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Need help tracking my wife's affair.

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TiredOfThisBS

TiredOfThisBS

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 1, 2020
13
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Hi all. Long and short of it is my wife was having an affair last year which she came out about on Superbowl Sunday. She had deleted all of her messages, photos, apps, social media account, and a handful of other data. What she didnt delete is the GPS significant/frequent locations. She now wants to heal our marriage, at the same time i have no idea if she is being truthful to me about the details and has already fed me a lie that I know about. However, this data is all the answer I need to make the best decision for my family going forward.

Her last visit to her lovers address was "September" of last year, but I want to know how often and the dates that she visited. Viewing the location data, all I see is "There are no recent visits". Is there a way that I can re-trigger that address and the former data it has? Can I drive by that location and have the phone think that it is a frequent location again and give me the dates of what it had prior?

I apologize if this seems crass or direct. I have two kids with this woman and this data really does contain the power to alter the course of three of our lives.

- iPhone X
- Latest version of IOS.

EDIT: I understand people are going to have their own opinions on a cheater and will express their views. I really need the answer to the question of how I can see old frequently location data vs it reading "No recent visits" I came here to ask the experts on the iPhones. I will leave the other issues to our Marriage Counselor.
 
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jbachandouris said:
If you're really that concerned, either go through marriage counseling or hire a private investigator. You're not going to be able to get the data you want on your own.
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Yes, we are in marriage counseling. However, she was caught telling a lie to the counselor. She swears to me up and down that she only visited the location twice and she wants to help me get this data out of the phone as well to prove her words, but I need this for my own piece of mind.
 
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TiredOfThisBS said:
Yes, we are in marriage counseling. However, she was caught telling a lie to the counselor. She swears to me up and down that she only visited the location twice and she wants to help me get this data out of the phone as well to prove her words, but I need this for my own piece of mind.
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You're not getting 'peace of mind.' Erased data is gone. Without FBI level resources, which you don't have, you're not going to find it.
 
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"You're not getting 'peace of mind.' Erased data is gone. "

Are you saying that once a location goes infrequently visited, the data is erased? Is location data only held for a certain period of time on the phone if it is frequently visited? I can see my visits to my work all the way up from the beginning of 2019. if I stopped visiting work, are you saying that eventually the data would be automatically erased?
 
If your wife knows you're looking at location data on her phone then she certainly will leave the phone elsewhere when it's necessary. It's not going to help and you're creating more problems down the road.
 
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bhodinut said:
You joined MacRumours at 10am today? If you're not going to take people's sensible advice then perhaps don't ask the question.
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My question is how to go about getting frequent location data to re-appear once it goes "No recent visits". I have gotten relationship advice instead.
 
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What app are you using to get this location data?
 
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TiredOfThisBS said:
"You're not getting 'peace of mind.' Erased data is gone. "

Are you saying that once a location goes infrequently visited, the data is erased? Is location data only held for a certain period of time on the phone if it is frequently visited? I can see my visits to my work all the way up from the beginning of 2019. if I stopped visiting work, are you saying that eventually the data would be automatically erased?
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I'm quite sure you could still see the data with a forensic analysis, however I don't think there's any way to see it with the standard user-facing iOS interface.
 
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TiredOfThisBS said:
My question is how to go about getting frequent location data to re-appear once it goes "No recent visits". I have gotten relationship advice instead.
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The only way to get the data is getting her to submit the phone to a forensic data retrieval service and pay a significant amount of money as it's not cheap. SHE as the owner would have to submit the phone (not you) so if she's willing to do that, start googling and see exactly what your options are
 
TiredOfThisBS said:
Settings; Privacy; Location Services; System Services; Significant locations
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That's it? Yeah, you are so out of luck there.

If it's not listed then you're not going to find it.

You'd probably have a lot more luck getting cell ping history from her provider, but that requires a warrent which you're not going to get for a simple domestic spat.

Information in there is only kept for a short period of time - mine only goes back to Mid May. And when its deleted it's gone.

Even if it was on iCloud then you're still faced with needing to get a warrent to extract it - of that's even possible given that is encrypted.

If she had Google Maps then that may be a better chance.
 
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Keep the replies on topic. No more commentary.
 
