break through since we know by right you can't without knowing the owner's ID and passwords. By right, I thought apple phones were quite secured for eg. losing your phone etc.

Anyway, he has since removed the phone details from his own device

What did your family friend do to break in and reset?

 

[Lit3s]

From my knowledge, in the past, it's possible to break but haven't been following the scene for quite some time.
Since he has reset the device, the location should no longer be "reflecting" on his end logically speaking.
Also, since you mentioned that he has since removed access from his own device, should no longer be a concern then.

Did you seek clarity on how and what was done by him to "break in and reset"?
That's the easiest instead of guessing how and what was done, and you verify that it's entirely clean without him accessing.

We were a bit concerned when I made the initial post but since he removed the device from his "Find My" App, then its fine already.

From replies in the apple forums/help, it seems that as long as the last owner did not remove from his "Find My" app, the device will always be stuck there showing the last location even if it does not connect to the phone anymore.

He mentioned he uses a few softwares and tools to overwrite and remove the passwords/encryption etc

 

[froztheart]

We were a bit concerned when I made the initial post but since he removed the device from his "Find My" App, then its fine already.

From replies in the apple forums/help, it seems that as long as the last owner did not remove from his "Find My" app, the device will always be stuck there showing the last location even if it does not connect to the phone anymore.

He mentioned he uses a few softwares and tools to overwrite and remove the passwords/encryption etc

Yes, as long as your late family member has not removed, then it will stay i.e. the sharing of locations etc.
That's why I shared that unless prior consent provided otherwise, pretty impossible to have access to infos.

Sounds like the devices IOS is pretty dated to still be able to allow breaking into.

 

[Lit3s]

Yes, as long as your late family member has not removed, then it will stay i.e. the sharing of locations etc.
That's why I shared that unless prior consent provided otherwise, pretty impossible to have access to infos.

Sounds like the devices IOS is pretty dated to still be able to allow breaking into.

Agreed. I'm guessing gaining the phone information is pretty impossible with all the securities and all. I was only surprised the phone still can break in through. Just imagine you picked up somebody's phone etc, still able to overwrite and use it as your own

 

[froztheart]

Agreed. I'm guessing gaining the phone information is pretty impossible with all the securities and all. I was only surprised the phone still can break in through. Just imagine you picked up somebody's phone etc, still able to overwrite and use it as your own

If IOS is outdated, there's a chance that it's possible.
Of course, one has to know how to go about it. There's always people that want to crack iPhones, so it's a never ending cycle with tech as always.
Thus, always recommended to update to the latest/second latest updates for security. Stability is subjective.