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Concerns about location tracking after being given an old watch

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blanketdown

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 13, 2025
19
1
Over the holidays I was gifted an old Apple Watch and iPhone (both more than 7 years old). The iPhone was factory reset. When I tried to pair the watch with the iPhone, the iPhone says "This apple wath is linkde to an apple account. enter the apple account and password that were used to set up this apple watch. x●●●●●●●●●@gmail.com"

I do plan to contact the person who gave me the devices, but my question is: Could they track me? Can they see my location?
What does the person see when they log into their apple account / icloud account? Can they see all the movements of the watch, when has been paired to the watch?
 
Currently, the watch is still linked to the original owner's Apple ID, so presumably, they can locate it with Find My. The iPhone, you say was factory reset, and I assume you were able to set it up and sign in to your Apple ID. In that case, the phone is no longer linked to the original owner's Apple ID and they can't track it.

Once you contact them and they manage to remove the watch from their Apple ID account, they won't be able to track it, either. Since they have to do that before you can pair the watch to your phone, it prevents the previous owner from tracking the watch after you start using it.
 
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hi nightspring,
I got the iPhone a few weeks before getting the watch. before i got the watch, the phone was asking me to finish setting it up, but I never followed through with the set up. (I had not much motivation).

So how much info can the previous owner know about my location?
 
blanketdown said:
hi nightspring,
I got the iPhone a few weeks before getting the watch. before i got the watch, the phone was asking me to finish setting it up, but I never followed through with the set up. (I had not much motivation).

So how much info can the previous owner know about my location?
Click to expand...
Er, if you haven't set up your phone, how were you able to get to the point where you tried to pair the watch with your phone?

In any case, a phone that's been reset to factory can't be tracked. The previous owner has no way of knowing its location.
 
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blanketdown said:
If they haven't checked on "Find My" for the 2 days, and only check on Day 3, will they see location history for the first 2 days?
Click to expand...
Only the current location. There's no location history in Find My.

If they open Find My and keep it open, they can see a device moving around in real time. This is handy when you are meeting up with a friend, and you share each other's location. But once they close the app, all the location history disappears, and can't be accessed.
 
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blanketdown said:
Over the holidays I was gifted an old Apple Watch and iPhone (both more than 7 years old). The iPhone was factory reset. When I tried to pair the watch with the iPhone, the iPhone says "This apple wath is linkde to an apple account. enter the apple account and password that were used to set up this apple watch. x●●●●●●●●●@gmail.com"

I do plan to contact the person who gave me the devices, but my question is: Could they track me? Can they see my location?
What does the person see when they log into their apple account / icloud account? Can they see all the movements of the watch, when has been paired to the watch?
Click to expand...
If it really is now your watch, contact the gifter and work it out. If it is not really your watch, give it back.
 
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Night Spring said:
Er, if you haven't set up your phone, how were you able to get to the point where you tried to pair the watch with your phone?

In any case, a phone that's been reset to factory can't be tracked. The previous owner has no way of knowing its location.
Click to expand...
I'm assuming they're talking about the "Finish setting up your iPhone" notifications you get spammed with after turning on your new phone for the first time. Mostly just whatever you skipped during setup like Apple Pay, Siri voice training, etc.
 
Yimbaz said:
I'm assuming they're talking about the "Finish setting up your iPhone" notifications you get spammed with after turning on your new phone for the first time. Mostly just whatever you skipped during setup like Apple Pay, Siri voice training, etc.
Click to expand...
Yes, ths is what the iphone is saying.
the only thing that i recall setting up on the iphone is stuff like Language. I think it was still bothering me about setting up an Apple Account (or linking the iphone to an apple account or Apple ID).
 
If the gifter (the previous owner) did click on "Find my" [old] apple watch, will i be notified on either watch or iphone?

I ask because in Android, when I leave my samsung in some place and I go to "Find my android", I can see my Samsung on something that looks like Google maps. And then when I retrieve my samsung, the notifications will say something like
Device Located
"Find my device" located this device
Click to expand...
 
Night Spring said:
Currently, the watch is still linked to the original owner's Apple ID, so presumably, they can locate it with Find My. The iPhone, you say was factory reset, and I assume you were able to set it up and sign in to your Apple ID. In that case, the phone is no longer linked to the original owner's Apple ID and they can't track it.
Click to expand...
the phone was factory reset, yes.
I was asked to sign into my apple id, but i didn't bother doing that yet.
 
amancalledsun said:
I'm confused. You were "gifted" an old Apple Watch. I don't know anyone who just gives an old Apple Watch to someone they don't already know, and would already presumably know where you live. This whole thread reeks of stolen property.
Click to expand...
I have suspicions of that too… a “gifted” iPhone not setup, concerns about tracking? The AW is off, can’t track an AW that’s turned off.
 
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