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There is no app on the Apple App Store that can help you see such data. As mentioned, you would need FBI / NSA type forensic analysis, which would require standing and a warrant, which your domestic case would not qualify for. You could seek a private firm to assist you, although you might have a hard time finding a company that say yes, given the legal ramifications that could arise down the line. It would also cost you several thousand dollars, as the technology is not cheap.
 
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Perhaps I was not clear on something.

The data was and is there. Under the frequent location, the address is listed. Currently it reads "No recent visits". About 4 months ago, it showed up twice with no date information. Now it just says that there have been no recent visits. The phone still is aware of the location and knows it has been there. What I want to know is, if it says "No recent visits" if I go to that location will the Apple logic now says "Oh hey, hes back at this spot. Since you have been here before, here are those other dates that you have been here prior as well"
 
I have read elsewhere that location data stays on the phone itself and is never sent to Apple. However, I have an iPhone I have received this last fathers day which has locations from 2018 on it. This would indicate that the location data does travel with the iCloud account that is signed in. Does anyone else have any additional knowledge on this topic?
 
TiredOfThisBS said:
Perhaps I was not clear on something.

The data was and is there. Under the frequent location, the address is listed. Currently it reads "No recent visits". About 4 months ago, it showed up twice with no date information. Now it just says that there have been no recent visits. The phone still is aware of the location and knows it has been there. What I want to know is, if it says "No recent visits" if I go to that location will the Apple logic now says "Oh hey, hes back at this spot. Since you have been here before, here are those other dates that you have been here prior as well"
Click to expand...

You have misunderstood the meaning. Sure it's flagged as "significant" but the data can and will be purged by the OS as and when it feels fit.

One of my significant locations is a local butchers that I frequent every week abd have done for years. According the the service the earliest I was they're is mid-May.


In addition, this data is controlled by the operating system. The OS is locked down. If it's not giving out to you then it's not giving it to you.

Added to that is that if the phone couldn't reach a cell tower then it's possible that again it won't be logged.

Also the visits have to be around the same time each time. If you always go to your local Starbucks at 9am on a Friday then they'll be logged. However if you stop there on a Tuesday at 3pm then that won't always be logged.

Next, even if the device was in a certain location there's still no guarantee it will be logged.

Finally what you're asking for is not what the feature was designed for. Significant locations was created to allow the device to learn your habits so it can better predict traffic etc.

You want to use this service for something it was not designed for. After a while, once it builds up a pattern, it can remove data it feels is no longer pertinent.

We're all just Apple fans, geeks or users here. You've asked your question and I firmly believe it has been answered.

You not liking the answer doesn't change any of this.

They're is no way you're going to extract the data you want to your level of satisfaction.

If you don't believe us then speak to Apple (although I suspect you'll not get much help from them either).

Even if the data was "hidden" and even if you were able to extract it, the very fact that this service is not guaranteed to capture every visit means you still would be no where nearer the truth.
 
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TiredOfThisBS said:
Perhaps I was not clear on something.

The data was and is there. Under the frequent location, the address is listed. Currently it reads "No recent visits". About 4 months ago, it showed up twice with no date information. Now it just says that there have been no recent visits. The phone still is aware of the location and knows it has been there. What I want to know is, if it says "No recent visits" if I go to that location will the Apple logic now says "Oh hey, hes back at this spot. Since you have been here before, here are those other dates that you have been here prior as well"
Click to expand...

You're missing two points:

1. The iPhone uses sophisticated hardware-based encryption techniques to ensure only authorized applications can access data or run on it. Every single line of code that runs on an iPhone is approved by Apple. As other posters have mentioned, you need very sophisticated equipment and techniques to get around it.

2. There's ways of storing data that make it impossible to reverse, called hashing. So you can store locations such that if you enter in a coordinate, you can see you've been here before, but with the stored data, you can't reverse out where you've been.
 
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I don't know if this still works, but I remember like ~10 years ago, if you would plug in your iPhone to your computer and it backs up, past location data of the phone was stored somewhere and there were programs that could extract or display that data. Unsure if this still works though...
 
iDron said:
I don't know if this still works, but I remember like ~10 years ago, if you would plug in your iPhone to your computer and it backs up, past location data of the phone was stored somewhere and there were programs that could extract or display that data. Unsure if this still works though...
Click to expand...

All that data is encrypted. No real chance of getting at it.

But the OP still seems to be clinging on the the misguided belief that this is helping any.
 
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