You ’ve credibly arrived at this article because you ’ve lost your iPhone , or even worse , think it might have been steal . The just news is that Apple has software system that can make it well-to-do to go after down a lose iPhone , and if it has been stolen you may apply that software system to pass over the iPhone and lock up it down so that your data is protected .
In this tutorial we will talk you through how to use bump My app to see the location of your iPhone or iPad . ( In fact you may also utilise the same software to locate yourApple Watch , AirPodsorMac . )
We also explain how you may still track the location of your iPhone even if the battery has drop dead or it is no longer connecting to the internet .
Finally , for situations when your iPhone has been stolen and can not be recovered , we excuse how to operate the iPhone , wipe your data and verify that service like Apple Pay ca n’t be used .
What not to do
What you should never do is seek to find your iPhone if you think it has fallen into the amiss hands . There have been cases of people attempting to recover stolen iPhones using Find My iPhone and being ache , or worse . There was even a case of a mantracking down and killing the personwho stole his son ’s iPhone . ( He arrogate he lashed out in ego defense after being stabbed by the mugger , pleaded shamefaced to censurable homicide , and was jailed for six years . )
However , you might be able to use the information provide by happen My to help the police with their enquiries . There is a section below that explains how to do this .
How to find a lost iPhone (even if it is offline or turned off)
There are two office you might have leave alone your iPhone . At home , or somewhere else .
My daughter ’s first piece of advice , when I told her I was writing this clause , is that if you have lost something sizeable up because then you ’ll find it . But there ’s a quick room : if you recall you have just misplaced your iPhone at home , in the bureau , or at any venue where you are currently residing , you could ‘ ping ’ your iPhone to get it to play a audio so you could locate it . you may use your Apple Watch or a HomePod to knock it , if you have either of those devices . You might be thinking you could every bit call your iPhone from another equipment – which is dead on target , but assumes that you have the audio on and that you do n’t have multiple other devices that will pop echo when your iPhone is called !
If your iPhone is n’t well-nigh enough to respond to your Ping River , or you do n’t own one of the above , then you will demand to enlist the Find My app to help you dog it down . The great news is that you’re able to tag an iPhone even if it is turn over off or offline using Find My . The iPhone ’s last known location can be pinpoint by other Bluetooth gadget that have been nearby without it needing to be on a cellular or Wi - Fi web .
We will lead off by explaining how to do both of these tricks .
How to Ping your iPhone
The unsubdivided method to chance an iPhone , if you ’ve capture a paired Apple Watch or a HomePod , is to order those devices to knock the iPhone for you .
How to use an Apple Watch to find your iPhone
How to use a HomePod to find your iPhone
you’re able to also ping your iPhone from your HomePod .
It is potential that you will need to turn on Personal Requests for this to work , in which case follow the steps below . You ’ll necessitate a gadget with the Home app on it , so an iPad if you have one . The service also requires iCloud Keychain to be arrange up on the equipment you are using .
How to find your iPhone with the Find My app
Find My is a free service provided by Apple . It is easy to set up , and quite maybe the most valuable app on your iPhone ( since iOS 13 the app has been call Find My , but was previously called Find My iPhone ) . The Find My service also works for your iPad , Apple Watch , AirPods and Mac , so you’re able to keep track of all your Apple equipment . It can even keep rail of your family ’s gimmick if you are all link via a Family Sharing account – this intend if you lose your iPhone you’re able to easily locate it via your partner ’s gimmick if they are relate via Family Sharing . Here’show to set up Family Sharing .
Assuming you ’ve already set up find out My , your iPhone will be able to broadcast its location to you . So you may use another Apple gimmick – for example a friend ’s iPhone . If you do n’t have accession to another Apple machine such as a Mac or iPad , you may even enter the Find My service via a internet browser on a microcomputer – just go toiCloud.comand enter with your Apple ID and password .
Whether you ’ve left your iPhone in the back of a cabriolet , call back you might have left it in the office , or , worst - event scenario , it ’s been lifted from your pouch , you should be capable to use regain My to cover it down – as long as you position up discover My in the first position . chance are you will have set it up when you first started using your iPhone , so it ’s worth checking whether you could habituate the service . We have a template tosetting upFind My iPhone at the end of the article .
Assuming you have Find My set up , here ’s how to expend the app to place your iPhone …
Open Find My app
If you ’re using an iOS machine or a Mac , turn up the Find My app .
On an iPhone drag down from the midriff of the concealment and type ‘ Find ’ in the search box – you should see Find My appear in the suggestion division ( same image as above ) .
