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Stolen iPhone Find My notice

My phone was stolen last week. I activated lost mode on the Find My app. the phone has been offline since then. I noticed a that its indicated the device will be removed from my devices on November 10th. What does that notification mean?

8 replies

Try this

  • Do NOT manually remove the phone from your Find My list yourself. Keep it in Find My so Activation Lock stays active.
  • Do NOT click any links in text messages or emails claiming to be Apple about your lost phone.
  • Log into iCloud.com/find directly from a trusted device to check the real status of your phone Keep Lost Mode turned on. 


kwaku94 wrote:
My phone was stolen last week. I activated lost mode on the Find My app. the phone has been offline since then. I noticed a that its indicated the device will be removed from my devices on November 10th. What does that notification mean?

I'm going to guess once your phone was stolen, you received an email or text from what you thought was Apple telling you your phone has been found and asked you to enter your credentials to validate it's your iPhone? Only that message wasn't from Apple, it was from the thief, who tricked you into giving them the information they need to remove the phone from your account, so they can either use it or sell it. There are only two ways the phone could be scheduled to be removed from your account. You could have accidentally marked it to be removed or you did what I surmised happened when you responded to what you thought was an email/message from Apple.

kwaku94 wrote:
Yes, that is true, what is the next step to take?

Sadly, there is NO next step to take. Your phone will be removed from your account and that can't be stopped by anyone, including Apple. I'm sorry you fell victim to the scam email, but the damage is done. So go buy a new iPhone. I would change your Apple Account Password as well as the passwords for important apps like banking applications, social media accounts, etc.

kwaku94 wrote:
Yes, that is true, what is the next step to take?


Unfortunately, once you remove an iPhone from your account – or fall for a "phishing" scam and give criminals an opportunity to do so – there is no way to turn Activation Lock back on remotely. There is a corner case where the Activation Lock might turn itself back on if the thieves leave your phone unmolested for a month, but realistically, that isn't going to happen. The thieves or their customers are now free to "make your phone their own."


You need to secure your Apple Account. You don't want the thieves to be able to use it going forward.

If you think your Apple Account has been compromised - Apple Support

You also need to watch out for possible identity theft attempts based on whatever data the thieves may have been able to see.


You may want to contact your carrier and ask them to blacklist the phone, so it will never again receive voice, text, or data service from any cellular carrier who honors the blacklist. The thieves or their customers will still have the ability to reset the phone, "make it their own", and use it as a sort of "iPod touch with GPS" – but you can at least deny them the ability to use it as a fully-functional cell phone.

the status on  iCloud.com/find shows lost 5 days, no location found, offline. Will be removed on 10th November

Yes, that is true, what is the next step to take?