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iPhone remains findable after power off

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Re: iPhone remains findable after power off

#131

Post by avianlyric »

zootboy wrote: post #105
numpad0 wrote: post #90

This kind of behavior is needed for: - Public transit and digital IDs. It sucks when phone dies and you can’t get out of a station or show your driver’s license. - Power management. Power buttons on modern phones are digitally controlled by a microcontroller because actually switching main power by those buttons can glitch the phone. - Firmware updates. Phone has to be able to handle USB connection to accept new firm…

There's nothing that requires a microcontroller to be active during power-down to handle the issues you describe: For transit passes and IDs, there need to be non-phone-based ways of handling that issue. It's equally possible to lose / have your phone stolen. Talk to the station agent, or have the police look up your license by name / address. There's no need for a continuously-running microcontroller to read the pow…

> For transit passes

It’s interesting, here in the U.K. you have a legal obligation to present a valid ticket upon demand for any train you travel on. Failure to do so for any reason (including my phone died, or I dropped the ticket) is a criminal offence (and I mean criminal, not civil) punishable by a prison sentence.

Some ticket conductors at the end of a long shift hearing endless excuses about why someone doesn’t have a valid ticket really aren’t interested in negotiating. They’re quite happy to enforce the law, and make your life a living hell in the process.

Personally I much prefer it if the transit pass on my phone keeps working after it dies. The alternative is very… inconvenient.

Re: iPhone remains findable after power off

#132

Post by hug »

dunham wrote: post #128
wlesieutre wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "slide to power off" prompt literally says "iPhone Findable after Power Off >" right under it every time, but 99% of users will never see it or care about this feature because no one ever turns their phone off. But if you're one of those few people who does turn the phone off, it says right there, and you can tap on it to shut down to unfindable state this time instead. Note that it requires a passcode to disable…

Which model? I don't see this on my XR (iOS 15), maybe it doesn't have the hardware for it? > If someone steals your phone it will remain findable unless they open it up and pull the battery. Or drop the phone into a faraday bag?

> I don't see this on my XR (iOS 15), maybe it doesn't have the hardware for it?

It does not. iPhones 11 or newer.

Re: iPhone remains findable after power off

#133

Post by avianlyric »

jareklupinski wrote: post #30

it definitely could have been worded better: "You iPhone continues to report its location to Apple when it is powered off" or something seems software has gone back to extremely hostile user-facing strings, after about a decade of "oopsie doopsie our system had a crashie"

> You iPhone continues to report its location to Apple when it is powered off" or something

This statement wouldn’t be true. The iPhone broadcasts crypto keys over Bluetooth, which other I devices use to encrypt the detected location and upload to Apple.

But the only thing capable of decrypting those encrypted payloads is other devices attached to the same iCloud Keychain.

So Apple has no idea where your phone is, and there’s also no guarantee that a location will ever be uploaded.

Re: iPhone remains findable after power off

#134

Post by grishka »

numpad0 wrote: post #90

This kind of behavior is needed for: - Public transit and digital IDs. It sucks when phone dies and you can’t get out of a station or show your driver’s license. - Power management. Power buttons on modern phones are digitally controlled by a microcontroller because actually switching main power by those buttons can glitch the phone. - Firmware updates. Phone has to be able to handle USB connection to accept new firm…

> Public transit and digital IDs. It sucks when phone dies and you can’t get out of a station or show your driver’s license.

Yeah there's no way I'm using my phone for this stuff even if I had that option. I don't trust batteries, wireless networks and modern software enough. I do use Google Pay, but I always have the physical card just in case.

Re: iPhone remains findable after power off

#135

Post by EastOfTruth »

chewmieser wrote: post #8

Apple is very clear that this is how things work now. They even give you a dialog prompt now to inform you of this change the first time you try to shut your device off - https://9to5mac.com/2021/06/07/ios-15-find-my-network-can-fi... I'm not sure why this is presented as some new thing, or a gotcha or whatever this is. We've known about it for months... And IMO, it's a positive change although it does sound a little…

> And IMO, it's a positive change although it does sound a little weird.

It's a negative change that I didn't know about and yes, it is weird/wrong.

Re: iPhone remains findable after power off

#136

Post by brewdad »

todd3834 wrote: post #22

This article has me wondering if I’ve ever turned my phone off besides restarting it or the battery died. I’m sure I have but I bet it is very uncommon. That being said, if it were off and lost, this feature would be amazing. Apple is very transparent about it and also allows you to disable it as far as I remember. The OP has a follow up tweet that iOS 15 made their phone hot during charging. Kind of feels like they…

> This article has me wondering if I’ve ever turned my phone off besides restarting it or the battery died. I’m sure I have but I bet it is very uncommon.

I turned mine off on a 6.5 hour flight when I wanted to ensure I'd have battery later and knew I wasn't going to use it for entertainment in-flight. That's really the only time I've turned my phone off in the past few years.

Re: iPhone remains findable after power off

#137

Post by krrrh »

rurp wrote: post #126
AniseAbyss wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The police in my country wouldn't even bother to check, they have rapists and drug dealers to deal with.

Yeah I'm baffled by all of the comments saying that this is great as an anti-theft feature. I don't know where people live that that's the case, but I sure as heck have never known police in the US to give a damn about $1000 property crimes. They don't care about $20000 home robberies and car thefts, even with strong video or other evidence. I can't imagine they're going to start chasing down criminals to get a used…

That aside, there was a massive decrease in iPhone thefts when activation locking was introduced with the original “find my”.

Something like this could further deter the portion of thefts that end up funnelling through shady resellers.

Re: iPhone remains findable after power off

#138

Post by lmilcin »

Per my understanding this has nothing to do with actual security.

I think nobody steals smartphones anymore for the smartphone itself. Mainly because they are either getting locked or are easily tracked. That is poor business.

What is happening in practice is thieves take sim card out of the phone and try to use it to steal from the owner as much as possible. Log in to bank account, reset passwords on social accounts and ransom money, etc.

Re: iPhone remains findable after power off

#139

Post by rewtraw »

EastOfTruth wrote: post #135
chewmieser wrote: post #8

Apple is very clear that this is how things work now. They even give you a dialog prompt now to inform you of this change the first time you try to shut your device off - https://9to5mac.com/2021/06/07/ios-15-find-my-network-can-fi... I'm not sure why this is presented as some new thing, or a gotcha or whatever this is. We've known about it for months... And IMO, it's a positive change although it does sound a little…

> And IMO, it's a positive change although it does sound a little weird. It's a negative change that I didn't know about and yes, it is weird/wrong.

I prefer to be able to locate my lost phone even if its powered off.

Re: iPhone remains findable after power off

#140

Post by sparker72678 »

rurp wrote: post #126
AniseAbyss wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The police in my country wouldn't even bother to check, they have rapists and drug dealers to deal with.

Yeah I'm baffled by all of the comments saying that this is great as an anti-theft feature. I don't know where people live that that's the case, but I sure as heck have never known police in the US to give a damn about $1000 property crimes. They don't care about $20000 home robberies and car thefts, even with strong video or other evidence. I can't imagine they're going to start chasing down criminals to get a used…

It serves as anti-theft insofar as it makes it more of a pain generally to be in possession of a stolen phone.

But yeah the police are not going to go get your iPhone back for you.

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