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Found iphone 5c...
In April I found an Iphone in a public toilet around 10:30 in the morning. I took it and waited outside the toilets for around 10 minutes to see if anyone would come back for it but noone did. Nobody called or tezed either so I couldnt let them know their phone had been found.
I took it home and plugged it into my pc where the owners name came up on itunes. I looked through facebook and found this person (unusal name). I messaged and explained I found their phone and how would they like to recieve it back. They didnt respond so put it in the back of a drawer.
Going through the drawer today I saw the phone. Still no contact from the owner what should I do with it? The phone has a passcode so cant ring any contacts. It seems in perfect condition.
I took it home and plugged it into my pc where the owners name came up on itunes. I looked through facebook and found this person (unusal name). I messaged and explained I found their phone and how would they like to recieve it back. They didnt respond so put it in the back of a drawer.
Going through the drawer today I saw the phone. Still no contact from the owner what should I do with it? The phone has a passcode so cant ring any contacts. It seems in perfect condition.
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You said you found it in a public toilet
heeeeeeeeheeeeeeee.
Hand the phone into the lost property at the police station. that's the first place I would go if I lost something.
And always use gloves
Eh
Mobiles have more bacteria than the average toilet seat
Serious answer - Take it to your nearest police station.
OP says it has a passcode and can't be accessed.
Handing it in to the police won't really achieve anything if the owner hasn't chased it up after 4 months. If you'd have handed it in to the police in the first place, I imagine it would have been legally yours to keep now anyway as the owner hasn't bothered to contact you to return it.
If it's got an active passcode on it, you can't re-flash it back to stock either so if it's not going to be claimed, you might as well just bin it.
i just got an old iPhone3 unlocked by Apple simply by providing the IMEI (which is on the back of the i5) and I bought a SIM card.
The phone has to be out of contract with no outstanding payments.
It was registered to me but I'm not sure if that's a requirement.
Four months after it was lost?
They've got a new phone and forgotten all about it.
I'm pretty sure it's not a 'free phone' and technically, it could be a stolen one. It's still property of the original owner or their insurer if they've claimed for the loss. And if it's used, when it connects to a network, it may be flagged as lost/stolen and not work anyway.
There could be stuff on the phone that was never backed up to the cloud or anything though, like pictures and videos that actually mean something to them.
I would imagine the fact that it's registered to you is the key there, otherwise it would be a free for all with anyone ringing Apple to get a phone unlocked in that fashion.
That was my first thought, but I'm sure i've read that if find my iphone is enabled then you can't re-flash it back to factory because you have to disable the feature first.
Exactly, if I lost my phone I would want it returned regardless of whether it had been replaced or not.
I remember a local story not long back about a lady who lost her phone and it had photos of her daughter who had died and she hadn't backed it up so they were all gone and she was basically appealing for anyone who found it to return to her. Or what about the stories where people have lost their cameras and appeal for the memory card back because that's what they are more concerned with, the content on the device not the device itself.
Bin it.
This is not true anymore if you have the messenger app (which majority do now), it comes up straight away on your notifications.
OP you've done all you can and it's been months now, the owner has definitely got a new one by now. Either keep it, sell it or give it to a family member or friend
That's not true, my wife has the app and she still didn't get a notification about a message from someone not on her list, she didn't know until someone sent a text to let her know.
Maybe it's to do with the profile settings as I will get a notification straight away on my phone even if I'm not friends with them.