Finding an iPhone the old-fashioned way

Its almost always the kindness of strangers that's getting phones returned. I can't even count the number of times I've spoken with people in person or on forums who have found an iPhone and in one case an iPad and returned it to the local carrier after trying to get access to the device to alert the owner. Its heart warming to know that there are still people out there who wouldn't just wipe the device and claim it for their own.

My wife lost her phone one day while running errands. I hadn't setup Find My iPhone on her device, so I thought we were out of luck. The various stores were closed and we were looking everywhere at the house and in the car, not sure where she might have dropped it. A friend recommended the ATT Family Map service. We called ATT and added the service (which is not free) to our account. I was then able to use the Family Map app on my iPhone to see the general location (it used cell tower triangulation - not as accurate as real GPS, but good enough) to get an approximation of the phone's location such that my wife could deduce where she left it. This meant we didn't have to waste hours looking continuing our search at home. We called the correct store the next day and recovered it.

I don't understand why Apple doesn't provide this service. They already know who owns what (for the most part)..

Better yet would be a "who owns this" button on the lock screen, that contacts apple for an owner info in their servers linked to serial number.

If Tiffany's can do this with their key chains, the Apple premium brand can too!

My mother lost her iphone last year at the mall, didn't have find my iPhone on it but she had it passlocked, she called ,e from my sister phone telling me it's lost, I called attt within minutes to report it lost or stolen, with in ten minutes of being lost it's was in the system and flagged, I get a call within 10 min that the phone was recovered at the att store within the same mall, some dumb ass went into the AT&T store saying he forgot his passcode .... My mom had her phone recovered in under 30 min

Wow, that was lucky! I check Find My iPhone on my 3GS and iPad every once and a while to make sure it can locate both devices. That way, I'll be ready if the worst happens.

Doble check that you have activated 3G when you are outside your home, and install apps like tektrak for example...

You forgot to mention this same pair had lost another iPhone previously. In that instance Ben did correctly set up Find My iPhone and they used it to recover the iPhone. So 1 for 2 if you believe he had it set up this time. Or, more likely, given their collective memories for forgetting things, his recall on setting it up may be iffy.

Nice but a rarity. Most would have kept it. I know I would. I'm Shannon Doherty.

"I've always depended on the kindness of strangers."