Does Find My Devices still work when both my SIM card and phone are blocked?

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Level 1

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Does Find My Devices still work when both my SIM card and phone are blocked?

My iPhone 13 mini is stolen and I have been trying to track its location by "Find My Devices", but it just keeps saying it's offline and only gives me the last location. I guess either my phone has died or is not connected to any networks.

I am planning to contact the carrier and ask them to bar my SIM card and the phone for security reasons, but I am wondering if the Find My service still works with both of them blocked - in case my phone is charged and gets connected back to a network/wifi by whoever stole it.

iPhone 13 mini, iOS 16

Posted on Feb 21, 2023 9:06 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

mklee9982 Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 21, 2023 9:19 AM in response to SravanKrA

Thanks for your reply.

So does it mean I can block my SIM card and phone, and the Find My app would still function as long as the phone gets a network and is around another apple device?

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Answer 2

Feb 21, 2023 9:09 AM in response to mklee9982

Switched Off? Still traceable: Even if the iPhone is switched off it is findable, see the pic below.

Did you enable Find My network? See the pic below

If yes, read below how it may get located.

The Find My network is an encrypted, anonymous network of hundreds of millions of Apple devices that can help you locate your device.

From the above, I infer that when another device comes in close proximity to your powered-off device the GPS from both devices will form a network and your device's location info will be displayed to you on your device only. As long as both devices are/have...

Find My enabled
Find My Network is enabled
iPhone 11, 12, 13, 14 and above
With iOS 15 and above versions

Set up Find My on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac

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Answer 3

Tesserax

Level 10

152,416 points

Feb 21, 2023 9:12 AM in response to mklee9982

Some of the requirements to have the iPhone's location show up in the Find My app, would be that it can access the Internet (either by Wi-Fi or cellular) or that it is within range of another iPhone that has Bluetooth enabled.

If the thief is familiar with iPhones, they would know this and keep the phone powered-off.

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Does Find My Devices still work when both my SIM card and phone are blocked?

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