A quick and simple guide to Find My iPhone – Apple’s iCloud-powered security feature that helps you locate lost iPhones and iPads…
If you’re using an iPhone – or an iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, or iPod – you have access to Apple’s Find My iPhone service. Find My iPhone is a super-useful tool that lets you locate lost, misplaced, or stolen iPhones – though it also works for iPad, Macs, iPod touch, and Apple Watch. If you’re prone to losing or misplacing your phone, Find My iPhone is awesome.
But finding your lost/misplaced iPhone is only part of what Find My iPhone can do. The tool is designed to not only make locating your lost/stolen iPhone easier but also ensuring ALL your data remains secure should the worst happen and your iPhone is not returned or found.
With Find My iPhone, you can wipe ALL data on the phone remotely, ensuring that no one will be able to access your personal data (even if they can breach your iPhone’s security settings). If you use your phone for work and it contains sensitive information, this feature alone can be something of a lifesaver.
What You Can Use Find My iPhone For…
- Finding A Lost iPhone
- Wiping A Lost iPhone
- Finding A Misplaced iPhone In Your Home
- Passing Information (Your Phone Number), So The Person That Finds Your iPhone Can Call You
- Finding Your iPhone on a Map
In order to use Find My iPhone, you first have to set it up on your iPhone – and to do this, just follow the steps below:
How To Turn on Find My iPhone (iPad & iPhone)
- Launch The Settings App
- Tap Apple ID (It’s Located At The Top)
- Tap iCloud
- Scroll Down To Find My iPhone
- Toggle The Switch To Enable Find My iPhone
That’s all you have to do. Find My iPhone is now installed and set up and running on your iPhone. Please note: this method works for iPad and iPad touch too. OK, but you’ve lost your iPhone? How are you supposed to use the Find My iPhone app if you don’t have a phone?
If You’ve Lost Your iPhone Use Find My iPhone on The Web
Obviously, you’ll need a computer to do this.
- Go To iCloud.com – you can use any browser, it works in all of them
- Log Into Your iCloud Account
- Scroll Down To Find My iPhone
- Enter Your Apple ID and Password
- Click ALL DEVICES – it’s located at the top
- Find The Device You’re Looking For & Click On It…
- The Device Will Then Show Up On a Map
Scroll In and Out To See Its Location Better
Once you’ve done this and located your iPhone, you have three options for what to do next:
- Play A Sound – This is great if the phone is lost somewhere in your home or a building you frequent often (an office, for instance). If you select this option, the iPhone will play a sound so you can quickly locate it.
- Lost Mode – If you cannot find the phone, you can set up Lost Mode which displays your phone number on the screen. The idea here is simple: if someone finds it they can then call the number and arrange to have your phone given back to you. Of course, this method relies heavily on the kindness of strangers…
- Erase – AKA The Nuclear Option! If you can’t find your phone and you’re worried somebody else might be using it or has accessed your data, you can use the Erase function to wipe the phone remotely. This will remove all of your data from the device.
Locating A Lost iOS Device With Find My iPhone?
If you’ve lost or misplaced an iOS-powered device (or even you MacBook or Apple Watch), you can use Find My iPhone to track it down. We’ve already covered how to use Find My iPhone above, so in this context, locating your lost Apple device is as easy as opening Find My iPhone and locating on a map where your misplaced device is.
You can use Find My iPhone in any country too, making it an ideal option if you misplace your iPhone (or any Apple product) while on holiday. All that’s required is an internet connection, so if you lost your iPhone at the beach, for instance, you’d be able to locate it on your laptop back at the place where you’re staying.
Not got another device with you? Use an internet cafe or the computers in the lobby of the hotel that you’re staying – just log into iCloud to locate and find your lost device. All that’s required is your Apple ID and password, then you can access Find My iPhone from any computer anywhere in the world.
Use Your iPhone To Locate Other iOS Devices With Find My iPhone
Simple, you use Find My iPhone on your iPhone. The Find My iPhone app should already be loaded onto your iPhone. All you have to do is open the app, log in using your iCloud details, and it’ll pull up the same options listed above – Play Sound, Lost Mode, Erase.
If you’re still wondering where Find My iPhone is, make sure you check all of your iPhone’s folders – it’s likely inside one of them. If you cannot find Find My iPhone on your iPhone, simply go to the Apps Store and download it.
Again, with Find My iPhone you can remotely wipe your iPad and MacBook if you feel its security has been compromised. I would, however, make sure you’ve exhausted ALL possible options before you go nuclear and proceed with the Erase option.
How To Turn Off Find My iPhone
If you don’t want Find My iPhone running on your iPhone or other Apple products, switching off Find My iPhone is super-simple. Just follow the following steps:
- Open Settings
- Go To iCloud
- Select Find My iPhone
- Set Find My iPhone to OFF
- Enter Your Apple ID Password To Confirm
iCloud Features – Everything It Can Do…
Find My iPhone is a core iCloud feature. But do you know about ALL the things you get as standard with Apple’s iCloud? Below is a list of all the things you get with iCloud. And remember, iCloud comes with ALL iOS/Apple products as well, so if you haven’t set it up it is well worth it.
- Compatible with Mac and Windows PC
- Saved Safari tabs
- Mobile device friendly
- iCloud keychain
- iPhone, iPad and iPod touch app
- Saved browser bookmarks
- 5GB free storage
- Important personal data storage
- Lost iPhone locator
- Real-time device syncing
- Parental permissions
- File and document sharing
- Daily backups and version restore
- Data security and privacy settings
- App sharing across devices
- iCloud.com access for upgrades
- Store music, photos, videos, and documents
- Apple device setup assistant
- Contacts, email, and calendar sync and storage
- Family sharing tool
How I Used Find My iPhone To Locate My iPhone 6
Back in 2015, I went to see Aphex Twin at some huge venue in Manchester. It was a great, weird night but I ended up losing my iPhone 6. I didn’t realize until about 3 am, and by that time I was already on my way home. I figured my phone was gone for good – there were about 8000 people at the gig, so I wasn’t holding out much hope of it turning up…
When I got back, I checked Find My iPhone on my Mac and realized that the phone was in the venue! By then everybody had cleared out, so I played a sound a couple of times and, to my surprise, I saw that it had moved when I next checked. It was still there, but not where it had been originally.
The next day, I went back to the venue and, to my surprise, was told that my iPhone had been handed in by the cleaning crew, one of them had heard the sound and picked it up. Once they’d finished their shift, they handed it in to the office on their way out where it waited for me until the next day. Had I not installed Find My iPhone, this iPhone probably would have been lost for good.
So, yeah… Find My iPhone works! So make sure you have it up and running on ALL your Apple devices.
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