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

manas.tech

241–250 of 349 posts

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

#241

I had AirPods Max stolen from our car a few months ago. A week later they popped up on Find My a block away. I hopped on my bike and tracked to a small apartment building. Using Find My will show you a “warmer … warmer … colder” kind of UI and whenever I lifted my phone to a particular window (shades drawn) Find My would say “Nearby.” I called the police and they were genuinely excited to knock on the door. A guy ans…

Ok we have opposite situation than stolen headphones. We found some on a trail in the woods. They are "Alan's Airpods". We connected to them from our nearby house, hoping he would come by using Find My.

There is no other way to contact them that I can see?

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

#242
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or perhaps resist the „well actually“-urge ;-)

As you do? I think my point still holds, guy lives in range of Find My, Find My notices it a week later - ah ha this guy definitely stole it? Seems a logical disconnect.

you don't need to be "in range" for Find My to work, all it takes is someone with an Apple device to be nearby

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

#243
post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a small note, but your contract is with the retailer - if it's not delivered, tell Apple or whoever. It is up to them to get the goods to you.

Try that with most retailers and the conversation ends at delivered. Your only option is to hit them with a summons and that's not a guarantee. So with due respect that reality doesn't exist. One reason I buy stuff from Amazon mostly is they are big enough to eat the issues and I put enough business through one service to be a customer worth keeping. Everyone else, not so much. I won't go into how shit Apple are on t…

With due respect, I had exactly that issue with a pair of Airpods supplied by Apple that were apparently delivered to the wrong address. I had the carrier's photo of not my door. Apple sent a replacement the next day

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

#244
post #163

I had AirPods Max stolen from our car a few months ago. A week later they popped up on Find My a block away. I hopped on my bike and tracked to a small apartment building. Using Find My will show you a “warmer … warmer … colder” kind of UI and whenever I lifted my phone to a particular window (shades drawn) Find My would say “Nearby.” I called the police and they were genuinely excited to knock on the door. A guy ans…

Really would like to know which city this is. As others commented many of the police force would've responded "tough luck"

Small town Minnesota, USA

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

#245
post #199

I had AirPods Max stolen from our car a few months ago. A week later they popped up on Find My a block away. I hopped on my bike and tracked to a small apartment building. Using Find My will show you a “warmer … warmer … colder” kind of UI and whenever I lifted my phone to a particular window (shades drawn) Find My would say “Nearby.” I called the police and they were genuinely excited to knock on the door. A guy ans…

How close did you have to be to the window for it to say “nearby”? With my airtags you have to be within several metres.

I was standing in the grass of apartment complex. Find My app says “distant” and I move phone over window “nearby” … back and forth it would toggle between distant and nearby.

Open and shut case, Watson.

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

#246

I had AirPods Max stolen from our car a few months ago. A week later they popped up on Find My a block away. I hopped on my bike and tracked to a small apartment building. Using Find My will show you a “warmer … warmer … colder” kind of UI and whenever I lifted my phone to a particular window (shades drawn) Find My would say “Nearby.” I called the police and they were genuinely excited to knock on the door. A guy ans…

>I had AirPods Max stolen from our car a few months ago. A week later they popped up on Find My a block away. >The officer went back and said “listen, we know they are in your apartment, we can hear them, either go get them or we are getting a search warrant.” The guy said “ohhhh well I did have a party last week and there’s this backpack…” >Uh huh. Headphones returned. I mean from your description sounds like the gu…

I didn’t want to muddy the original story, but I had nest cam footage of the actual theft but too blurry to make a positive ID. I saved the footage. The guy was very tall and built like a football player. With sandals.

When I met the guy that night a week later he opened the door and it was pretty obvious he was the guy. Same sandals.

Beyond a reasonable doubt? Eh, probably not.

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

#247
post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have leveraged their userbase into an (admittedly very useful) spy network

Have you read up on how Find My works? I don’t see how it’s a spy network when only the device owner can see where a device is. Lots of people imagine that every Apple user, or at least Apple themselves, can track devices. But it doesn’t work that way.

The implementation seems reasonable, but how are the private keys shared between devices? It should pass through Apple some time since a phone can decrypt a laptop’s location. Or do they use bluetooth whenever near?

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

#248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You call from an area with coverage. Sometimes it’s enough to walk a little bit to be on the other side of a hill for example.

But if that's the case then the test is invalid: The point is to determine whether the lost phone is in coverage range. If you can get in range by moving around a bit then the lost phone might also be in such a place.

The purpose of calling is probably to hear it ring, rather than to guess where it is based on the lack of signal.

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

#249
post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have leveraged their userbase into an (admittedly very useful) spy network

Have you read up on how Find My works? I don’t see how it’s a spy network when only the device owner can see where a device is. Lots of people imagine that every Apple user, or at least Apple themselves, can track devices. But it doesn’t work that way.

If Apple can access your account, they can see any device location the same as you. Which means that three letter agencies also have access

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

#250
post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try that with most retailers and the conversation ends at delivered. Your only option is to hit them with a summons and that's not a guarantee. So with due respect that reality doesn't exist. One reason I buy stuff from Amazon mostly is they are big enough to eat the issues and I put enough business through one service to be a customer worth keeping. Everyone else, not so much. I won't go into how shit Apple are on t…

With due respect, I had exactly that issue with a pair of Airpods supplied by Apple that were apparently delivered to the wrong address. I had the carrier's photo of not my door. Apple sent a replacement the next day

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