Comments on: Lost My iPhone – How To Track A Stolen iPhone

By: Gary Ruplinger

Gary Ruplinger — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:23:33 +0000

Will,

On AT&T unfortunately if the SIM card has been removed, you’ll lose any and all ability to trace the phone through iCloud. Sorry.

By: Gary Ruplinger

Gary Ruplinger — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:22:33 +0000

Since you filed a police report there’s a chance you’ll get it back if the thief tries to sell it at a pawn shop or similar locally.

Other than that, it depends on your carrier – AT&T and T-Mobile both only deactivate the SIM when a phone has been reported stolen to them while Verizon and Sprint deactivate the entire phone.

However, the police won’t be able to find the phone if someone else activates it – they have any tracking ability of that nature that I’m aware of.

By: Gary Ruplinger

Gary Ruplinger — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:18:08 +0000

James,

Unfortunately the “Find My iPhone” app isn’t nearly as helpful when applied to the iPod touch (or iPad for that matter) as it relies on the device being connected to a wireless network to get the command. Yes, it uses GPS for reporting its location but without a connection to the Internet it has no way of getting the “locate” command or reporting its location back to you.

When it says it’s offline, it means one of a couple things:

1) It has been turned off
2) It is on but not connected to a WiFi network

Unfortunately in both cases it can’t be tracked.

There is a chance your iPod will turn up – make sure to set it so that you receive an email if it does get turned on, but if it was taken by a sophisticated thief, your iPod is probably gone for good.

By: James

James — Wed, 16 May 2012 20:00:54 +0000

Hi Gary, my ipod 4 Gen was stolen out the locker room i have the tracker on but when I go to see if i can track it on icloud its says offline what does that mean? and do i have any hope of finding it?

By: Daniel Davis

Daniel Davis — Wed, 16 May 2012 17:20:55 +0000

Okay mine was stolen and i couldnt track it because they took out the sim card and disabled gps, i filed a police report so im wondering since i filed a police report if someone activates it with my data deleted, can they find it if its activated by someone else?

By: Will

Will — Wed, 16 May 2012 17:19:38 +0000

iPhone 4s was stolen yesterday. I went onto iCloud and i tried to trace it but the phone was off. Its a AT&T iPhone. If they took the sim card out, will it still be able to be traceable?
Help me PLS

By: Gary Ruplinger

Gary Ruplinger — Tue, 15 May 2012 19:44:26 +0000

Hi Larry,

Hmm, have you tried logging back into iCloud and firing up the app again to try and track it? Let me know if you get a gray dot or a green dot – a green dot is good, gray not so much.

By: Larry Fret

Larry Fret — Tue, 15 May 2012 19:37:31 +0000

I had my iphone stolen and i requested that icloud find my app email me with the last location of my phone once it came back online but i called my phone and it rang but i was never sent the email with my phones last GPS location. What can i do?

By: Gary (admin)

Gary (admin) — Tue, 15 May 2012 02:12:24 +0000

Unfortunately Verizon is right. There’s really nothing you can do to track the phone. I’d report the phone as stolen with Verizon and have it deactivated.

Sorry about your phone.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 15 May 2012 01:13:19 +0000

Thanks Gary! It was a great device, a real pity to lose it.