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How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

manas.tech

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Re: How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

#81

Post by oldbbsnickname »

lxgr wrote: post #36
smortaz wrote: post #10

not directly relevant, but was riding my motorcycle in the boonies, and lost the phone which was on the handlebar (bumpy rocky path). Looked for it several times on the path with no luck. Then I remembered my old iPhone was in the backpack. Did a Find my phone on the backup phone and it showed exactly where it had lost touch with the primary phone. This is all without cell or Wi-Fi service. Saved me a $1000.

Oh, wow, I didn't realize "Find my" worked even when both devices are offline! But it makes sense – all that's really needed is GPS and Bluetooth. Were you able to access it right there without signal, or did you need to move to an area with coverage for it to sync?

Not really. The phone only appears "off" but is in-fact in a low power mode providing beacons. It won't work if the battery were removed.

Also, modern iPhones use tower-assisted GNSS (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, BeiDou, and NavIC) so the satellite isn't necessarily Navistar. With fewer or no towers, and positioned in an odd orientation on the ground, a good fix becomes much less likely, and the range can increase from <1m to 10's-100's of m.

Re: How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

#82

Post by oldbbsnickname »

pestatije wrote: post #63
lxgr wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My friend was able to retrieve his phone that had just been pickpocketed out of his backpack that way! "Hey, did you just grab my phone" can take some courage to say to a stranger; "Hey, I can hear my phone ringing in your bag when I press this button!" was much more convincing.

can you not power-off an iphone without unlocking?

Disassemble and remove the battery. I can do this in about 1-2 minutes, others more skilled can do it in <30 seconds.

Re: How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

#83

Post by oldbbsnickname »

lxgr wrote: post #72
pestatije wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can you not power-off an iphone without unlocking?

You can; the thief just didn’t get to do that because they were busy getting away in a non-conspicuous way. But even turned off, “Find my” stays active these days (although you can no longer make it ring, I believe).

That option can be disabled by turning off "Find My network" such that the phone will be off and radio silent. With it on, it will continue to beacon until the battery reaches the final BMS low voltage point.

Re: How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

#84

Post by deathanatos »

userbinator wrote: post #69
grepfru_it wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>wifi network mirroring is smart Yep, so smart that I used to name my WiFi “McDonald’s Free WiFi” when I lived half a block from McDonald’s. Everyone’s phones would connect but to my goatse’d image network. I thought devices would start remembering the base station MAC addresses to avoid hijacking but I guess not.. maybe I should start doing this again at my local Home Depot Edit: just remembered I used to do this on…

I thought devices would start remembering the base station MAC addresses to avoid hijacking The use of multiple APs with the same SSID is a feature, not a bug. It enables roaming between them.

… I suppose an unprotected network is always unprotected, but it is still possible¹ to have AP roaming while detecting that you're switching to a different network of APs, even if the name is the same.

¹within a protocol design "possible". WiFi can't, AFAIK, actually do it.

Re: How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

#85

Post by Guest71022 »

r00fus wrote: post #75
juanuicich wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently there are Find My compatible generic tags coming out of China already, and they cost less than $5, shipping included. I say apparently because I’m still waiting for one to arrive and test.

This sounds awesome - got a link?

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mrvl4Xq

Re: How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

#86

Post by tkk13909 »

jukea wrote: post #31

I once found my phone buried in the sand on a beach with no coverage. I had a year worth of pictures on it, so I stewed in anguish for almost a day until we thought about installing a Bluetooth signal monitor on a friend’s phone . Given the sluggish update frequency, we resorted to triangulating the phone’s position. As we were pulling it from its sandy grave, I swear it felt like we were cheating fate itself.

And this, kids, is why we back up everything

Re: How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

#87

Post by oldbbsnickname »

userbinator wrote: post #69
grepfru_it wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>wifi network mirroring is smart Yep, so smart that I used to name my WiFi “McDonald’s Free WiFi” when I lived half a block from McDonald’s. Everyone’s phones would connect but to my goatse’d image network. I thought devices would start remembering the base station MAC addresses to avoid hijacking but I guess not.. maybe I should start doing this again at my local Home Depot Edit: just remembered I used to do this on…

I thought devices would start remembering the base station MAC addresses to avoid hijacking The use of multiple APs with the same SSID is a feature, not a bug. It enables roaming between them.

Creating rogue APs is criminal-adjacent, unethical behavior because it denies and interferes with a network. It could even be criminalized in some jurisdictions.

Re: How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

#89

Post by wslh »

A few years ago I also found my mobile phone in Mar del Plata, Argentina, after a young horse passed over my daughter... it was using the find me option in a Fitbit watch linked to a Samsung mobile phone.

My daughter was perfectly fine, but that is another story: fingers crossed, she has some special powers.

Re: How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

#90

Post by InSteady »

janus wrote: post #39

Ha, last winter I lost my phone while snowboarding in the last 300-500m before mountain base. I noticed because I was listening to music with my airpods when I got to the bottom the music had gone silent. Thankfully I had my Apple watch with me, so I immediately got off the board and start running uphill while incessantly spamming the "ping my phone" button. At some point I saw in the watch screen it briefly connecte…

This reads like an ad.
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