I really need some help here. My girlfriend's iPhone 12 was stolen, and she didn't have a lock screen set up. The theft happened around 5 PM, and I immediately activated Lost Mode through her iCloud Find My app. The phone was offline until about 10 PM when it appeared online, but the location showed it was out of town. Thankfully, the Lost Mode worked at that point, so at least it was secure for that first crucial five hours for any potential data breaches.
On the second day, the phone remained offline, so I contacted her SIM provider to deactivate the SIM and request a new one. On day three, I noticed something strange: at noon, the phone was still not in lock mode, and I was able to activate Lost Mode again quickly. This made me worry they might have tried to factory reset it. Does that mean my data might be lost by day three?
By day four, I kept getting notifications that the iPhone was found and that Lost Mode was active. However, every time I checked the Find My app, the location was unknown, and it remained offline. Interestingly, the app only asked for a passcode during the initial activation of Lost Mode, and not the subsequent attempts.
I'm really concerned about the data on the phone, like her photos and files. Any advice or insights would be greatly appreciated!
1 Answer
If you marked the device as lost, anyone trying to access the phone can't get in. Even if they connect it to a computer to perform a factory reset, they won't be able to bypass the security measures that come with Lost Mode. You might want to check these Apple support articles for more information on what to do next: https://support.apple.com/en-us/120837 and https://support.apple.com/en-kg/118258.
But is there any chance they might still manage a factory reset? I'm just worried about the data.