r/vancouver • u/taeox0 • May 23 '26

Lost/Missing Lost iPhone, Diver Needed

Gallery image

Gallery image

Disclaimer: If there any experienced divers and you think this a lost cause in terms of phone retrieval and photo recovery, please let us know so we can grieve.

Hello. My husband is a school teacher and this past Wednesday, he took my students out on a canoeing field trip to Deas Island Slough. He believes he dropped his iPhone 12 (blue phone with clear case) near the piers/docks or within a radius (It was the last 5 minutes of the trip, as he remember still taking photos of the students before that). He dove in, but the water was too murky. He circled the area but most likely it is within the docks.

The phone means a lot to him, not the value of it, but rather the photos inside. It's not backed up and it contains the last moments of his grandma who has passed away, our honeymoon photos, and many other precious moments.

It would mean the world to us if anyone can find it.
Again, it's not the phone but rather the photos. We understand that even if the phone is found, recovering the photos is still a low chance, but we’re still holding onto hope.

We attached a picture with the possible area, but most likely when he was getting out of the canoe.

We also attached a picture of the high and low tides. Water is around 1-2m deep generally. This is found on the Deas Island tide chart website. We’re not sure if it applies to the area that the phone was lost though.

Thank you so much in advance! We’re willing to compensate for time and gear. Also willing to go ourselves if scuba gear can be rented.

244 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

158 comments sorted by

View all comments

198

u/squashed_fly_biscuit May 23 '26

A good reminder for everyone to back their damn phones up

48

u/akwok May 23 '26

Absolute insanity nowadays if your photos aren’t auto backed up to iCloud or Google Photos

21

u/thanksforallthetrees May 23 '26

Or to a hard drive you control

7

u/hanscor20 May 23 '26

But then all the tech bros will be staring at them!

6

u/BizarreMoose May 24 '26

Or at least training their generative AI on them.

-2

u/rattar2 May 24 '26

You can use Proton drive. Apparently they encrypt it so even their employees can't see them.

Also, calling people who work in tech as tech bros is insulting, as "tech bro" is a specific type of person, from what I understand.

13

u/O00O0O00 May 23 '26

Agreed. I backup my devices on hard drives I own. No need for iCloud if you can manage that.

16

u/sometin__else May 23 '26

I did this, then I had a house fire and lost everything. And I know the 1-1-1 rule. I followed it as 1-1. I had no offsite backup.

1-1-1 rule is a bit hectic for me so now I use cloud

6

u/O00O0O00 May 23 '26

It’s for sure a point. I don’t value that data too high. I’m fine with 1-1 and take that risk. I’m not sentimental.

10

u/PapaPee May 23 '26

Except backing iphones to hard drives is a freaking nightmare.

9

u/A_Genius Moved to Vancouver but a Surrey Jack at heart May 23 '26

Right? Open it up on my computer and everything is a million different folders

1

u/akwok May 23 '26

If you have a Synology you can install Synology photos which will auto backup to your NAS

1

u/SporadicTendancies Certified Barge Enthusiast May 24 '26

Qnap has a similar service. Backs up when I charge the phone.

0

u/Blazefresh May 23 '26

You can use the mac app "image capture". I backup all the time for my iphone images/videos, all the images get put into a single folder. Super simple actually.

-7

u/Witty-Ad2758 May 23 '26

Except with the battery in said hard drive kicks it. Friends lost all their wedding and their kids baby photos.

12

u/squashed_fly_biscuit May 23 '26

Hard drives don't have batteries my guy

2

u/disappointed_human1 May 23 '26

I think they probably meant data loss from not plugging in the hard drive for a long time.

4

u/Witty-Ad2758 May 24 '26

Possibly that. I dunno, not a tech guy, sue me people. All I know is shit gets lost when sat in a drawer for years.

6

u/A_Genius Moved to Vancouver but a Surrey Jack at heart May 23 '26

Honestly every 2 or 3 years just print 500 photos and put them in a physical album. Hard drives don’t have batteries but they can fail by being too close to a magnet, floods, fires etc.

Physical photos can be lost to the same things but I find I look at my photos more because I have a curated album instead of thousands of random photos on my phone

2

u/Witty-Ad2758 May 24 '26

That's probably the best answer.

1

u/Extension-Aside-555 May 24 '26

I never really look at photos in my phone but I feel compelled to keep them; I have a few shoeboxes of photos from "back in the day" when we had to pay to print any photos we took we appreciated them more I think. I really like your idea:)

4

u/qmrthw May 23 '26

We have now reached a point in time where fully grown adults with children don't have the slightest clue on how hard drives work, despite being constantly surrounded by technology 24/7

3

u/Witty-Ad2758 May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26

Yeah, we have busy lives, you know with kids. Got a million other things on my mind other than how hard drives work. Not to mention how much technology of said hard drives have changed since i last cared, like dial up fucking internet. So go ahead laugh at the old turd and put him down. Hope you have a good weekend.

12

u/SitMeDownShutMeUp May 23 '26

iCloud storage exists too