On a Mac press Command + Space streak and commence typing ‘ Find ’ to place the Find My app .
If you are using a non - Apple machine , such as a personal computer or an Android sound , go to iCloud.com and log into your account there .
Log into Find My
start the Find My app on your Apple equipment , or chatter on the bump My image on iCloud.com . You will necessitate to enter your Apple ID and Password if this is n’t your gimmick – this will be the login you use whenever you purchase anything from the App Store or when lumber on to any other Apple services . You will haveset up an Apple IDwhen you got your first Apple gimmick . ( Memory lapse ? Here’show to reset a forgotten Apple ID . )
Locate the lost device
If you are using an iPhone or iPad you will see a list of Devices , these are all the devices tie in to your account , including iPhones , iPads , Apple Watches , AirPods and Macs . Below that list you will see the devices owned by family members if you have Family Sharing set up .
On a Mac press the Devices tab and scroll through them until you find the one you are look for . As with the iPhone interface you ’ll see your twist and any linked via Family Sharing . This appear alongside a mathematical function showing the emplacement of your nearby equipment ( see image above ) .
If you are using iCloud then select All Devices at the top of the windowpane to see all your twist .
flick or tap on the twist you are try on to locate . You may see a spinning icon betoken that the gimmick is being settle , wait while discover My tracks it down .
Play a sound on your iPhone
If having located your iPhone in the Find My app you notice that it is n’t far away from where you are – close enough for you to hear it if it makes a sound – then you may utilise the Find My app to play a phone on it .
On an iPhone or iPad just tap on Play Sound .
If you are using iCloud dawn on Play Sound . On a Mac using Find My you need to tap the grey information box attached to the locating of the machine on the map before you may reach the options including Play Sound .
This is a good alternative if your equipment is at home , in your car , at a friend ’s house , or somewhere else where someone you know can turn up it , but what if it ’s not in a locating where you have someone who can recover the equipment for you ? In that typeface move on the the next pace .
Mark your iPhone as Lost
If your iPhone is not nearby , or perhaps its location keeps change ( perhaps you left it on a bus topology or caravan ) the best option is to mark is as lost . To do this follow these dance step calculate on the equipment you are using to access it .
On an iPhone , iPad or Mac water tap on Activate under Mark As Lost . If you are using iCloud to access determine My pawl on Lost Mode .
You will see an explanation of what will materialise next including that you will be apprise when the gimmick is found , that the gimmick will have Activation Lock implemented ( so if wo n’t be potential to unlock it without your Apple ID being used ) , and any payment cards that you use via Apple Pay will be suspend .
you may also choose to Leave a Message – which means a act and substance will be display on the iPhone . We ’ll discuss that step next .
Enter a phone number and message
After choosing Mark As Lost you will then get option to leave liaison selective information for the individual who find your lost gadget , which should help them pass it to you . You will need to enter a telephone set number that can be used to contact you on . You ’ll also get the option to enter a subject matter , so that your iPhone will exhibit a message to the person who incur it . Apple suggest the word : “ This iPhone has been fall back . Please call me ” .
Once you have entered the info click / pat on Activate .
Get your iPhone to notify you when found
If your iPhone ca n’t be place by Find My you will also see the option to Notify When Found as well as Erase This gadget . Choose Notify When discover if you still have a intimation of Leslie Townes Hope that you will get your iPhone ( or iPad ) back .
In social club to be notified you may require to make some tweaks to Notifications in System Preferences or preferences , depending on the gimmick you are using . The next time the iPhone connects to Wi - Fi or a cellular web , or another Apple discover it via Bluetooth , you will receive a telling and details of its location .
Erase the iPhone
If getting your iPhone back search wholly hopeless then you should erase the gimmick . dawn or tap on the Erase This gimmick option and then on Continue . If you do recover the iPhone you will be able to retrieve it from the patronage ( that you hopefully already have in iCloud ) .
The iPhone data wo n’t actually be wipe out until the iPhone connects to WiFi or a cellular net ,
As with the leave a message option above , if you go through the steps to score out the iPhone you ’ll also have the choice to add a message that will be shown on the iPhone if someone recovers it . Since there ’s no pick here to add together your phone issue or contact details here you could add them yourself , but be thrifty about sharing too much information with the people who may have stolen your iPhone !
pink or penetrate on Erase and then enter your Apple ID password and click / tap on Erase .
If you have 2d thoughts you may fall into place on Cancel Erase , you ’ll need to put down your password again .
How to find a family member’s, or friend’s, iPhone
If you have set up Family Sharing you will be able to locate a family member ’s gadget using observe My as per the steps above .
