My kid misplaced their iPhone at school and it’s been offline since yesterday, so Find My isn’t updating. I still have the IMEI from the box and my carrier account, but I’m not sure if that number can actually help locate it or if only the carrier/police can do anything with it. Is there any legit way to use the IMEI to track it, or is it basically just for blocking/reporting?
Nope—the IMEI won’t let you track it yourself; carriers use it to block a phone and police can stick it on a report. Jump into Find My, put it in Lost Mode with a callback number and “Notify When Found,” and it’ll ping if someone powers it or it brushes past other Apple devices. Call the school/lost-and-found, maybe suspend the line (don’t blacklist yet), and ignore any site claiming IMEI tracking.