Question Find my iPhone alert sounded for no reason?

[Ichinisan]

I was driving about an hour ago while I was on the phone with my mother (using hands-free Bluetooth).

My phone was on a wireless charging dash mount with the navigation running and the screen was unlocked.

It started started making the "DING Ding ding DING Ding ding DING Ding ding" sound, as if I was trying to locate it using the Find my iPhone feature. I don't think there was any alert message at all, but it's always difficult to tell when you have navigation and a phone call at the same time. The sound stopped a little while later. I thought a friend probably left his phone in the car earlier, and I would look for it when I got home.

I got home and couldn't find another phone in my car.

I searched my Gmail for "in:anywhere subject:sound" and found a message from Apple indicating that a sound had been played on my iPhone 11 Pro Max using Find my iPhone

There were no messages indicating a new computer / device had logged-in with my Apple ID. I have two-factor authentication and a very complex password.

I'm thinking this is a glitch on Apple's side of things. Possibly a past alert that had been stuck somehow and delivered weeks after it was sent.

Posting this in case anyone else got a similar unexpected alert.

 

[killster1]

nice phone, so you used the feature before and it didnt work then? never used it before? maybe apple accidentally did it while they are tracking you :0

 

[Ichinisan]

nice phone, so you used the feature before and it didnt work then? never used it before? maybe apple accidentally did it while they are tracking you :0

I've used the Find my iPhone sound alert multiple times in the past. I can't specifically recall if I used it for my current phone, but I probably did. Sometimes I misplace a phone for a little while and I send multiple alerts because I'm not sure if it would still be making a sound after some minutes pass.

 

[Oyeve]

Someones probably tracking you. There are tons of programs for android phones to track an iphone without it alerting the iphone user. As long as someone knows you apple ID they can use them.

 

[Ichinisan]

It sounded the Find My iPhone alert sound again a couple days ago. I got two notification emails at the same time, both just telling me that a "Find My iPhone" alert sounds was played on my device. I'm currently in Thailand. I moved my AT&T phone number to the built-in eSIM and inserted a physical SIM for a temporary local number, but I assume it's unrelated to the dual-SIM stuff since it happened that first time a few days before I left the country.

 

[Ichinisan]

Someones probably tracking you. There are tons of programs for android phones to track an iphone without it alerting the iphone user. As long as someone knows you apple ID they can use them.

Do you have any examples of an Android app with this capability?

 

[Oyeve]

Do you have any examples of an Android app with this capability?

Xfilocator.

 

[kingrobert]

I am really impressed that it would still locate the phone even if your iPhone is turned off.