[dylan604]

To be able to lock a phone without having access to the iCloud account. If I have devices on my account that was provided to someone to use with their own iCloud account but they refuse to turn them over to me, there is no way I can shut that account down. I can report the IMEI as stolen, but they are free to continue using it as a wifi only device. If they attempt to move the device to a new provider, they are supposed to say no since the IMEI is reported stolen. Not sure how well the lower tier providers pay attention to that though.

TL;DR if the device is stolen from you by a stranger, this is possible. If the device is stolen from you by someone you permitted to use the device, this is not possible

[gruez]

>TL;DR if the device is stolen from you by a stranger, this is possible. If the device is stolen from you by someone you permitted to use the device, this is not possible

I suspect these kinds of thefts are a small fraction of the "80,000 phones stolen in 2024" that OP was talking about. Moreover the only plausible case I can think of this happening is for corporate devices, which can be MDN enrolled and locked to a particular organization.

[dylan604]

Small business (<5 people) that doesn't have an IT staff. Even a civil case is too expensive to do anything about it.

[gruez]

Your expectations are entirely unreasonable. Apple already provides a way for businesses to lock their devices through a web interface, which might require 1-2 hours for a non-technical person to figure out but doesn't exactly need a whole IT department to operate either. It's certainly not out of reach for "Small business (<5 people)". On the other hand you want Apple to get into the business of locking phones on demand, which is both labor intensive (you need people to manually validate each case) and prone to abuse (eg. in the case of second-hand sales). This is like expecting you should be able to walk into any Apple store and request any iPhone you "own" to be remote wiped/locked, just because you're too lazy to set up a pin/iCloud on your phone.

[dylan604]

I want to be able to lock the devices. I don't want apple to do anything. It's a shit situation. It doesn't mean that I don't still want something that can't be done. You're also victim blaming here, and it's definitely not helpful or even appreciated. Yes, someone put trust, however unwarranted it may have been, in someone without considering the worst outcome. Sure, lesson learned, but piling on to what's obvious someone else's misery is just a big fuck you so early in the weekend. Your heartlessness is awesome. This is like you thinking you know all of the details when you clearly don't

[gruez]

> I want to be able to lock the devices. I don't want apple to do anything. It's a shit situation. It doesn't mean that I don't still want something that can't be done.

So to confirm, you don't want Apple to remote lock phones after a theft, and you can already lock phones before a theft. What's missing? Do you want them to put a placard in every iPhone box reminding small businesses owners to lock their phones with MDN?

>You're also victim blaming here, and it's definitely not helpful or even appreciated.

You playing "victim blaming" card to dismiss arguments isn't appreciated either. It's not "victim blaming" to point out that contrary to what you claim, Apple provides ways to lock phones and that they're not particularly onerous.