How does Find My handle helper devices that are offline when they detect a lost iPhone?

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to understand a specific edge case for the Find My network and I haven’t been able to find a clear, official explanation.

Scenario:

• iPhone A is lost and completely offline (no cellular, no Wi‑Fi), but Find My and Find My network are enabled.
• iPhone B (belonging to another user) passes near iPhone A.
• At that moment, iPhone B is also offline (no cellular, no Wi‑Fi).

From Apple’s documentation, my understanding is:

• iPhone A will broadcast a rotating, encrypted Bluetooth identifier.
• iPhone B (the helper device) can detect that identifier and use its own location to create a report.
• That report is then sent to Apple over the internet so the owner of iPhone A can see an updated location.

My question is about timing and offline behavior of the helper device:

1. If iPhone B is offline when it detects iPhone A, does it still create and store a Find My report locally?
2. If yes, how long is that report kept?
3. If iPhone B only reconnects to the internet hours or days later, will it still upload that earlier report so that iPhone A’s owner sees an updated location from that past encounter?
4. Or does the helper device only upload Find My reports when it has an active connection at the time it sees the lost device (and discard them if it’s offline)?

I’m basically trying to understand if the Find My network can “backfill” locations from helper devices that were offline at the moment they passed near a lost iPhone but came online much later.

If anyone has an official Apple reference, technical note, or a clear explanation of the intended behavior, that would be very helpful.

Thanks in advance!