You will need your syndicate member ’s Apple ID and password when you go through the steps to lock or wipe off their twist .
If you are n’t using Family share your family phallus or supporter can practice the Find My app on your gimmick .
If you are using an iPhone or iPad :
On a Mac , PC , or any other machine , postulate your friend to lumber into their Apple ID via iCloud.com .
How to find iPhone by phone number or using an app
If Find My is n’t turned on retrieving your iPhone will be a lot harder . If you have lose your iPhone and you did n’t set up rule My you may be hop that finding your iPhone by speech sound bit will be potential . or else you may be hoping that an app would enable you to decipher an iPhone – if apps and services can tailor information to our location , can we also access this location information ?
If it was potential to easily cross an iPhone with just it ’s headphone number this would obviously be a big surety and privateness threat . However , there are apps offering to help you locate an iPhone using a phone number , but we find that these did n’t work all that well , and tend to rely on someone clicking on a link received via text content .
We try a couple out , with limited success :
Phone Tracker App GPS Locator
involve a subscription to utilise – it ’s $ 9.99/£8.99 a calendar month . Get it here . We were able to institutionalise a link to a telephone set issue which when open asked for permission to use the current location . We sink in Allow and it found the location . However , the other person did involve to select the link and approve the use of their location .
Number Tracker Pro
The app is free , but you will need to buy credits to post a subject matter . It costs one credit per message and you have to corrupt 5 or more for $ 4.99/£4.99.Get it here . you’re able to employ the app to send a message to the telephone set issue ( you’re able to take from various locations including U.S. and U.K ) . We sent the text to ourselves to text is and it require over five minute of arc for the text to make it and when it did there was only a link in the message , which we clicked on . The link opened a web page that was identified as not strong and had no school text on it . Our assumption is that once the link is activated information will be available in the History tab key , however , we have yet to obtain any selective information about the location of the iPhone . It seems that even if this did work it would rely on someone click the connection , so it would n’t of necessity help you locate a lost or stolen iPhone .
Another ground why masses desire to locate an iPhone is to confirm the location of a folk penis . This is potential with the add-on of various apps , or only by sharing your localisation in the Messages app . We tried out the popular Life 360 app .
Life 360
The app can be download for free , but there are various subscriptions starting at $ 4,17/£3.99 a calendar month . There is a seven day costless trial though . Get it here . This is an app that slews of families use to keep tabs on loved ones . It is more like find out My Friends than Find My iPhone . It allows you to place up favorite location and make groups of people you want to cross . There are additional features like Crash Detection and there are Parental Controls . Users do have to give permit to be tracked though , so if you have n’t already limit it up this wo n’t work on in the grammatical case of a lost iPhone . It also lacks the power to wipe and lock down your iPhone that get hold My offers .
How to protect a lost iPhone
If you have n’t arrange up Find My you could still take some action to protect your data :
Reporting a stolen iPhone
If you want to make a claim on the insurance for your slip iPhone you will need a Police Crime Number , so you will have to cover the iPhone as steal .
When you report a lost or stolen iPhone to the constabulary you may need to give them the serial number of your iPhone . You obviously do n’t have the equipment itself to chequer , but you may still be able to feel it .
How to find the serial number
If you have happen My set up you may get the serial numbers pool for all the machine you own .
How the police can use Find My
alas , even if they can see that your iPhone is turn up somewhere on a particular street or caparison land the police are unbelievable to go in lookup of it , because as good as come up My iPhone is , it ’s not so good that they can be surefooted about turn up at the right speech . The police can only introduce an reference if they have understanding to conceive the steal property is definitely there .
It is executable that the datum you have obtained via observe My iPhone could be useful in their enquiry , though , so you should partake it with the constabulary .
As we order before , do not essay to recover the iPhone yourself , even if the law are not inclined to go to the computer address Find My iPhone is suggesting the iPhone is located at .
How to set up Find My
It ’s promiscuous to say in hindsight , but bar is the estimable curative . If you were golden enough to get your iPhone back despite not having Find My twist on , make trusted you set up Find My so that next time the outgrowth of locating it , and if necessary wiping it , is a lot easy .
If you have n’t already jell up Find My iPhone this is how to do it :
See : How to make a stolen iPhone more traceable with the Find My appfor more .
How to protect your iPhone
And here ’s a few tips to ward off future thievery of your iPhone , and ensure that if the worst does materialise your data point ca n’t be jeopardised .
If you ’re disquieted about other Apple devices run missing , be sure to also take a look at our guide onhow to find a stolen Mac and protect your data point from thief .
