Comments on: Improve Find My iPhone By Locking Down Location Services

By: Michael Murdock

Michael Murdock — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:20:51 +0000

Most crooks are not bright enough to know about DFU/recovery mode. Plus if you’re smart, you’ve written your device serial number down somewhere, you go to an Apple store, give it to them, they’ll add it into their system and when it pops up they’ll be notified its location and they can help you recover it.

Password protect your phone, use find my iphone, and always have it backing up to icloud just in case the unfortunate happens.

By: tavella

tavella — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 16:50:15 +0000

Just a thought, what would prevent someone from throwing the phone in to recovery/DFU mode and just flashing the OS back on the device? I have the ability to power off the phone while the lockscreen is enabled. I see the value in this but it just seems like you can work around all of the prevention methods.

By: Douglas Knows

Douglas Knows — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 17:25:25 +0000

Good question, I would like this too.

By: Douglas Knows

Douglas Knows — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 17:24:25 +0000

Not everyone uses a passcode, but also most people that do use simple ones that are easy to guess. You could even set a ‘trap’ by not using a passcode but using and locking down Find My iPhone so that the iPhone is always findable.

This won’t drain the battery any more than usual BTW, it doesn’t do anything except lock the setting to stay on.

By: gcamuk

gcamuk — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 10:51:11 +0000

Do you have a similar solution for a MacBook Pro and an iMac?

Thanks in advance….

By: iPhonetunes

iPhonetunes — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 08:30:05 +0000

When you do this keep in mind that you will get the strangest errors when installing new apps (GPS apps for instance, Google Maps) which use location services, because they will be disabled by default now. It tricked me several times already…

By: Avenged110

Avenged110 — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 07:07:18 +0000

This would be a potentially helpful solution for people (like me) who prefer not to use a passcode, but still desire to keep some level of security to use Find My iPhone.

By: Reza

Reza — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 07:01:25 +0000

Another (potential) stupid question: if your phone is locked, how are the bad people going to do any of the potential bad things?

By: Avenged110

Avenged110 — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 06:57:20 +0000

No. Nothing actually changes. It just disallows anyone making changes to it. It essentially locks access to the settings you already have in place.

By: Reza

Reza — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 06:56:07 +0000

Is it me or is by doing this drains your battery faster?

By: Avenged110

Avenged110 — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 06:50:36 +0000

Not that this would be an issue, but by locking accounts, it will lock you out of all iCloud, Photo Stream, iMessage, FaceTime, Twitter, iTunes & App Store, and FaceBook settings.

By: Avenged110

Avenged110 — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 06:46:22 +0000

Ridiculous byproduct of this: Even with Location Services disabled for Weather (thereby hiding Local Weather and the next city card is shown in Notification Center0, when Location Services are globally locked, Local Weather is unhidden (while still technically being disabled) and just fails to load any data since it’s locked in both the app and Notification Center. That’s dumb.

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 05:06:51 +0000

Another equally important tip is to lock “accounts” under restrictions. Without this done a thief can simply delete the entire iCloud account, which would prevent you from being able to track your phone. Lock both location services and accounts and you have a much better chance of retrieving your lost or stolen iPhone.

By: Murex

Murex — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 01:59:05 +0000

That’s a pretty self-explanatory question isn’t it ….

By: Toby

Toby — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 01:18:52 +0000

Will this hurt battery life with GPS always on?